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:o

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How far did he have to go to find a tree? I don't see any in the picture!

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There's some trees on final... they're not close... but they're not far... they're around 500' from the threshold. It was getting dark... and Chris had left his sun glasses on from flying earlier in the day... so to him it was really dark. He thought he had passed the trees so he started dropping the plane in... then a frog hair too late he realized he was actually behind the trees. :eek:

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I guess that was one expensive flight for him!!

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I will wear a black armband tomorrow...........

( should have sold it to me :( )

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You guys are confusing....

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It was an expensive day. Startted building new H9 Cap last night. Should be back in the air this week end. Luckly no damage to on board gear. Thanks for the uology Joe. If I had know you would anounce to the world the crash I would have come up with a more elegant story. Simple fact is it dosn't take but a few secounds of being stupid to cost you alot of money in this hobby. We must all be nuts......

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LOL !! Glad I'm not the only one to screw up like that.... a couple of weeks ago I found that it was getting a bit too dark to see the Bobcat clearly when it was low and to the north of the field, so I called it a day.

It was only after I'd taken the aircraft apart and put the three tons of support equipment away that I took my sunglasses off.... and realized that there was still TONS of daylight flying time left ! A few choice Scottish words were uttered at that point.

Sorry to hear about the Cap. Hey Joe - until his next Cap is ready, maybe you should sell Chris that excellent work of art "thing" that you dragged out to the field on Sunday... ? ;-)

Gordon

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Sorry about the Cap...I was flying at an unfamiliar site last week...just a TT Profile mind you, the whole setup costs less than your engine...
Anyway, there I was making my base turn over the trees...spotter at my side. Watching the for the shadow. Watching, watching, watching...must've missed it ? I made the turn to final and my spotter gives the clear signal ("I think you're clear...")
CRACK! The profile smacks the top of an alder tree, creating the biggest pollen explosion I'd ever seen...There were no leaves on the tree, just new springtime buds and plenty of yellow/green pollen. The profile busted through the skinny limbs and came out the other side still flying...I continued my approach and landed the plane...no damage, just covered in pollen, I wish I had had a camera with me. Classic. (and very lucky....I would have needed a chainsaw to get it down.)
TM

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Totally Nuts
 

Undeniably... and with these great plane deals I've been making lately... I'm well on my way to the cuckoo's nest. Gary (the guy who bought and sold his Edge and my CAP over a couple of weeks time losing around $3000 in the process) is definitely on his way, as well. :D

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Between buying lovely "planes" :rolleyes:
(cough***Edge 540***cough cough!), crashing a cool cap
:( , and your throttle stick, :p
I bet you are not so happy with the last couple of weeks!

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The expression "fit to be tied" comes to mind. :D

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Don't worry, be happy!
I remember when I my firs "serious" crash. I was trying to land too hard, and was goofing up. I was about to stall, so I nailes to full and pulled back. It was alright as I had a 60 pulling it along, so I knew it wouldn't stall. My trainer though, took over, and by now, it looped over, and crashed at full. The fiberglass fuse split, and was not a pretty site. After that, I have to admitt to crying, (I was 12 :cry: ) I thought I would never get it fixed and was really sad. I went on to fix it, crash it, fix it, fly it, and pull it out of service. Its a real site now, with epoxy all over the place. I might post pictures someday.
And today, my beautifull YS engine wouldn't b***** start, and I was really pissed!
But, its not as bad as it seems, I hope!

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It seems crashing good "ol' friends" is the new hobby at our field now...... While my friend wasn't very expensive like the big CAP, loosing is driving me just as nuts. :(

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Well... you see... the plane Wayne has fond memories of was built by me for Ted... who had me fly it for him for three flights and then put it in his garage for three months. Then I bought it from Ted, and Gary bought it from me, and Chris bought it from Gary, and I stole it from Chris. Does that clear things up? :D

Sure does
 

ROFLMAO, Joe, the deck came up and hit you right, you must have some good excuse.
Reading about you guys really makes me want to come up and fly with you one weekend. Is it worth a 7 hour drive each way to fly with you guys? Or maybe I can do it in 4-5 hours from Pasadena, what'll you say.
DKjens

Trees...
 

Okay guys... here's where the fun starts.. hopefully this link works. It'll show how far those "nasty" trees are. They look a little more dense from the ground though!

Michael
Cut and paste the following link into a text editor and then try the url.. delete the line breaks. I can't get it to embed in this message without a line break at each line.

"http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?mapdata=xU4YXdELrnC80z6PVgqChMoHgO68jo3aFN dPu2CVwVS2QRzTsj%2bTJ9ssZ6%2bkpgM3Gtqt2nxjDHdt7j3h YUz1CTG3PyO2uoDvJIV81X0y8JdSu5HrDa8eaoSTGAQKCykakp oPmsXSdz5HP1PnzyBEJisPQYC3vGqpJpWWfsDTHG5BOO%2bn3T ouiV4Jw0bR0vEwQ18DKZJQYY9Lb0%2bDSMkG48LAQySnPUTl4e sr%2f1DYmhDcODiBfPDKajRWStl5cw92dgLU1Y6MRz3tqoRIng VtQAig1TCvHcT47VcTd5ahPl8WBoewNmvicAFCrCOzaUkluwoJ 9KQZCveoKvq99pyNH6w6kVbI3NSxNMp6A8pc7yKeFvekubQ6s3 wUqm5f6l3m"

Okay, here's the darn image. I've got the link, so proper credit was given (hopefully).

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After all that cuttin and pastin it still didn't work.....:D

What size edge was it??

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I finally inserted the photo. I tried cutting and pasting and found that the first line still had a space in it between the "maps/map.adp? mapdata=xU4YX". Should have read
"maps/map.adp?mapdata=xU4YX"


Now, you tell me how far those trees are away. The runway is ~520' long.

Michael

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LOL...wow...you guys go on a long final huh.....

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i should come out and see you guys fly, i got to san jose almost every week or did to play ice hockey. i did happen to see 2 r/c flying fields. one was more by tracy and the other one was off the freeway to the left and was nice looking

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Life’s hard lessons…. I believe I directly took accountability for poor judgment that caused the loss of an old friend (33% H9-Cap). Not engine response, Not servo failure, not someone else radio interfering with mine, not some strange set of confluences that focused the power of the universe unexplainably on my plane’s destruction, just me and a moment of poor judgment. An approach I have made several hundred times successfully in the past from the same direction and under the same low lighting conditions.
I thought I would take the high road and walk away with a (somewhat expensive) hard lesson from all this regarding my flight planning and thinking through my actions more carefully in the future. However as this string has not taken on a life of it’s own I see something else in all this good fun.
First I would invite you to go back and read the entire string. What had started as one individuals desire to self promote them self’s by eulogizing this mishap as an opportunity to post his latest torque rolling picture showing his prowess at 3D. This string now has become a vehicle to further elevate others self-image by pointing out what I have already painfully admitted, I made a mistake a moment of poor judgment (as stated in my posting to the string).
This is not the first time and I don’t think it will be my last mistake. How many other ways can it be said? Let’s see, may be I could post a photo showing how far the trees are from the end of the runway and try to even further humiliate my self? No, Michael Mluvara has already done that for me. I wonder what his point was? Lets see, did I say the trees were close to the runway, no? Did I say the lay out of the field was so poorly contrived that this caused me to crash into the trees, No. But does Michael feel better showing everyone how stupid I was for being out so far, (as you can now clearly see in the picture) I suppose he does or he wouldn’t have gone through such trouble (I know your are very busy Michael thanks for taking the time). You know what they say; a picture is worth a thousand words. Having read Michaels editorials in our newsletter over the past year, we should all be thankful that Michael chose instead to use a picture to make his point. Maybe if I shared with you the other events of this day and other unrelated mishaps that might show further my poor judgment? No, Joe Hunt has already pointed that out to you for me. But what would be the point in doing that, didn’t I already make it clear that I used poor judgment and decision-making process. As you can see, the task of reporting these clearly idiotic and somewhat embarrassing events to you have been taken on by my friends (or more accurately, my fellow field rats). What would we do with out friends to help show us the way? Now does this surprise you that my friends and fellow field rates would attempt to further humiliate me? No, I know they are just trying to help me by applying their superior deductive reasoning in order that I might see the error of my ways (from all possible angles). It is not what you think? They are not just trying to elevate them self’s by implying they posses superior skill sets? I know personally that nether of these Ace’s have ever crashed a plane. Some would imply that it might be their frail nature or poor character that would have them ditch others as some sort of twisted hummer or self-help therapy. But then this would be an elementary and unjust generalization.
What I am surprised by are the apparently very secure individuals that chose to share their sympathy to the circumstances by telling me (and you) their own recent laps of judgment and or loss of a favorite plane, Thanks for making the effort, (JMBoss, Robert, Timbersnake, Gordon Mc, FilipM) to me you are men among boys, you showed me and others real class, thank you. To my fellow field rates, get a life

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Chris -

There was no attempt at me to discredit anyone's aiblities, etc. There is a longstanding joke at our field about the "nasty" trees (I have been a member since 1986 and seen a LOT of planes hit them). I meant no harm to you or anyone else. I had come across that picture last week and thought it was a neat perspective of the field and sometimes people don't realize how far their planes are actually flying out at any field. I like to show the R/C community that planes are farther out than you think.

Chris, I'd like to chat with you. I called and received your answeing machine. Please call me if you feel there is something I am doing to put others down or comment on their lack of abilities. That is not my intent in any way and I am sorry that you feel I am commenting on you specifically.

Michael
408-292-1212

Openess...
 

Hey Chris,

Sorry to see that you're feeling picked on. My impression was that the comments were intended as good natured banter... but there again maybe there's some history here that I'm missing, and I'm way off bat.

Anyway, regarding your openness about the cause of the crash being pilot error - I salute you for that, for I know how easy it would have been for you to claim some mysterious mechanical or radio problem etc.

Speaking of which .... huge kudos to SCCMAS member Filip. Dunno if you heard, but he sold his nice little Avistar, radio & engine complete to some young kid for $100. Then, when he went to help the kid fly the Avistar, he experienced a moment of brain asphyxiation (he'd been sitting on it shortly beforehand! ;-), and stuffed the aircraft.

Not only did he immediately fess up to his mistake (rather than claiming some made-up external cause as I've seen so many folk do), but he promptly bought the kid a brand new plane - which cost way more than the $100 he'd sold the whole package for earlier ! (It would have been way cheaper refund the $100 to the kid and take back the radio etc. back.). The combination of being honest & being nice to that kid put Filip in the hole financially, but buys him enormous credit amongst his clubmembers (not that I'd admit that to his face tho - he might get big-headed, and we can't have these young whippersnappers thinking that us old farts actually admire them!).

Anyway, now that I've finished boring you with that story... I hope you get your replacement Cap airborne pretty soon.

Regs,
Gordon

Re: Openess...
 

And you think we admire you all!! :p Just messing, you're all great......really, you are. :rolleyes: :D :p
Robert.

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Gordon,
Yea, I think your right, it was the picture. that made me think it was going to go on for ever. I know Joe means well.... You are right about Filip. I heard about that last week. The Kid lives next to door to Joe (forgot his name). Filip learned and taught us a few good lessons on that one. The really cool thing was that the kid was not upset at all because of how well Filip handled the hole thing. thanks, Chris