ORIGINAL: OzMo
Power lines near a flying field is not so uncommon. One thing to remember is that if your plane ends up visually behind the power lines the radio signal can be blanked out.[X(]
we used to fly our gliders between the double strand phone lines behind our feild. Playing follow the leader once we flew 4 out of five gliders in a row through the lines, the fifth one hit the pole so slow and dead on it just slid its nose down the pole to the ground only scuffed the covering on the nose! it was a good laugh.
It's possible that my plane continued in to the power line, vice me flying in to it. Who really knows. I fly on Channel 4 - 50.880 MHz, and it doesn't follow the same rules as a 72MHz radio. 6 Meters will actually 'bounce', and doesn't require 'line of sight' like the UHF/VHF freq's, like 2.4 GHz. 50MHz lies somewhere in between HF and UHF, where line of sight isn't nearly as important. True, my broadcast power is low, <5 watts as required by the FCC for Amateur Radio Operators, but the truth about power lines is that the RF Interference caused by them creates more of a 'Faraday Cage" and will not allow signals to pass through them. This interference is actually a 'radius' around the wires, and not just 'visually' behind them. Also- understand - 1 single wire is less of an interference that 4 or more. The power line I flew in to was 4 wires, and fairly close together.
Lesson learned - stay away from power lines.