Plane stuck in tree:(
 

My beloved little Electraflight was flying around yesterday when a large gust of wind caught it, lost all control and it was blown into a tree. A very large gum tree, dam thing was like 20 metres high wedged in the branches. Spent an hour trying to get it down with soccer balls, sticks objects. Sadly had to walk away... came back to the park twice including this morning and it was still stuck there. So frustrating...

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Hey, same thing happened to me, as I am sure to many others, especially to an Electric RC pilots since we fly in small places.

Listen, do not give up, find a huge ladder like the "little giant" or try to climb the tree as high as you could and then shake the brunch between you and the airplane.

It will get down, after all, we never leave a wonded friend behind, right? :-)


Good luck


Dvir

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Don't lose hope. I had my Slo-V stuck in a tree a few weeks ago. It was also because of the wind blowing it against my controls, as the battery died unexpectedly. The darn thing was stuck for about 4 days, including 2 days in light rain! It was also stuck about 4 feet up between branches. The tree was unsafe to climb beyond 10 feet to reach the far out branchs.

I spent about an hour or two each day before I got it down. I used some cheap 20lb fishing line, and an assortments of weighty twigs tied to one end, and basically found out I didn't really have a throwing hand. After 3 days of practice me and my younger brother managed to start hitting the plane, and close branches. Fortunately the weather had knocked it down a branch about 5 feet lower. Finally, my brother tossed the twig *over* the plane's branch, but the line somehow caught a hold of the wing. He tugged the crap out of it until it finally tore a little bit of the wing, and snapped the landing gear out of it's slot which was the only reason for the plane still being up there. The plane came down into some tall plants. I was so glad. Everything except the completely dead battery still worked!

Just hang in there and know that most planes that get stuck I've read in the forums of, come down eventually, whether by force, or due to winds. Try the fishing line tied to a twig method. It will seem to get stuck in all the wrong branches at first, but you will get it.

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Try taking a fishing pole and tiring weights to the end, cast over the plane or branch plane is on and when you get it hooked just pull gently increasing amount of movment till you shake it out. I landed a P-51 about 80 to 100 ft up and that is how I got it down, now granted it took a while but it was worth it
Good Luck

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Coopz,

Been there...What worked for me was getting a few pieces of stiff pvc piping that you can connect together with tee connectors. Your local home improvement strore should carry some that you can put together to get up that high.

Bill

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Good idea billz, I'll have to remember that one

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

ah... we all have our crashes...

i was zooming about with my cessna 120 and it get caught by the wind and started twisting and spinning, it landed in a farmers field on a cabbage patch, i couldnt climb the gate or fence as there was a board of small nails all along the top.

i was determined to get the plane back, so i found a big rock and tied a note to it

"Plane crashed 3:32PM 6/5/06

whoever may find, please contact
(my mobile number)

- Steve (pilot)"

and i tied the note to the stone and chucked it as close to the plane as i could, it landed right beside the tail
i stuck around for a while and went home, every couple of hours i went back and it was always there

then when i got back from school one day, i had a missed call on my phone, so i redailed the number and it had been found by a farmer whilst he was tending to his veggie patches, i was ecstatic, i grabbed my bike and rode to the park as fast as i could, the farmer was standing near the gate with the plane in his hand. a very happy day for me ^_^ although it had sustained minor damage (Landing gear AND its slot had been ripped out of the fuselage, small dent in the wing and thats about it) i was able to fix it and i have never flown it again, its just too hard to control

get as high into the tree and as close to the plane as you can, get some string and tie a weight to the end, try and chuck it over the middle of the plane and keep pulling the string and shaking the plane about until it comes loose, failing that get one of those litter picks with teh grabby claw on the end and try to move the branches that are holding your plane

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Here's what I did when I stuck my racing flying wing up in a tree.

Call a tree cutting service. Explain your situation. Many of them can send out a tree climber to retrieve your plane in minutes. It cost me 30 bucks to get that crazy nut to climb the tree, but it was worth it to get $400 bucks out of that tree.

Even if you dont think the tree is climbable...still call them.

I tried 4 times to climb up to get it, and they sent this guy that was totally nuts. He climbed up that thing, and out onto this limb that looked like it was barely large enough to hold a mosquito, grabbed it and climbed back down like it was nothing.

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Around here, the tree cutting guys have put up signs at our field offering this service.

They'll even retrieve it with a bucket truck if requested.

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Been there as well.I had my supercub stuck about 40 feet up. I borrowed a 30 ft ladder and bought some metal electric conduit. Connected the 2 ten ft. conduit together with a metal fitting. I then taped a pvc hangar to the conduit. Lastlty climbed latter with the conduit and ended up knocking her out. minimal daamage was done.

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

You guys have some very good ideas here. This will come in handy when I get my plane or planes stuck in the oak trees in my back yard. Guess I could just get the chain saw out if worse comes to worse. (just kidding)

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

We got a toughy down with a 12 gauge shotgun.

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

We got a 60' victim (super decathlon) out of a nasty maple
with an arborist's help.
We couldn't even see the model,
so he said if he couldn't get it
he'd go for a case of beer!
He used a giant slingshot to
fire one end of a rope up there (took 7 tries),
hoisted a pulley up that first rope laden with another rope,
secured the first rope's end at the bottom,
ascended the second rope, GOT THE MODEL!!!
all for $75.
I think anybody could build one of these slingshots
out of heavy rubber tubing, a 6' pole, and
some metal rod in a u shape- then do it yourself.
-Carrie

;)

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

I had a Jr. BoxFly stuck in a tree at the end of the runway at a field we used to use. We got it down when a fellow member went home and got his bow-and-arrow. We got the plane down but not before it suffered a couple of perforations. From then on, it was known as "Custer".

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

yup the old fishing arrow trick...my idea was to construct a pellet gun dart (about 2 inches long) with 3 straightened fishing hooks as prongs with fishing line tied on. This invention took a while to set up and finally get the (boomerang) down im sure it would work with a soft bodied plane too. Adios

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Well, I have a story as well, sorry to say.

The first time I "landed" my plane in a tree, it was low enough to be within arm's reach, so I just grabbed it out.

Today, however, I managed to "land" my little WASP in the highest tree in the park, about 100-120 feet up, that is, and right at the crest of the tree (not off on a side branch or anything). Dang, I thought.

So I went home and, figuring it would be a long-shot, called up the local fire department. I expected them to laugh and say something like "sorry, we can't help due to insurance reasons" or "that's not part of our service . . ." but to my surprise I was told by the Fire Captain himself that he and his crew would roll the ladder truck over to see what they could do.

They arrived almost immediately, 4 nice fellas on the day after Thanksgiving. I apologized for bothering them, but they said no problem, and actually took a genuine interest in my predicament - all of us were under and around that huge tree trying to get a glimpse of my little WASP. Unfortunately, the sod-covered ground was not sturdy enough a platform to support the ladder-truck, so there was nothing else that could be done at that point. However, the fire captain offered to call the city's parks department and see what they might be able to do for me. Being a holiday weekend, though, I'll probably have to wait til Monday - but boy, if that isn't what you would call a full-service fire department, I don't know what is!

If Parks can't do anything for me, I guess I'll have to resort to calling a tree service . . .

My poor little WASP will be out in the cold (and wet) for the next few days . . . I hope my Li-PO doesn't go bad.

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

me and a couple of my friends were flying behind my apartment, about the size of a football field, when one of them got his SuperCub stuck about 50 Ft. up. It was way out on a limb so we couldn't climb to it....so we went to the local fire dept. We didn't expect it but they brought the BIGGEST ladder truck the city had, i mean this thing was HUGE. They got it out...no charge. and they said they were bored anyways...

RE: Plane stuck in tree:(
 

Lol, well, in my case, the FD weren't didn't attempt to get it down, but our Parks Dept did. The plane fell from about 100 feet, slowed in its decent by the branches on the way down. Landed quite gently. Needless to say, the plane did suffer some dings and dents to the foam wings, the Li-Po will no longer take a charge and half the stabilizer snapped at the root - not bad, all in all.:)