N.Cooper Lake Park ~ The Bermuda Triange of Lost RC Planes

Just like sailing in the Bermuda Triangle, even the obvious dangers of trees and brush don't quite explain all the disappearances at the little park where I fly. I've only been flying there since March, but I've already experienced some of the weird and the wtf factor.

A week ago, I was flying my little Sport Cub S. It got squirrely after take-off I guess because the battery was getting low. I couldn't get any attitude, and it ended up gliding into a tiny empty spot in the brush, 20-feet down into a briar pit. To say there's no way that plane should have been there wouldn't really do the shear improbability any justice. You could fly a plane to that spot 100,000 times and never end up at the bottom of that briar pit. But I did it first try! Yaaaa!

Just yesterday, I was at the park when a friend lost two planes. One, a Duster, he eventually discovered in a tree. But the odd thing was the plane could only be seen from one spot. Any divergence from that one spot and the plane is completely invisible. And of course there's no way to get it down.

The second plane went down further into the trees, so I volunteered to help him find it. After half an hour of tramping around in bushes too dense for rabbits or snakes, but perfect for briars and mosquitoes, we found the wing lying on the ground. With no wing, the rest of the plane would've gone instant lawn dart, and therefore should've been somewhere in the general vicinity of the wing. Nope. An hour later, no sign of the rest of the plane and all the expensive stuff ~ motor, esc, servos, etc. He's gone back twice more, searching from the spot of where he found the wing outward in ever-expanding circles, and hasn't found anything.

This morning I go out to fly my little Sport Cub S. The park was completely empty of cars, just a couple of walkers and someone riding a bicycle. Perfect weather, little to no breeze. I walk out to the middle of the parking lot and hand-launch the Cub into the wind. Started it in a long circle to the left, well inside the tree border, But the plane seemed to take on a mind of its own. It started veering to the right, and I couldn't get it to come back left with full ailerons and left rudder.

This was carrying the plane toward the edge of the field, so I shut the throttle down and watched the plane come down from a height of 6 or 8 feet, almost straight down. I couldn't quite see the exact landing spot because of the downward slope of the terrain around the lower end of the field, but I wasn't worried about any damage to the plane, and I was certain it had come down before it got to the trees.

But it wasn't at the edge of the field. I searched the weeds at the edge of the field and still nothing. An hour and a half later I've searched the brush in a 50-foot perimeter of where I saw it come down and still can't find it. I had something to do and had to give up the search until this afternoon.

I bought a machete and had it sharpened and bought some gloves before I went back down there. My mindset was if I have to literally flatten and chop down that whole area to find the plane, I would do it. To make a long story shorter, I flattened and chopped said whole area and never found the plane, which is white and blue against a background of green and brown scrub trees and underbrush. I have no idea where that plane is, but it's no where near where I saw it come down to the ground.

Yes, I know it's probably there "somewhere." I'd definitely be willing to give anybody a $20 and a 12-pack if they'd come down to this park and show me where, because I give up. I'm not sure if I'll buy another plane because I am starting to get highly paranoid of flying in that park and there isn't any other decent place to fly here. On a lighter note, I found about 25 brand new golf balls while I was looking for the plane, so I may just take up golf.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
Would be an interesting challenge, fly a straight line from one limit of the park to the other.
No tricks or anything, just fly LOS in a straight line with no obstacle and any plane that survives the malediction of the park wins.