ORIGINAL: bntwngbrd
I am the pilot who is involved in the lawsuit of being accused of crashing a Mig jet.
My background for those that do not know me. Been modeling for 30 years and been flying anything from gliders to lots of different types of aircraft of all shapes and sizes. Flight instructor for different clubs and contest cordinator for different clubs. My primary interest in RC is Giant Scale aircraft. Building, flying, training and racing. Flown from 0 mph airspeed to 240mph and 0 to 150 lb birds. I test fly alot of other pilots aircraft. Never asking them, they come to me.
Now, I am no gods gift to RC, but I DO KNOW HOW TO FLY and trouble shoot aircraft and I am good at it.
At this T34 race at Madera in October 2004.
At the time of this incident, were you AMA Turbine Waiver certified?
The current president of the Madera club was at the field and witnessed the crash. His account of the incident was different than that which you described here. It is in question whether the Mig was being piloted with very much command & control. As a matter of fact, there were several Madera Club field rules broken during this flight that this incident resulted in getting turbine aircraft banned from their airfield. The president of the Madera club attended one of our meetings(Fresno Radio Modelers) and reported that this particular flight broke the max. altitude limit, flew beyond the "box" or allowable airspace and the airport manager from the adjacent full scale runway cited the aircraft for flying across the path of the takeoff/landing pattern on the active runway.
I myself am AMA turbine waiver certified and fly turbines. And in speaking on behalf of many turbine modelers, we are concerned about how incidents like these can jeopardize the future of our hobby.
If you were AMA Turbine Waiver Certified at the time of the incident than the lawsuit is unfortunate. If you did not have a turbine waiver then I think it is obvious how all this could have been prevented.
I know the president of the Madera club and will ask him to chime in on this thread.
By the way, after some difficult negotiating and positive communication with the club and the airport manager, turbine operations at Madera has been reallowed, however, under strict observation and scrutiny.