braddock VC

Here's another one that happened on the same field I mentioned earlier. The farmer kept a herd of about 50 steers, fattening them over the winter, our strip was protected by an electric fence and I'd an Astro Hog fitted with BIG wheels so I had no problems with the long grass.
I was practicing for one of the certificates our national body (the bmfa) promotes for safer flying and one of the procedures is to check all the equipment before taking off including extending the aerial, I'd done this in the pits previously but thought I should do it immediately prior to take off to satisfy the examiner. As I was alone it was a pain to take down the electric fence so I took off in the rough, I'd gotten about 50 yards when I lost control, managed to get a couple of sections of the aerial up and got control back about 3 foot off the deck so made an arrival but the Hog was sitting there in the middle of this herd of steers with the engine burbling away so I'm walking over to pick it up and bring it back to take off again with this walleyed steer looking at me and backing up; I was about 10 yards from the plane when I shouted at him and he turned and stampeded, hit the steer right behind him who fell smack on the hog.
Have you ever seen a yearling trying to get up? they gyrate all over the place. I got my beautiful Hog back and the only unbroken bit was the undercarriage beams and the wires.
I have to say I was really heart broken over that, it was the sweetest flier I've ever had and the UK makers, flair, don't do it any more.

50+AirYears

Didn't mention this 3 years ago, but one memorable moment was taking off under direction of my instructor, taking a few practice laps of our complete "A" level pattern as told, asking a question without getting a response, taking a quick glance aover my shoulder, and seeing that my instructor was back in the pits, sitting at a picnic bench with some of the other members, and apparently not paying me any attention.

After that, I felt I was ready to locate a couple other club instructors and take the "Solo Proficiency" test.

I was accepted as a solo pilot by the rest of the club , but it was another year or so before I actually took the test. Getting the official paper was a bit anticlimatic. Being a bit smaller club at the time, and with fewer neighbors, the beauracracy was a bit more relaxed thirty+ years ago. Too bad we'll probably never be able to go bck to that time.

I still imagine I experienced something of the thrill of when a full sized instructor gets out of the right seat and tells his student "take a lap or two!"

Ken Erickson

Two events I remember, 10 years apart, are having a student on buddy-box with my planes. After watching them try to recover from a mistake, I let go of the switch and recovered just after they had leveled of, inverted, 10 feet above terrain. Made me feel qualified.

I prefer not to "train" with "Trainer"s.

When flying 3 mistakes high, the first 2.5 are his.

Ken Erickson
"I help the airplane teach you how to fly."

CCDave

My Feedback: (53)

My most memorable moment was last summer… I had recently sold my 2.3m CompARF Extra to a friend. I had flown the plane for 2 seasons and was quite familiar with it…

He was still getting used to it and wasn’t used to landing it because it didn’t slow down as quickly as the plane we was flying prior to this one.

Because of this he had made several passes and was trying to come in using a flatter approach in order to reduce speed build up on final.

Anyway, In the process of doing this he flies right through the top of a tree at the end of the runway! The plane comes out the other side of the tree still running and still flying… He goes to full throttle and the plane is barely flying pretty much in a harrier…. In my mind I see the plane going in… He hands me the transmitter and just says “save it for me!!!�

I am like GREAT!!! I tell him that I can’t promise him anything but commence to putting it down wherever I can… About that time I get a little better handle on it and guide it toward the runway… I overshot the runway, but landed it safely on the field.

About that time a huge cheer comes from the pits… This was a particularly busy day at the field and there were probably 20 people there to witness my best save ever!

We get to the plane and the prop is almost completely gone a large tree branch about 1 inch thick and 12 inches long is imbedded in one wing… The muffler is broken and a wheel pant is just hanging off!!!

After replacing the wing and some other repairs it is still flying today!

Wild Foamy

most memorable?

well, for all the good reasons:

1: my most memorable is when i saw my MFA Yamamoto trainer lift off the end of the runway for the first time, and hear that exhaust note changing as i pull around into a shallow left bank, watching it leave a nice smoke trail across the sky.

for all the wrong reasons i can think of many not-so-good memories

1: i was flying my Mick Reeves gangster (english kit) which was my second plane, was doing all sorts of things with it and generally having a good time as you do. i bring it around for a landing but was too short on my approach, on my 2nd attempt i couldnt bleed off enough airspeed to get it on the deck with enough space to roll out, so on the 3rd attempt i get it down but there was ltierally no room to run off, so i gun the throttle and pull hard up to avoid rolling off the runway into the rocky farmland beyond it. the Super Tigre .75 dies and i just manage to get it level but with my airspeed completely gone the gangster falls like a brick from about 30 feet, down, down, down... CRACK!. just as it belly flops into the dust i hear a burst of laughter from behind me, i look round to see a small group of baloonists laughing at me, i go out and retrieve the gangster (it suffered a broken APC prop and erm... well thats it) and this thing is built like a brick outhouse, epoxy and fibreglass all over the bottom of the wings and very thick balsa



The 2nd: teaching my dad to fly on a flair cub, using the "hot potato" method (no buddy box, jsut one Tx) and he brings it around into a left bank but stalls it and it falls into the tallest tree in the field, my brother was back in the pits laying on top of his car, i hear several branches break and alot of painful noises, we leave the flightbox and stuff in the pits and go to get the wreckage, the trees overhang a small country road so it was fairly easy to find, the cub fuselage was laying there, the firewall sprawled out across the tarmac, hideously deformed. the wing was still in the top of the tree

so my dad and brother go home and get the van, a ladder and a flagpole, we somehow manage to nudge it out of the tree by repeatedly clouting it with the end of the flagpole

anyway, over the following couple of weekends i repaired the whole inside of the fuselage, araldite'd the firewall and first former back into place, put in new control rods (the previous balsa ones had broken) and bolted the undercarriage back on.


The 3rd: seeing my trainer cartwheel into a hedgerow as i misjudged my distance from the trees (i was trying to be a smartass and tried to cut down infront of the trees and land), worst part was jumping into a thorn bush to retrieve it (not much damage done to the plane, bent the wheel axle and broke off a cowl cheek)


The 4th: was watching one of the clubs instructors maiden a fellow members plane (electric sport jobby, really nice yellow and blue translucent covering) i was in teh pits talking to Laurie, the admin, when all of a sudden i see this brand new plane enter into a right bank and fly through a tree, i looked at the two pilots on the flightline, they sort of looked at each other and then walked off to retrieve the odd bits and pieces (motor/firewall, ESC, battery, servos, reciever) i went out to help, it was like when you step on a snail or big juicy spider, one minute its there, the next its all smooshed into the pavement and spread out like jam on a piece of toast

TakingFlight96

I'm sure their will be more memorable moments to come, but, here it goes. So, On July 21,07 - my mom was working, and my dad was stuck home with me and my sister. He at that time was a member of the club, so, he thought we might enjoy going to the Club Fun Fly. So, after watching plane after plane start up, take off, & land, I got up to get a hot dog, and sat back down. Then came my dads turn - he started up his plane, took off, started on the pattern, came around and fell out of the sky. This is a lesson I won't soon forget, always grab your pin. So, we picked up the pieces and headed home. So, On July 21, 07 - was the day I knew I wanted to fly. So, thats what got me to where I'am today - a Hobbico Nexstar, countless hours on the simulator, training in the spring to look forward to, a membership to a great local club (First and only girl), and a wonderful father to help me in this hobby. I don't think I wouldn't have gotten this far without my dad.


-- TakingFlight96

Bigshark

One of my most memorable moments was a thermal flight in a skimmer 600 electric sailplane. I was able to get into close formation with a local hawk and fly what seemed like forever. After the longest time he got tired of his shadow and headed off away from my field. I hit the motor (a noisy geared 600) in salute, the hawk screamed in response, and I can still hear his call thinking about it years later........

full rudder

Lots of good ones, but there's 2 that come to mind:

1) One day dreamed up this sort of flying saucer shaped airplane with a .20 and drew it on a piece of paper, made it out of coroplast, eventually the big day comes and me and my buddy go to the field, he's thinking it wont fly. About 10 people there and when they see it everybody says 'does that thing actually fly?' , well all I
can answer is 'don't know yet'! So after everybody lands and gives me the field to myself I start her up
and tell my buddy 'OK throw it!' it didn't have a landing gear yet. After it flew for about 10 seconds I felt
this rush that had never happened again, IT ACTUALLY FLEW! I even remember yelling ' TAKE THAT LOCKHEED!' , there's no feeling like creating something and finding out it works.

2) I was flying at a local glider club, and participated in a regional contest with my Gentle Lady in Sportsman
class against much better machines and people that had been doing that for years, back then at 20 I was the kid of the club, anyway I actually came in 1st! Now the best part is that the next year at the same contest they bumped me up to Expert class against even better pilots and machine and I managed to finish 2nd! Afterwards I was told that the guy who came in 1st was ranked no.2 in Canada! All this with a puny Gentle Lady! After more than 20 years I still have it hanging over my workbench.

There's also all those nice flights at the end of the day when the sun is setting and your just cruising along!

phippsj

My Feedback: (15)

Dave, You were shaking like a leaf! Thanks again for saving my plane.

I hope you never find that picture of me holding the plane with the branch sticking out of the wing. How embarrassing!

50+AirYears

Not 100% RC, since the group of us flew about anything, but at one overseas AFB, we had a fair sized group of kids around us, dependents from base housing. The situation in the country really wasn't conducive to the kids having a lot of off-base activities.

One Sunday, a couple of us flyers were coming out of a base movie theater, when we ran into one of the civy tech reps and his family. We got double handed handshakes from the guy and nice hugs from his wife.

Seems this was the first time the family had been overseas. The oldest boy, about 12 or 13, had been having problems adjusting to the situation. Starting to get into trouble at school, becoming a bit of a discipline problem at home and school, that kind of thing.

Apparently, just hanging around with us, getting help with building and flying, and in general being treated like one of the bunch instead of some dumb kid who needed to be controlled like in other organized sport made a big difference in his life. His grades got back up to honor roll level and the discipline problems went away.

Both parents had tears in their eyes when they told us they were going back stateside the middle of the coming week. We got letters from them for a while.

Having somebody say THANKS like that gives one sort of a warm feeling.

LDaba

My Feedback: (2)

Back in the 70’s I belonged to an r/c show team. We put on a World War 1 dogfighting show.
It was flown to the music of the Blue Max. We had an excellent MC who kept the audience informed. It was an entertaining show.
We would have between 4 - 6 fliers in the air at one time. To keep things safe and manageable we had pairs of adversaries conducting a staged routine in a specific part of the sky. To the casual eye this looked like a no holds barred dogfight. In fact, it was a controlled exhibition. Even with hours of practice and performances, being human, we sometimes became “caught up� in the moment.
My role was that of an RFC pilot, the new guy who was pounced upon by the German Ace and shot down. To enhance this I set off smoke at the appropriate moment, making it look like the ship was on fire. [X(]
OK, I had just been “shot� and I was jinxing the plane to give the appearance it was out of control while on fire. My adversary closed for the kill, flying up the smoke trail. Well, he crashes into my Se5 at the lower wing - fuselage joint. He lost his top wing and went in. I was still flying! I immediately cut throttle and began as gentle a descent as I could. The controls were REAL sloppy! I managed to land. (down wind, I was afraid to turn it for fear of it breaking up) I received a staggering round of applause for the save.
All in all, it was a memorable moment.
Happy landings, Tony

pumbadog

Back in the early 80's when I was learning to fly, I had a Sig Kadet Mk II. It wasn't a pretty airplane but I'd bult it strong and had a Como .40 on it. I was just beyond needing an instructor and probably had gotten too cocky and my instructor decided I needed to relax and try some minor aerobatics so he taught me a split S. So one day I'm fly solo out over a corn field on the other side of our flying field and this field slopes down into a slight valley. So being a new flier, I'm up really high and out a ways over the corn and I decide to do a split S. For what ever reason, I push forward on the stick instead of rolling over and pulling back. I'm thinking, this doesn't feel right and waiting on an outside loop. It's not happening very vast and my mouth is going dry, I'm new and decision making isn't fast at this stage of the game. Well the aircraft is in a dive, full power and a little inverted and it goes behind some tall trees. I'm still holding power and full down in the sticks and I drop the antenna in the dirt and turn around to face they other guys in the club, still holding the sticks; I think it's tooth pics. All of a sudden, they're all pointing and yelling at me to look. I turn back around and my Kadet is raising back up out of the corn inverted, I get a little altitude and roll it back over and promptly fly back to the field and land. Upon inspection, there were holes in the under side of the wing were the corn tasles were flipping over the wing and puncturing the monocote as they slapped over the leading edge. I never got that menuver mixed up again.

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

Going back to my first plane..
A Sterling Fledgling..
My neighbor Harland started me out in RC by giving me the wing, a rolls of plans and an OS .35 Max-S engine.
I was always hanging out in his shop so I guess he figured I needed a plane of my own.
My Dad and Harland helped me scratch build a new fuselage and get it ready to fly..
It had a bolt on wing with a wood block on the front of the fuse to hold the wing dowels and a ply block in the back for the bolt.

I have 2 interesting memories with that one other than my first solo flight.

Not long after I soloed we were out having fun with it.. This one flight I was doing loops, rolls, stall turns.. what ever I could wring out of it with my limited skills..

I brought it in for landing, nice and smooth, Rare for me... About the second the wheels touched the front wing mounting block let loose and the wing flipped off backwards.
The now wingless fusealage was rolling along motor still running..
We took it home, fixed it and she kept on flying..

About 1 year later that plane took its final flight.. I was flying along about 200' up and made a hard turn to bring it back around to me..
This time the rear bolt block pulled loose.. The wing shifted 45deg top the fuse and it started falling like a rock.. Harland asked if I need help right about the time the wing left the plane all together.. It's gone I said.. We waited a few minutes for the wing to flutter to the ground and went out to collect the pieces.

I still have the wing, motor and plans.. I'm just waiting for some kid to wander into my shop and show some interest.
With ARF's these days I doubt anyone would bother.. I might rebuild it for one of my kids though.

50+AirYears

Another memorable RC moment occured at one of my club's fun flies. I was flying a Fox .15 powered 3 channel Quick Stick (the original RCM plans rendition of the Balsa USA Swizzle Stick). The event was to take off and without using a watch, fly around and land as close to the target time of 2 minutes without going over.

I took off, flew around for what I thought was about 1.5 minutes, and started to set up for my landing. Turning on base leg, I was attacked by a Red Tailed Hawk. He didn't actually hit the plane, but for the next few minutes of time, I was definitely in a combat manuvering situation. Neither of us actually hit the other, but I had no doubt I was definitely outclassed.

After some indeterminate period of time amussing the club members who were watching, we broke off, circled each other a couple times, then the Hawk flew off.

Somehow, the timer managed to keep the stopwatch going, and remembered to stop it when my wheels touched down.

When the laughing, including mine, finally stopped, my time was announced as slightly over the target, at 6 minutes 54 seconds. Apparently, i missed the target time.

This was a topic of dixcussion at the field for several months.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I've had a lifetime of wild, weird and wonderful things happen, but anytime someone says, "Most memorable", I think of one Wednesday night in Upstate NY when the weather was nice, so I headed out to the field with my Clipped-wing Cub.

It was so nice I figured a lot of guys would be there, but I was all alone.

So I took a flight, and afterward, since there was no one there to BS with, I didn't know what to do with myself. I wasn't used to just being able to fly without a million other things going on. And it was one of those evenings you pray for! It was about 70 degrees, the sun was low and behind me, no humidity and not a breath of wind.

PERRRRRFECT!

So I refueled, took the Cub up again and spent the entire evening shooting touch-and-go's.

It was heaven!

50+AirYears

Had a day like that once, Dec 31 1990. Unseasonably warm day, near 50, sunny, almost no wind. Had my car loaded, too. Nobody else showed up. Flew from about 1:00 to sunset. Got in maybe 15 flights, including RC, CL, FF, and rockets.

3D 4 ME

My most memorable moment is my very first flight which was with a Hasbro skysurfer. Does that count?

50+AirYears

Couldn't let this one go by without mentioning it. I was out at our club's previous field one beautiful summer day. One of those perfect days when for some unbelievable reason nobody else show up.

Anybody who knows me knows my car usually has an assortment of RC, CL, and FF models. This particular day, I also had some model rockets and a kite as well. Wind was a little light for kites, but I got a kite flight in anyway. Also about 22 filghts with FF, CL, RC and rockets.

About 7:00, after about 8 hours of flying, I was starting to pack up when a couple carloads of cub scouts showed up. Talked with the leader. He was coming back from some kind of get-together, and decided to stop by and see if he could give the kids an extra treat. So I decided to oblige them. Fired a couple rockets, a Peanut scale and an FAC scale rubber job, a bit of RC Aerobatics, including high speed touch-and-goes and low level inverted passes. Finished with a 1/2A control liner.

The little munchkins were having a ball, sitting on our picnic benches doing the anti-aircraft things, with full sound effects and body English.

Obliging them, I was naturally hamming it up with evasive manuvers (CL isn't just flying around in circles, there is a very large repertoire of stunts that can be done).

Pulling out of a loop in front of the smurfs (Cub Scout Blue uniforms), my UP line broke, with the subsequent re-kitting of the plane.

The little monsters started jumping up and down and congratulating each other with cheers of "We got him, We got him!!"

Scoutmaster came up to me trying to appologize and offering to pay for the model.

Between fits of my own laughter, all I could do was point out how much the scouts were enjoying the incident, and remind him "Look at those kids! Isn't that what it's all about??"

All in all, a very excellent and memorable flying day!

The 1/2A was back flyable a couple days later.

getmorc

My Feedback: (6)

After 30 years of flying I can only think of one that is the most rememorable to me.
The scale stinson 108 that my brother built from scratch. It is the same paint sceme as
his real one 108. This is a 101 inch plane that took him a long time to build. He got the
cancer and died before he got to see it fly. One day I decided to fly it and it flew very
well I did two laps around the field and parked it. After seven years I still have this plane
and have not flown it sence then.

kregan

Used to race RC cars every Tuesday night at an indoor dirt oval track.

One night this 38 ish year old mom shows up with her son (I was like 20) and
he wants to race. The place was packed with little to no pit space left. While
everyone in the place is drooling and acting the fool. I slide my stuff over and
invited her and her son to pit next to me.

I helped the kid out best I could with the car he had. Between races I talked with
mom trying to be polite when the conversation turns and I find out she is divorced.

By the end of the evening I got her phone number and a few days later I crossed
the finish line!

T. Bob

My Feedback: (9)

You car guys are the coolest.

kregan

Thats what she said!

vanoalex

My Feedback: (4)

I want to race cars.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

I'm glad to see that not all of the postings in here are plane related, good as my experience with planes is mostly R/C lawn-darting.
Out of all of my R/C moments, the biggest had to be racing the the Kyosho Off-Road Championship Grand Prix in Sterling Heights, MI.
I usually wouldn't have a chance to hit a big race this close to me at the time but had to give it a shot. My qualifying was terrible as every heat something broke or came loose, a stripped diff gear, RX pack falling out or something else put me towards the bottom. I was the slowest qualifier in the "E" Main (yeah, that bad) but at least I wasn't in the "F" Main.
With a standing start and at the back, when the race started, all of the other racers tangled in a hairpin turn at the end of the long straight. Driving around the mess I took the lead. All was fine until I heard my name over the PA then I went all to Hell. My right butt cheek started shaking and ny hands didn't work too well either, it showed as my nitro truck was all over the track. Coming up to the end of the race I finally settled myself down but about 20 feet from the finish line I ran out of fuel! I went from high to low in seconds! Not until a few more seconds later did I find out that I won the race by a lap!
It wasn't like winning the "A" Main but might as well have been for me after an otherwise miserable weekend.