Today I headed to my club field like I do just about every day after work. The forcast for today was that a storm was coming in, but all of the rain would be north of my area and a possibility of some wind, but not till after dark. I decided I'd try to squeeze some time in before dark and the wind and clouds weren't any worse than some days I've flown. I've only been flying for a couple of months now and I discovered some new features on my computer radio so I wanted to try them out.

When I arrived I took out my plane, ground tested it, geared up the engine, etc. Two other club members were there and one was probably the best flier of the group. He was flying a plane of the other member who didn't want to fly it himself. I put my plane on the strip and taxied a bit, then noticed my rudder had stopped working. I took the plane and started to remove the rubber bands from the wing when the wind came up from about 10mph to Hurricane Andrew conditions. I've never seen this happen in this area of California, weather here is rather mild. It so happens that this other plane was still in the air. At 3/4 throttle(os.40LA)this plane was above us, hovering. As soon as the pilot dropped the throttle the plane began to fly backwards. Then the rain came. All of this happening faster than I can ever remember in this area(lived here all my life, 30 years).

Well, needless to say, my plane fell off the stand and tore the wing, the pilot's plane that was on a stand, while he was flying the other guys plane, fell off the stand and towels and dust and dirt were everywhere. After some work the good pilot made his landing approach. It was so wierd that the plane's engine was whining, but not moving, only up and down. Finally the plane came to rest, like a helecopter. And two of us ran out to keep the plane on the ground, while the throttle was still at about half.

The three of us were cheering. The owner of the plane said he thought he was surely going to have to go back to the hobby store. I know that I would have if my servo arm would not have come off of my rudder servo. Someone was looking after me today. Just a crazy story I thought I would share.

Great story. Thanks for sharing!

Great story. It must have been something to behold.

I had my Tiger 2 fuse sitting on my flight box cradles a couple weeks ago, wind caught the tail feathers and flipped the plane end over end where it landed about 3 feet below the table on the ground. I was afraid to see the damage. the plane fuse landed on the base of the rudder and only crinkled up the ultracoat a bit.

I was very lucky. I guess this is why alot of our members put their planes on the ground and work on them there.

Enjoy your flying!

Terry