Bill Lowen

First flight of the night last and I was shooting touch and go's.. while circling around for an approach with the the left wing down, for whatever reason the plane rolled over and went into the corn.. It sure felt like I lost signal because the plane did not respond and I was slow and low. I doubt the engine died but hard to tell because the throttle was chopped to idle not to mention the Saito has been rock steady. Searched for 3 hours but could not find the plane. I took the transmitter with me but did not hear any servo noise which makes wonder if the receiver died. Anyway, going back out tonight to search. Damned if I am going to leave that Saito out there to rot.

FlyerInOKC

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What kind of radio were you using Bill?

Bill Lowen

Spektrum DX9 Spektrum 4 channel RX. 2200 Mah NIMH 6 volt battery and it was fresh. the RX was brand new, in fact I had to replace it because the one that was in it went bad a few weeks ago on the starting table. I don't know.. maybe I just dumb thumbed it.. I was slow and low. maybe I rolled it over and it just stalled.. I will know when I find it.. hopefully tonight.

Bill Lowen

The good thing is I did not hear that sickening sound associated with balsa hitting the ground at a high rate of speed( we all have heard that yes?) so I am hoping i find it intact and all I have to do is charge the battery and put some fuel in it. right? That is not to much to hope for right?

spaceworm

I lost a plane "in the corn" several years ago. I and several other club members spent many hours looking for it. I began to hear the "children of the corn" coming after me. I almost gave up and then after 5 weeks the local expert came to the club with his golden retriever. Luckily the plane was yellow (golden?) so the retriever apparently picked up the scent and found it almost immediately. It was intact and suffered only a dead RX battery. I took it home, and charged it up, drained all the old fuel out, refueled it and flew it a couple more times. Then I noticed some green growing under the yellow monokote. Mildew had attacked (it had rained a couple of times while it was in the corn). I flew it some more and finally crashed due to dumb thumbs. That time it was not the sound of silence, but crash bang and rip. Did not rebuild it that time. So, don't give up, but listen and watch out for sounds of The Children (or dueling banjos). This IS all true.

Sincerely, Richard

Bill Lowen

LOL.. Great story!!! and it gave me hope! I know what you are saying though.. The corn was thick in there. I am 6'3 so standing on my tiptoes I could keep my bearings anyway.

I think what I need is one of those drones with FPV. But I dont want to spend the money.. What i was thinking though was I have one of the carbon cub's that Horizon sells and an old I phone 3.. Thinking maybe I could use some packing tape to stick it to the underside of the Cub. Maybe make some low passes over the corn with the camera rolling. Who knows, might actually work and it might be some fun.. Just need to push the battery back to offset the added nose weight

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

OK which generation of Spetrum is it DSM or DSMX (sometimes referred to as DSM2)? The first generation had a problem with getting shot down, I had several friends who lost some expensive aircraft on those early Spectrum radios. The large scale guys around here left Spectrum for good. There is a radio design engineer living here in town who is also a DoD expert on broad spectrum radios and he did an acid test on the major brands for one of the LHS. He was able to determine it was the radio being shot down. He tested the new stuff too he says Futaba's FAAST system has still the best system if you want it bullet proof but he said the DSMX was dramatically improved over the earlier DSM technology. He also likes the stuff JR developed for their high end radios over DSMX. I don't think he has tested Graupner's system yet. Anyway Spektrum stonewalled on the problem but did change their system to hop between frequencies in a much larger band and DSMX was born. I have heard the problem was what led to JR to drop Spektrum except for their inexpensive line and go with their own system on their better radios.

spaceworm

I am 6'2" and the corn was a good 18 inches above my head. Also it was late in the season so the corn was green and yellow, the same color as my plane. I was careful not to go there again. The farmer alternated corn and soybeans, so the next year was beans, and I thought no problem finding my plane in this stuff. NOT!! It was harder as the plane submarined under the beans and disappeared! The rows between the bean plants was not clear to walk in as was the corn, and I swear the plants were trying to wrap themselves around my legs and trip me. I learned to fly over and land on the field runway after those two summers. Good luck finding your plane. (Oh, have you heard about corn snakes? At least you can see them around the corn stalks, the beans hide them as well as the plane you are looking for. But, they are not poisonous (the copperheads are though).

Sincerely, Richard

Jim Branaum

My Feedback: (3)

ROFLOL!

Several years ago we did a night fly at one of our old fields. Since I have developed a great night fly lighting system, I was always in the air. I used to do loops, rolls, spins, touch and goes, but my favorite was the stall turn. The light made it look great. So this particular night, I was doing my wild thing when the theme park 10 miles away started their fireworks show. We ALL lost the plane to the back ground clashing and moving lights. After a couple of minutes trying to get oriented, I determined that all was probably lost so I killed the engine and hoped I had managed to get it into level flight.

On arrival at the flying site the next morning, there was my plane sitting on the work table with no damage. It had been found next to a lake that was in our overfly area where it had apparently landed.

FNQFLYER

interesting stories about the corn fields, I could give you ones about the cane fields in FNQ. The only difference is we don't have "Children of the Cornfields" instead we have feral pigs, crocodiles, and Tiger and Brown snakes. People who loose models wait until cutting season and follow the cutters around as the fell the cane hopefully getting to their models before the machines. BTB the cane grows to about 10 feet before it tops out. Weather not good, windy and looks like rain coming. But I am getting to watch the FA18's, Tankers, and AWACS 737's flying around the town so all is not lost.

the pope

We have a few feral pigs down this way as well , they usually come out after dark on Friday and Saturday night and watch out if they get into the corn juice ! Sooner wrestle with a croc or the snakes then one of them .Cheers

Bill Lowen

Great stories all! But you guys in Australia can keep your snakes. I think I read somewhere that 9 of the 10 worlds most dangerous snakes reside in Australia.

OKC I fly DSMX but as it turns out I do not think it was an electronics issue. I did find the plane and it did not have a happy ending. The engine survived but I lost my velocity stack which i am bummed about. The battery still showed full voltage and all of the servos were good. The prop was intact which suggests that the engine quit running. From the damage, it went in nose first and I would think the prop would be busted had the engine been running. From the looks of the fuel tank I was out of fuel. I had been getting 12 minute flights and I could have swore I still had 3 minutes left on the timer. So there it is.. I ran out of fuel in the worst possible place.. slow and low over a cornfield.

Rudolph Hart

Sr this red writing hurts your eyeballs,surely if the reader is paying attention to what you are saying this is an additional torture?

Acdc stick with castor,it kills leprosy carrying bugs on armadillos.

Rudolph Hart

I know what you mean popey,don't forget you live down south surrounded by rednecks,them's the most dangerous

ps richard this is related to saitos in that i own them and enjoy running them too,it's a joy and the reason i follow this thread.Equally enjoyable is reading everyone's posts above and i'd like to say you guys should stop taking the stuff we used to take at woodstock type concerts back in the seventies or sixties and if you can't stop,at least cut the dosage back.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Keeps you regular too!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Well at least you didn't lose it and the radio and batteries are good so all in all it could be worse!

Bill Lowen

Very true. The thing is that there are some airplanes that you just want to load into the car when you want to go fly. You hate working on it because it takes time away from the other "more fun" projects. This airplane was a heap, 10 year old airplane, covering all frayed and coming off, it had gained weight over the last few years because of epoxy and balsa sticks that were needed for repairs, plus the added weight of oil soaked balsa... but man it flew good and it was reliable.. Some airplanes you just don't want to have to replace.. This was one of them.

RIP SKYRAIDER..

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Bummer! I can totally understand I have an 11 year old LT40 like that.

Bill Lowen

LT-40.. that is a great flier. A kid out at the club has been flying one of those around the last couple of weeks. He was buzzing me with it while I was out walking in the corn the other night. LOL. I picked up a Great Planes 81 inch Cub last week at a swap meet. It came with an OS 70 and a 6 channel Spektrum RX for $160. Hopefully I can maiden that this weekend. I got to get busy now. get some of these projects done! It was perfect flying conditions last night and sucked not having anything to fly other than some small electrics.

FNQFLYER

On old models. It usually takes about 2-3 years to get an O/T model competitive so unless they are dogs or crash they are usually around for a long time. My flying mate is restoring / re engining an old Lanzo Bomber. What makes this one very interesting is it was constructed for an American visitor Bob M in 1993 I think. This guys business card read "photographic interpreter" address 1 langley Plaza washington (I think). On the flip side it had a Saigon address. The model flew competitively for many years with a variety of saitos and OS engines fitted and will now have a Webra Silverline 40 fitted. Numerous decals etc cover the wing and fuselage (covering all sorts of damage) commemorating various events through the years. Very interesting model. Oh yes still has the original JR servos fitted.

acdii

$9 saves a boatload of time when you plop into the crop. Have a bunch of them, but only 3 of them are actually working, for some reason two of them beep once, and thats it. As long as the battery stays connected, you will find the plane quickly.

the pope

Hi there OF dont u mean the red belly black snakes !!! Maybe the redneck slimy snake are from your neck of the woods . As for concerts , I remember seeing Icehouse quite a few times ( great aussie band ) once was at the thebarton theater that was so freaken hot you wouldnt believe and another time at the the Adelaide uni again in peak summer and as you can imagine the smoke floating around was like rush hour in Mexico city .Great times! Cheers the pope

Rudolph Hart

Agreed icehouse is awesome,the screaming jets are louder.You won't believe this but i've lost the carby off my saito 82 after i did some bearings,how dumb is that.

spaceworm

My "Doctor" says I need to stay on my current dose for a couple more months. After re-evaluation, he may reduce my dose. But, he thinks maybe I have castor oil syndrome affecting my behavior. In that case all is lost.

acdii

Why would my 100 stall at 1/4 tank? It runs great, but dead stick at 1/4 tank.