Hello; My thunderbird spent 6 month in the cradle of an ancient cedar tree near our strip. It took 3 months to find it, some local hang gliders were jumping off a nearby mountain so we asked them to keep an eye out for it. They saw it and took a photo of where it was. Another flier at our field is a black powder fan and brought out a musket with drilled balls and a spinning reel. The idea being to use the fishing line to pull a 3/16 poly rope up and (hopefully ) over it. His first shot went right through the reciever, but the fishing line untied itself first. Turns out the heat from the shot was burning through the fishing line. We tried a sling shot and the spinning reel, and got that to work, pulled the poly rope back over, snagging the landing gear and knocking it down. Finding the receiver blown to bits. I re-built it and still fly it occasionally. I think it took about 16 hours labor to get it back. Everyone was happy to help, realizing that they might be in the same situation some day.