RCU Forums - View Single Post - plan B to retrieve a plane
View Single Post
Old 04-10-2005 | 05:01 PM
  #1  
still burnin
Junior Member
 
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
From: Starksboro, VT
Default plan B to retrieve a plane

Well I have finally did it. I have made a 3 point landing in the top of a 60” tree. I miss judged how far away my plane was and next thing I know it is parked in the tree. I was flying my trainer at the time (Thank God) to have a nice slow first flight of the year. Well I have seen many ways that people have used to get their planes back down but I was not having any luck. I started out with a fishing pole with a big sinker on it and got it near the plane to try to shake it out but that did not work. The tree was way to high and thin at the top to climb. I did not want to start winging arrows at it and it was stuck enough that the wind wouldn’t blow it down, so I took another approach. As I am part of the local fire department I had an Idea. Before anyone say it we live in a small town with no tall buildings so we do not have any big ladder trucks, but we do have water. Now I know that water and planes do not mix but I was out of options (besides cutting the tree) so I got our pumper, set up the hose and started to blast the plane out of the tree. It took a minute to get it out because the tail was stuck but after 500 gallons of water it did come down. The best part no damage, not even a prop. I got the engine started to burn out any water. I am now letting the receiver dry to see if it will work again. I hope so. So if you ever plant a plane in the top of a tree there are other ways to get it down. I hope you get a chuckle out of this I did.