Every field has at least one of those guys. We had a guy out Sunday with a ducted fan. Nice looking plane, but loud, really loud. It was large plane, about a 60" delta. He was making low passes and a few of them went right over the flight line. On one he had to look straight up to see the plane. Then he flew way out and came screaming in on a low run broad side to the runway, right at the pits. I'll give him one more chance then we pull his plug.

A few months back, I lost by toy. It was a home built sorta. The wing was off a trainer I trashed and the fuselage was home deisgned. It was a really good flying plane. I was still on the buddy box and I had the plane out a ways and high, staying away from one of the guys flying his pattern plane close in. Suddenly, my plane rolled over and went straight down like a lawn dart, not to be seen for another four months. After my instructor and I waded mud in the farm filed and tried to find a way into the creek bed it crashed in, we gave up and went back to the field. One of the older guys was there showing off his favorite old radio, an very early computer job. He was showing me all the settings he could do and then showed me how he could switch from Chan 26 to 56 with just a flick of a switch. He did this with the transmitter powered up, and my card still hanging on 56. I've always wondered if he was showing off to someone else when my plane took the dive. I'll never know, but you know, he hasn't been back to the field since.

Last, I was walking my 4*-60 out to the line a few days back when one of the guys got screwed up with his helicopter and came along the flight line, about four foot high and inverted. He ended up as a pile of parts in the center of the runway. He missed me by about four feet I'm guessing. While he was picking up parts, I was shaking brown stuff out of my pant legs.

By the way, build another 4*. Like you, I love the way it flys. It also buidls really fast. The biggest problem I have with mine is mis-judging how far out I am on approach. I did all of my training with a 60" wing span so the 4* looks a lot closer than it really is. On my first solo for qualifying, I put it down before I even cleared the fence at the end of the runway, thinking I was a good 100ft closer than I was. That one snapped the fuselage right behind the wing. I was back in the air a couple days later and managed to get certified, but I'm still miss-judging how far out I am. More practice I guess.

Don