Best and Worse day of flite so far

[Alzey]

I have not had a lot of luck so far in flight. Either my planes were too heavy, under powered, or too big for the field I was trying to fly in. I finally found me a descent field to fly in and was able to fly my tiny trainer with descent success until a few landings in the heavy dew wilted the wings and destroyed a few props. So I build a new plane similar Andrew Newtons Polydyhedral R.E.T Pusher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGo3_mt94xI). It's a 5ft wing span KFm2 polydihedal wing, 3 channel trainer with a 9x4.7 pusher prop. After finding a good center of balance, I had a few 5-10 minutes flites. After each flite I checked the battery level as I was flying 2 3S 2200s. Was at 80% battery level.

This is where it all went wrong. Was flying in a counter clockwise orbit about 75 ft off the ground. Went to make my next turn after passing close to over head and realized too late I was getting close to a tree. Went full power, banked right and pulled up. Smack!!!!!! Right into a 100+ year old oak tree ~75ft up. The plane is so buried in the branches of the tree, you can't see it unless you get at the right angle.

There is no way I can get anything up to the level of the plane to try and knock it out or pull it out. Prevailing winds will only drive the plane deeper into the tree. The plane is completely covered in Packing tape so it will be a while before it wilts from the weather and comes out. And I did not put my phone number on the plane.

So, I have basically been sitting here for the last 4 hours on the computer sulking over the loss of about $50 of electronic because of my NOOB stupidity. My streak of 100% returning for the field with unflyable aircraft is still in tact.

Oh well. At least I now know I can build a plane that will fly for a while. Guess I will order some light components so I can build some minis to crash for a while.

 

[makattack]

Sorry to hear, but in my area, there are tree climbers you can hire to bring down planes. Unfortunately, they charge between 50 to 60 dollars.

 

[Balu]

It might not hurt to ask a local fire department too. Sometimes they think of this as an exercise...

 

[Ffog]

The Ent's and Huorns are hungry for all the free peoples rc planes.
Ask treebeard nicely and he might talk them into releasing your flying machine.

 

[taswas]

Sorry to hear of your problems. A few years ago my Son and I had a first introduction to RC flight.

Just like you said, each trip back home was with a damaged model for us too! We now build FT models but from Depron as the foam board here is just too heavy. It seems that with the very light weights of these new planes any mishaps result in very little if not zero damage.

My building aim has been to save as much weight as possible and I now go to great lengths to save even 0.5g. I just need to be more aware of getting the right power train.

My son went into the loft the other day to get a receiver out of one of the old models (West Wings Beguine) and picking it up made me realise that were were building flying bricks back then. I felt like such an Idiot.

Thanks to FT for making this hobby accessible to beginners. I doubt there has ever been a better way to get into this hobby. The cast explain everything the newbie needs to know. Josh Bixler is such a great teacher and made it possible for us to fly successfully this time around.

Stick with it you will be flying again in no time.

 

[Alzey]

Had a quick storm roll thought that had some wind but not much rain. The plane has moved. It flipped over and is wedged with 1 limb under the body behind the wing and another limb above the tail section. So close. We tried to tie string to a tennis ball and smack it up there. Either out aim was off or came about 5ft short. A friend of mine is a ham radio operator and is going to bring me his antenna hanging device. It is a compressed air "potato gun" with a fishing real on it. He uses it to shoot over a limb or other object then pull the antenna back over. Hope to get my hand on that on Wednesday. Until then, I will check the field a couple times a day to see if it falls out. It is a seldom used part in a very small town, so there is hope I can find it before someone else does.

Does anyone know if the Turnigy Plush 18amp speed controllers have a low voltage cut off? Just wondering if my batteries will be shot after this or not. They were around 70% when I got it stuck and walked away.

 

[Alzey]

Drove by the park today to check on the plane. had a hard time finding it in a tree. The rubber bands finally broke and wings are gone. Body is still in the same spot on the limb. maybe one more good storm will knock the body out of the tree.

 

[Alzey]

Finnally down after 102 days in the tree.

Well, 20+ Mph winds finally knocked the rest of the plane out of the tree. Wife and Daughter went to the park after the winds rattled the house to see if it was there. They said the batteries are not puffy and mold had grown on the inside. Will check out the components to see what survived. Pictures and details to come.

 

[willsonman]

I feel your pain man. Earlier in the season I took my 69" Top Flite Texan and my 72" L-4 to the field for some fun. The L-4 had a moment of weakness on landing where one side took the brunt of the landing and gave way. She nosed over and the landing gear needed to be re-built and I severely damaged the motor mount. Nothing I couldn't fix later but that plane was done for the day. I then took up the Texan and had a beautiful flight. On landing I was perfect on approach and then it happened... one wheel came off, the main ripped from the wing and she ground to a halt.

Needless to say it was a bad day. Keep this in mind that even seasoned pilots have bad days and it is a part of the hobby. I've since repaired and flown both airplanes and even did some upgrades in the process.

 

[Capt_Beavis]

Even non-noobs have this happen. This was my biggest fear flying in the pacific northwest over the summer. I have some video showing my fear came close to reality. I have had to fish two planes out of trees this week.

QUOTE=Alzey;220939]

So, I have basically been sitting here for the last 4 hours on the computer sulking over the loss of about $50 of electronic because of my NOOB stupidity. My streak of 100% returning for the field with unflyable aircraft is still in tact.
[/QUOTE]

 

[Speedeo]

Sounds like what happened to me yesterday with my FT Explorer. I spent 2 hours trying to get it down, and eventually succeeded with some heavy washers and string. It was the most frustrating thing ever. The 2 minutes I had in the air were amazing though.

 

[Heavy313]

Been there done that I used a baseball and some rope, managed to get the ball high enough to shake the stuffing out of the tree and the plane fell to where I could reach it.