slick95

Yesterday all of my neighbors and I were doing our routine model weekend model session. I had brought my favorite model. It is a heavily modified Great Planes Pete N' Poke which we call the Pete N' Pole. I LOVE THIS MODEL SO MUCH!! I am 15 and I have had it since I was 12. IT WAS MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE MODEL. Anyway the first 45 minutes of the model flying were uneventful. We did our normal carrier traps on the mowed out carrier deck and did some air racing and aerobatics and whatever else you do with a model. I stopped to refuel then started her up and took off. I was flying around for about 10 minutes when I decided to do a deck landing. So I landed and had to wait on the deck because one of my neighbors who didn't bring his model went out to unhook mine from the arresting cable. While I was waiting I watched my dad race his Great planes Slow Poke with my neighbor's Slow Poke. I thought well they must be starting a race so I will go join them. We had done races before and nothing had ever happened. So when I was free of the cable I took off and joined up with them. They started flying a very large slow right hand turn to either start the race or do some formation flying. We are all very experienced model pilots so it is never a big deal when someone joins up in your formation. We had just started the turn when BANG!!! I had flown my Pete N' Pole into the my neighbor's Slow Poke. Nobody that was out watching thought we were going to hit. You couldn't even tell we were close until the last second when my plane flew in front of his. Anyway I watched as my plane took out one of the wings and fuselage of his plane forward of the leading edge of the wing. This also broke the Pete N' Pole in half behind the aft cockpit leaving the fuselage to dangle to one side. His plane fell very quickly to the ground and bounced a little when it hit. Mine spun very slowly with the back half of the fuselage hanging to one side It took about 5 seconds to hit the ground because we were hi when it happened. After we all stood there with our mouths open because we couldn't believe what just happened, we walked over to the crash. his plane was completely destroyed forward of the trailing edge of the wind. My plane was about 60 yards away and was in a big heaping pile. After looking at the damage we concluded that our planes hit engines. The valves of my engine were smashed in and the whole firewall came off the plane when they hit. This is what caused it to fall so slowly. My neighbor's engine was buried into the ground and smashed as well. You could tell that my propeller cut his because there was a very rigid cut where it took off the outer part of one of his blades and dented his cylinder head. It was very sad. Although it looked terrible the only real damage to my plane is the fuselage. The wing is fine and so is the tail section and aft part of the fuselage. So I plan on rebuilding it. I HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY!! Here are some pictures of my plane. The blue and cream color scheme is from September 19, 2002 until September 4, 2005. The red and cream color scheme is from September 21, 2005 until December 10, 2005. This is my absolute favorite plane and I can't wait to rebuild and fly it again.

pocatosaras

Slick:

Sorry to hear about your crash but I like your attitude that it'll fly again! I wish you well in your rebuild pursuits.

On an unrelated note, it's nice to see that at 15 you have developed strong written skills. Your post is well constructed and thoughtful and I applaud you.

Keep up the good work!

blueline

My Feedback: (6)

Sorry about your planes, however, it seems you have the patience and determination to rebuild. Also, and more importantly in my opinion I agree with the previous post about your grammar. At 15 you should be proud of the quality of your grammar. I can't believe the awful writing skills or lack thereof that I read on some posts, people have the ability to use spell check, I think? Sorry for my rant but its a sore point of my wife and I and its sure refreshing to have read your post.
With respect to your crash it seems like the depth perception may have gotten skewed, poor lighting or any of many other possible outside influences and not a lack of skill on your part so don't sweat the small stuff. Good luck in the future and I hope you have many good flights ahead.

slick95

You are right, it was bad judgment on my part. Although they knew I was joining up with them I shouldn't have because it was later on in the afternoon and getting dark and harder to see. I also knew not to fly in front of another plane during formation flights with models. I'm still not sure why I did. I used to fly a very small formation routine with my dad and his Slow Poke. I knew that whenever we did turns to either fly above or below his aircraft and we wouldn't hit. But it doesn't matter anymore I flew in front anyway, and it was a very poor decision. I am in the middle of recovering that same neighbors Bucker Jungmann so when I am finished with that I will begin rebuilding. In the mean time I have plenty of other models to have fun with.

Also THANK YOU for the comments about my grammar. I never knew I was any good at writing. Thanks again.

SLICK

multicasting

Slick,

Cool attitude.. I love the shot of the plan across the moon. Here is mine.