Deadeye

Our annual funfly and public demo was yesterday. I made 4 trips out to the field hauling planes, BBQer and food. My hangar queen, the Top Flite Cessna 182 I scaled out was among the planes I had on site for static display. I had no intention of flying it, as it needs a few cycles on the 3 battery systems to make sure everything is up to snuff. Our flying weather has finally changed for the better, so I had planned on doing it sometime soon.

But hot afternoons in the Montana high plains lends itself to unpredictable occasional gusts, even on a somewhat 'calm' afternoon. This is the reason I am an evening flyer. We also get strange thermals and pockets of air that can drop a plane 3 feet in a split second, or sometimes you just lose lift on one wing when flying straight and level. Not really fun!

We also get 'dirt devils' or miny twisters that can carry hefty twisty winds. They will rock you in a vehicle going down the highway, and they can make flying very interesting. 2 hours after the first photo, a dirt devil came through our pit area and picked up my beloved Cessna; flipped it on to it's left wingtip, rotated 90 degrees, and slammed it on the top of it's wing on the other side of the fence. Thankfully, I was gone for 10 minutes taking my daughter to the rodeo when it happened, or I surely would've dropped dead of a heart attack. Daune Habet's Air Tractor next to it would've flipped also, if not for a close bystander. In fact, they say it would have flipped on top of my Cessna first. Probably causing more damage then actually occured.

Here's the unbeleivable part. The following pictures show the minimal damage that occured. The back window split on the SEAM on the left, and my left wing bolt mount broke loose a little. The rudder, on the very rounded tip lost some paint. That is the only damage to the fuselage. The wing took a small tear in the 3/4 oz cloth, near the middle of the wing, but it is not structural. The tips took a few dents, but nothing hardly noticeable. The struts took the brunt of the impact, I beleive, even though they are fine. However, there are compression dents on the fuse and wings, but they will be covered by the struts anyway.

I believe the orange snow fence we use to protect the pitts, acted as a pivot to help carry the plane over. But we have 1/2" rebar to support it, and I don't know why I didn't end up with a speared plane.

Damage is minimal, and it gave me an excuse to disassemble the cockpit to get at my batteries. I count myself very lucky, and I think God must love my plane as much as I do. WHEW!!!! That was a close one!!!

foodstick

 friend of mine was at a jet fly in kentucky two weeks ago and witnessed almost the exact same thing.. A plane was sitting there, then a freak dust devil or something just picked it up and slapped it down wrongside up. It was broken much more than your airplane though.

 Sorry about the damage, glad it was minor !

MetallicaJunkie

the same thing happened to me too, a tiny dust devil picked up my H9 Tango, and it landed upside down....nothing happened to it though, i bet if it was an nice model something would have with my luck

Adudein

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