....and there she sits.
Finally got to fly my newly-repairedWorld Models Sky Raider Mach II (needs a shorter name) today, despite gusty winds. Flew well on my old OS 40 FP, at least on the first flight. Winds calmed later in the day so I decided to try her again. Another smooth flight, engine running sweetly, and after about 10 minutes or so, I call "Coming in!" from the downwind. Immediately after that call, I felt, rather than heard the motor go dead. "Deadstick!" I yelled.
Of course by now the wind has kicked up again, which means I'm not gonna make it back to the field. Actually, thought for a second I was past the trees and was ready to dive for a little more airspeed when, almost from a standstill, she settled into the top of a 50 foot tree. I mean, just SETTLED. No apparent damage to the plane. Plane is easy to see from the flight line since all the leaves are gone, but a recon team is detailed for the mission, with me on point.
"Yup," we all determine, "she's up there but good." But this couldn't be a climbable tree. Nooooo. No branches closer than 10 feet up. I tried to climb anyway, since as a kid I could climb anything. Ummmm....no. I'm 42 and I weigh about 90 pounds more than I did then, and not enough of that is muscle I tell you.
So the retrieval team sallies forth. Our retieval team consists of two guys....one with a compound bow with an arrow tied to some fishing line, and the other holding the half-a-fishing-rod the line is attached to. At first the task seemed simple. Loop some line over the plane and tug until it comes free and crashes to the ground, causing infinitely more damage than the actual crash apparently did. Well, it was a good idea anyway. Lost an arrow up there too.
Finally decided, no sense in trying to save the plane now, so we put a tip on the arrow and Terry started shooting. At first I couldn't watch....all the work that went into fixing her and trimming the wing bottom with the Monokote flag I'd learned to do here on RCU. After awhile though, with darkness fast approaching, I was ready to deal with the destroyed plane just to retrieve the radio gear and servos and assorted other bits.
Terry, to his credit, managed to bury the arrow in the wing root, not once, but twice, each time seemingly unwedging my baby a little more from the evil clutches of the unfeeling tree. Then we decided to shoot through the wing further outboard, thinking we'd be able to get it to rotate around it's yaw axis when we pulled the arrow back through, hopefully trapping it on the other side of the wing.
Well, all we managed to do was wedge her in better in the end, so....there she sits. Forlorn, hopeless, far more damaged than she was when we started, and still containing gear worth two or three times what the ARF cost. I'm trying to mentally write it off, but my heart does hurt a little.
I didn't come into the hobby with unlimited funds, so I don't have a 28 plane hangar to come home to (cue violins). I really don't care about the plane anymore, but the gear will be harder to replace. Worse still, it's supposed to rain for the next two days, so whatever would have been salvageable will soon be a memory. My kingdom for a bucket truck or a 30 foot ladder! Anyway, the evidence of my misdeed resides below. Do not weep for me, for I am strong......<sniffle>.....no really, I'll be fine.
Pics 1&2: Before
Pic3: After