PMFJI
 

PMFJI, when lightening strikes at the same place twice in two days, you will start to wonder what is going on. I know Dino, Lewis, and the CJM airplanes involved in the wrecks. The Talon was flown many times by Lewis before superman. He flew it many times at Winnamac, and Michigan Jet events without any problems. I've seen the F-15 (the second airplane that crashed) fly many times without any incidence.

FWIW, I believe that a person that would overnight a radio from FL to IL because he had a radio problem the previous day IMOHO is a thorough person, and I would hate to be the person that will question his integrity.

Few years ago at Reno Air Race, a guy was caught with bunch of crystals and TX. Before he was caught, he succeeded in shooting down more than 8 airplanes that are high $ items. The local police arrested this individual, he was later prosecuted and received some jail time and was also ordered to pay restitution. I hope to find the URL to the site with the news article and post it here for all to read.

In conclusion, only the man above can tell what happened to Dino's airplane. If it was purposely shut down, sooner or later but much sooner than later, nemesis will catch up with the individual that did it.

My sympathy goes out to Dino and the CJM gang for loosing their airplanes.


I'm going to close this thread as it servers no purpose anymore!!!!

......ghost rider.......out......

(The downfall of a man is not the end of his life)

Re: PMFJI
 

A few minor corrections Ben...

The race was at Madera, not Reno. A number of aircraft experienced unexplained interference. This included one of my team's aircraft (I was crew chief for Rick Schrameck's R/C race team at the time) - a 1/4 scale Lancair flown by Len Norred, which behaved perfectly until it was about 40 ft in the air, at which point it took on a life of its own (PPM) and was completely written off. Len suspected interference and immediately switched his TX off and had Dave Bridi (race organizer) switch on his scanner (not an ICOM BTW !). A strong signal was evident on Len's channel, and Dave confirmed that this happened with Len's TX switched off.

Dave tracked the source down, and found an individual (name withheld) sitting in his car in the car park. He allegedly had a copy of the race frequency matrix in his posession, along with a bag full of Xtals and the innards of an R/C TX which was hooked up to his car's radio antenna.

Dave called the local police, then informed my crew (as well as the crew of a T-6 that was suspected of being shot down). We arrived after the police did, and it seemed that they were not interested in getting involved in a dispute between grown men about toy airplanes. Rick S. forced the issue by saying that since the police would not initiate action on their own, he was performing a citizen's arrest on the individual. The police were then required to take posession of the TX, xtals, etc.

A case against the individual began, with him claiming that the TX was a for use as a homing device to allow him to find his car when he went out hiking. Sadly, the case was eventually dismissed because the police somehow managed to "lose" the evidence that they had been so reluctant to gather in the first place. A pity - according to what I heard, the individual already had multiple strikes against him, and this could potentially have been a deciding one.

There was consequently no jail time. Instead, not only did this individual walk free - he also initiated law-suits against Rick and Len.

Regards,
Gordon

I stand corrected
 

Thanks Gordon. I stand corrected. (I think my old timer disease is kicking in).

FWIW, I'm glad you confirmed that it really took place.