Waldopepperaxel

Sorry to get off the Twist for a second, but I have to tell you this story,,, The Plane that Flys itself.

It was really strange to hear about Downs' Kadet spinning to her death, when they hit its a balsa garage sale,, I still have mine (Knock on wood) but another friend of mine wasn't so fortunate, we were throwing baseball bats and anything else in hands range to try and knock his out of the sky when his battery died or came unplugged, the last command was a right turn, and by golly she went up for 25 - 35 minutes at about half throttle power, os .40 10 oz tank, So with a slight wind of about 2 mph, conditions were perfect for a soaring bird like the Kadet, and she flew big wide continuous climbing circles over our head, then it was like a pin head in the sky, and you know how big that bird looks,,, then it was heading for the great ball of gas in the sky we were all screaming at this point Noooo,,,,, RUN OUT OF GAS,,,, BREAK A WING,,,, ETC.... then she vanished from sight like a pizza at a frat house, it was gone, but we could still hear the engine, so we all shut up and listened in total silence for another 10 to 15 minutes, mind you there were about 12 of us there, then we heard the engine quit, so we started looking up again, about 20 minutes later we could see a small reflection of light, Yup she was heading back down in the same circular motion, nice big wide gliding circles, every lap we could see another reflection off the sun, we couldn't believe it, we thanked God and our universe and we all packed up our stuff and jumped into 4 different cars, and went racing after her, we followed her for about 5 -10 miles stopping and watching,,, where would she set down??? longer story short, she was last seen soaring over Delmar, NY 15 miles from Suny at albany (our field back then) we never knew what became of her. it was probably the longest flight I have ever witnessed, we tracked that baby for over an hour and 15 minutes from when we lost control until we saw it go behind some trees at least another 2 miles away from where we were, no exaderation, my same friend bought another one and the same thing happened again,,,,!!!! only we got this one back about 4 miles from the field, and it landed on the highway (Route 66) no damage except a busted prop. he doesn't fly anymore, but I'm sure he will again one day. every time I take that bird off I always wonder where I'll be heading in a moments notice and If I'll ever see her again. I always give her that little pat on the top of the wing and thank her for over 14 years of service without one repair job on it ever. not even a broken prop.