waydown2low

Holy crap what a swarm!!, those of you that think someone is at fault in a midair need to get your heads fixed!!! Having done this for more than 15 years, involved in pattern, scale, racing and just about every other form of aircraft including full scale, there is just bad luck involved. We have tried to do nose to nose midairs for hours on end and it cannot be done. I don't care what people say about ubrupt maneuvers or spotters or what ever, a pattern is for landing or taking off and aircraft should give in to other aircraft in that position, but other wise the airspace is fair game, if your afraid to lose a plane you need to get out of the hobby because every plane has a expiration date, and you have to live with that. I have seen flying clubs die over the years because old grouchy men that can't fly with the young lads getting mad at everybody and making rules in the club because they have been there 30 years and suddenly think that everything everyone else does is unsafe or stupid.[:@][:@][:'(]

I do agree that rules do need to be made for certain events and for safety to people, property ( excluding other aircraft in the air ), and spectators. But, as for flying in general just go out and have a blast. When I was a youngster of about 16, I was a guest at a field in Oklahoma, and one of the seasoned pattern guys at the club was flying his sequence, and I got the frequency pin off the board. I fueled my plane checked my battery, turned on my radio and did a control check next thing I knew the guys spotter was screaming 55 and I got my radio shut off. The guy saved the plane and landed, he came over to me ready to kill me. His spotter saw the pin on my antenna and grabbed the pilot and got him cooled down, the other members made him apologize to me and he said that no one else at the club is ever on that frequency so he was out of the habit of getting the pin off the board. And to this day, I have never been back to that club to fly just for that fact that for a few minutes, I felt unwelcomed.

Now if that situation arose again, I would probably hit the guy in his arrogent face and fly while he was trying to figure out what just happened. And as for the midair I would turn around and take a bow, and say d*mn that was cool. Keep your head high, drink a cold beer and laugh about it because you were getting bored with that plane anyway. And those that say there was fault, need to retire or get a few more years under their belt. CAUSE, that is part of the game like it or not[>:]