RE: Truth is stranger than fiction in model airplanes
Here's one that's hard to top:
Last Spring I was doing a review of the Hangar-9 Giant P-47
I was at the field with my dad and brother to shoot the video for the Review. I was doing a "Trim Flight" and after 3 laps of the field at about 200 ft high, the right wing suddenly rotated 90 degrees on it's wing tube!!! (I immediately realized that I never put the wing bolts in!) So the plane rolls to the left, and the left wing falls completely off! Then the plane just lumbers over and goes straight in behind some Pine trees.
So I start the "Walk of Shame" thinking "Now I'm going to have to replace that thing so I can finish the review - There's a few hundred bucks down the toilet"
Well I saw no sign of the plane in the tall grass, but directly behind the Pines is about 20 yards of thick Plum trees. Plum trees are gnarly, nasty things with 1 1/2" thorns on them and they are notorious for shredding airplanes that enter them.
Finally, I see the Tail Feathers, and as I dig my way into the trees, I see the plane hanging in the trees with it nose about 4 ft off the ground. But I couldn't see ANY damage. I ran right home and got my Lopping Shears and started cutting away the branches as my brother held the plane in place.
When we got it out, I saw that the other side had two punctures in the Fuse from thorns, and there were two similar punctures in the bottom of the wing (The one that was rotated, but stayed with it). It took a while to find the wing that fell off, but when we did, it was in perfect condition!
We put it back together and shot the video :-)
I have an expression, "I'd rather be lucky than good". Well, I think I used up all of my "lucky" on that one!!!