Put my Not-for-sale 91 in the corn- Have looked for over three hours, no joy yet. Any suggested for scouting in the corn. It is so dang thick, like 4" apart and already 8' tall. I walk into it and all I can think of is the Movie, "Field of Dreams"

Go to the nearest municipal/community airport.

It's almost CERTAIN there will be some fellows around who'd love an excuse for a flight. Offer to pay their fuel cost for an hour to take you up, circle the corn field for a while. If the plane's large enough, they'll probably have friends/other pilots around that'll come along for the ride, and offer an extra pair of eyes.

Failing that, go to the nearest "edge" of the field perpendicular to the rows, and start walking, looking down each row like you'd look down grocery aisles trying to find your mom when you were a kid.

Ouch! I feel for ya man. I used to fly rockets back home and it was a pain to find them in the corn. Any chance you can get on top of a truck, ladder, roof, silo, whatever to get above the corn and maybe get a visual? If she went in fairly flat, she may be resting up high. If she went in vertical, then you should go across the rows looking both ways like you're checking for traffic. But, as thick as they're growing corn these days, I'd bet she got hung up off the ground.

Oh yeah. Whatever you do. Don't run through the corn!! At least not unless you have all your skin covered up. Those leaves are sharp!

Tom

One thing you might try that others have used is a ladder. Amazingly enough it will give you a lookout point and has helped many find planes. Also, if someone in your club has a plane mounted video cam that will help too. We lost a plane once for two days and the only way we found it was a camera mounted on a cub doing slow flying over the area in question. Hope that helps you.

Thanks for the suggestions. You are right about the leaves being sharp. I do think I seen a couple of the Chicago Black Sox's players in there.

Back when transmitters had long antennas I would lay down the radio with it pointed at the place you saw it go in. Then you go out into the corn with a pole or flag to hold above the corn so they could direct you to stay on the line and find the airplane with little trouble.

Yeah, corn leafs are sharp, wear a long sleeve shirt and jeans.

When your in the corn field, Look Up, it's
probably resting uo high.

Bob

I hope so. For some reason the plane seemed to go into failsafe. The engine was at an idle when it when in. about a 45* angle. It was the 2nd flight and when I took off, normal, then it stated acting funny. Almost like the controls were opposite. I was trying to get it back to the field and it would spin one direction then another. Then it just appeared to shut down. Using a 6v battery and it was at 654 when I took off. The tx was at 10.4 STrange to say the least.

It is easy to find airplanes in corn as opposed to soy beans. The airplane can get under the beans and you could step on it without seeing it. Plus beans grow together and it is very difficult to move around in a bean field. In corn, go to where you think the airplane is. Figure out how far you can see across rows, and then walk expanding squares until you either find the airplane or have examined the entire corn field. I flew free flight airplanes next to a corn field, next to a bean field, and speak from experience.

I don't know what kind of corn this guy grows, but at maturity it is about 12' tall. It surrounds 3 sides of our field. the other side, behind our flight line is trees. It is like landing on an aircraft carrier.

Search another 100-150 yards out from where you started searching. One guy put his plane in the beans and it looked like it was about 10 yards into the beans. Actually found it about 150 yards out into the beans.

Hope you find it before the mice do.

hulio

Found it. Not anywhere close to where I thought it was. Very little damage. no holes in the covering or broken wing. Knocked the motor mount loose. It will live to fly another day. Thanks for all the help

Good to hear you found it Gene.

As a kid I used to fly rockets over a large cornfield behind our house. When I couldn't find them, I often climbed onto the garage roof with a pair of binocs and a compass. Besides the sharp leaves, it can be very easy to get lost in there, every row looks alike.

Good to hear from a fellow Grand Blanc Bobcat.

You flying at Grassfield RC club also as we have the same cornfield and tree setup- a pilot lost one in the corn today and of all days not to have the2 way radios and flag pole but cell phones and a piece of long pvc pipe foumd it

That is what we did. My son-in-law on the phone spotting and my daughter in the corn with the flag. When I found it, it was only one row away from where I was walking and I almost walked by it. Transparent orange wing kind of blended in with the leaves that had turned. I hate the corn.

i know how you feel i lost one of my planes in some cattails about 12' tall and they don't grow in rows so you have an edge. and i never did find it.

Ck out Tower Hobbies for a product called "Air Alert" I just bought one but have not had the need to use it or want to use it.It emits a buzz sound to help you locate your down model.

Don't work for hearing impaired folks. If I don't wear my hearing aids, I can't tell if the engine is running or not when it is in the air.

Glad you found it in one flyable piece. Spun a Miss America into a field of green corn back about 1968. It went thru 4 rows of corn like a lawnmower. No piece of the aircraft was more than a foot long by the time it got to the fourth row. Glued the pieces back together and kept it as a hanger queen. Still have it hanging overhead in the workshop. As for the behavior of your aircraft when it went down, check the battery leads by shaking them. I had a helicopter go nuts a few weeks ago because of a worn battery connector. The receiver powered down and when it came back up, it would not respond to the transmitter or drop into failsafe.

AH-64 D

Gene,

Glad you found her. How high was it in the corn ?

Bob

Gene, our one field was surrounded by corn, several of us have been in there. Finding a plane is really hard. One of the crop duster pilots used to hover over our planes for us but that wasn't an every day thing. Once the guys operating the harvester brought one in, it had gone through the machine. Plane was shot!! Engine didn't have a scratch on it?? Servos were all OK except one. Dry lake beds are better!!!
Gene

Had a friend lose one in the corn at our old field. about 8 or 10 of us went out looking for it, including a friend of mine who doesn't fly. We searched for a while and didn't find it, finally gave up and headed back to the field. Got there and realized my non-pilot buddy wasn't with the group anymore. Once we got a little ways from the corn we could see the tail of the aircraft sticking up above the corn and moving in our general direction. My buddy had gotten seperated from the group and gone off in a much different direction. He wasn't even sure he was going the right way to get back till we started yelling to help guide him back.

Found mine in the soybean " crop circle of death" easy peesy, the tail was sticking straight up with the engine planted up to the carb in dirt.

Good job on finding the plane, persistance paid off! When I lost my 1/4 scale biplane in the corn years ago, it took me three hours. I was only able to find my plane by setting up a grid pattern of the whole field zig-zagging back and forth. Muddy, hot, corn leaves cut at me, the field was being irrigated at the time, I felt like I was going through an overgrown jungle, what a day. The best part was finding my plane with no damage at all!


Steve

[8D]