Strike Tree and you are Out!

Marty72

Elite member
a plane.

So I lost my main (completely treeless) flying field , as they started building houses. I went to the second housing development (farther away) and they were building too. So I thought, I'll go the back of this very large development and fly. I did for a several of batteries before management drove over and told me they couldn't let me do this. But before this happened, I was doing take off and landing practice with the Scout 2.0 on the grass/sand mix. It was great fun, superior landing strip compared to my other site. However, there was this huge tree aligned with the approach to the run way, and sure enough, I caught the top of it. The plane then fell to within about 15 ft from the ground, I manage to get the damage Scout out (minus battery) and repair it at home. So I thought I'd learned a good lesson about trees, you think the plane is on your side of the tree, but it's not.

Apparently, I learned nothing. So I went to another site today, near a church, decent area, not many trees. I was once again, doing landing and take off practice w/ the Scout and I did the same thing again (different place, different tree). I thought, I'm sure I'm on this side of that tree.......nope. This time, I picked a massive live oak, with a trunk 6 feet in diameter, 60 feet high. The plane fell down the tree and got wedged at about 35 feet from the ground. I tried to salvage the parts, by throwing rocks , pieces of concrete, sticks, whatever I could find at the plane (no regard for the plane). I must made over a 100 throws but my throws were blocked by branches so I couldn't get the strike at the angle I needed. I got four hits but no no avail. My throwing accuracy had diminished greatly (plus throwing nearly straight up isn't easy), I figured it was time to give up. Big winds due on Friday, I'll go back and check on it. Maybe throw some more rocks, I'll bring a bucket and fill it up with rocks to throw. No one is going to get it, the tree is far from the church in deep brush and stickers (it's a vacant lot). Even though it's Red, its very difficult so see up there. I struggled to locate it when I got to the base of the tree. This tree has a massive span.


So I paid what I called stupid tax today. Maybe I'll learned that trees can seemingly reach out and grab your plane. So stay the hell away from them. IMG_2294.JPG IMG_2292.JPG IMG_2291.JPG
 
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FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
Thank you for Sharing that! :p

Put a mention in the What did you crash today... It always reminds me of the tree bass I would catch fishing as a kid.

Last tree I got something stuck in was fortunately a Crepe Myrtle, and surprisingly it held my weight. you are looking at a loss of wait for a good windstorm and check it again, it might have come down.
 

Marty72

Elite member
I did a crepe Myrtle as well with my Sport Cub S. Yeah, it would have been better if I didn't have landing gear on it. Another thing to snag onto. ha. I think it's all part of it, I imagine everyone loses planes in the trees. The depth perception problem when flying is real!

If it wasn't near a 6 line road, quite a distance but close enough to see , I'd take my pellet riffle and shoot it down. But I'm pretty sure that would end really badly........these days. "I drove by the church and saw a man shooting a riffle".
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Trees, power poles and other objects can jump out & grab your plane so fast you won't even see them move. It's worse at 2am after a bunch of beers, or so I noticed while driving tow trucks and collecting wreckage.

The only advise I can offer: "stay away from the edges of the sky which are identified by areas containing plane eating objects. No one has ever collided with the center of the sky"
 

Marty72

Elite member
All true.........

Crashing isn't that bad, you get all the parts back, a most will be reusable.

If I only had a cannon, eventually I'd get the plane down.
 

Marty72

Elite member
Not a big deal. It makes for a great story to tell (of course, I have left out a lot here). Throwing rocks as hard as you can at a plane you spent hours building, repairing and maintaining is actually quite amusing. Yes, CFL has a lot of trees, wide open treeless areas are hard to find unless you head for the outskirts.

Right now, doesn't look like I'll be here much longer. I put the house on the market last week, 4 days later I had a contract to buy, had inspection yesterday, right now, barring the buyer bailing out, I'll be in NC by St Paddy's day. I'm holding off on building until I get to back to the NC house, foamies take up lots of room and I've got a lot of things to move. I think I'll be doing a lot more building as I won't have to transport planes anymore. I look forward to just maintaining one house instead of two.
 

evranch

Well-known member
Where I live in Saskatchewan the only reason your plane would collide with something is because you're intentionally flying near it. Though I did pile a plane into the side of my old combine at the end of my runway... the plane couldn't climb quite as fast as I thought. One of my few destroyed brushless motors.

I can't say a tree has ever eaten one of my planes, BUT I used to be big into kiteboarding in my younger days and the "kite eating tree" is a constant fear in that sport. If it feels bad losing a plane, imagine having to climb a tree, cut lines and disentangle a $500-1000 power kite from a tree... not fun!
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Where I live in Saskatchewan the only reason your plane would collide with something is because you're intentionally flying near it. Though I did pile a plane into the side of my old combine at the end of my runway... the plane couldn't climb quite as fast as I thought. One of my few destroyed brushless motors.

I can't say a tree has ever eaten one of my planes, BUT I used to be big into kiteboarding in my younger days and the "kite eating tree" is a constant fear in that sport. If it feels bad losing a plane, imagine having to climb a tree, cut lines and disentangle a $500-1000 power kite from a tree... not fun!
That would suck! Did it ever happen to you?
 

FL_Engineer

Elite member
Not a big deal. It makes for a great story to tell (of course, I have left out a lot here). Throwing rocks as hard as you can at a plane you spent hours building, repairing and maintaining is actually quite amusing. Yes, CFL has a lot of trees, wide open treeless areas are hard to find unless you head for the outskirts.

Right now, doesn't look like I'll be here much longer. I put the house on the market last week, 4 days later I had a contract to buy, had inspection yesterday, right now, barring the buyer bailing out, I'll be in NC by St Paddy's day. I'm holding off on building until I get to back to the NC house, foamies take up lots of room and I've got a lot of things to move. I think I'll be doing a lot more building as I won't have to transport planes anymore. I look forward to just maintaining one house instead of two.
I'm a little jealous, tired of the heat myself. If you have any extra planes you can't fit in the Uhaul you can leave them with me ;)
 

Marty72

Elite member
I'm a little jealous, tired of the heat myself. If you have any extra planes you can't fit in the Uhaul you can leave them with me ;)
Ha! Well I do have a Scout, red baron motif. Battery, prop, motor, servos, the works. You can pick it up across from the parking lot of the Seven Day Adventist Church on 436, look for a large live Oak, it's about 35 feet up. It's all yours. :LOL:
 

FL_Engineer

Elite member
Ha! Well I do have a Scout, red baron motif. Battery, prop, motor, servos, the works. You can pick it up across from the parking lot of the Seven Day Adventist Church on 436, look for a large live Oak, it's about 35 feet up. It's all yours. :LOL:
Haha, I'll have to find a cherry picker. I"m sure it will come down in the next big storm though.
 

Tench745

Master member
I have a bunch of old fiberglass tent poles that are maybe 20-30 feet long it total and break down into maybe 2' sections. I keep them in my truck for when I need to knock a plane out of a tree, but every time I've lost a plane to a tree I wasn't driving the truck. Such is life.
 

Ryan O.

Out of Foam Board!
I had a cheap 2 channel F-16 as my first plane, and due to it having no elevator I flew full throttle past a tree, snagged the landing gear, ripping it off, and kept on flying. My other incident with trees was on a windy day when I stupidly flew and crashed my Boeing XF8B-1 far out. It either hit a massive tree, dove and sunk into the Wisconsin Marsh, or splashed down into a lake. I could barely see it, but noticed it was going straight down, but for some reason I didn't back off of the throttle. Since it went in so fast it must have made a loud splash, crash, or thud on impact, but since I was so far away and wearing a hat that covered my ears along with a hood I couldn't hear it. In other words, trees are a part of the hobby, and the best solution I heard, even though this may not be possible, is to cut it down :)
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Marty72

Elite member
RECOVERED! Big winds last night w/ rain (and still going on today). Found the plane on the ground in the brush under the tree. The biggest damage was caused from my rock throwing. :eek: I remember hitting the vertical stabilier and that was sheared from the plane. The elevator broke in two at the thin section between left and right. Two deep gouges from pieces of cement block grazing the wing (one top, one bottom). One crushed wing tip from another rock/cement piece. No other way that could happen. That all adds up, I had 4 hits.
The landing gear fell free from the plane (that is likely what was keeping the plane in the tree). I found the gear a few feet from the plane.

So all in all, happy to get the remains. I'm going to patch it up and try and fly it again. Lesson learned, so don't throw rocks at your plane until you give a chance to be blown from the trees................................
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FL_Engineer

Elite member
RECOVERED! Big winds last night w/ rain (and still going on today). Found the plane on the ground in the brush under the tree. The biggest damage was caused from my rock throwing. :eek: I remember hitting the vertical stabilier and that was sheared from the plane. The elevator broke in two at the thin section between left and right. Two deep gouges from pieces of cement block grazing the wing (one top, one bottom). One crushed wing tip from another rock/cement piece. No other way that could happen. That all adds up, I had 4 hits.
The landing gear fell free from the plane (that is likely what was keeping the plane in the tree). I found the gear a few feet from the plane.

So all in all, happy to get the remains. I'm going to patch it up and try and fly it again. Lesson learned, so don't throw rocks at your plane until you give a chance to be blown from the trees................................ View attachment 158852 View attachment 158853
Guess I need to cancel trip up 436... Seriously though, looks only marginally worse than my "flying" scout.
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
RECOVERED! Big winds last night w/ rain (and still going on today). Found the plane on the ground in the brush under the tree. The biggest damage was caused from my rock throwing. :eek: I remember hitting the vertical stabilier and that was sheared from the plane. The elevator broke in two at the thin section between left and right. Two deep gouges from pieces of cement block grazing the wing (one top, one bottom). One crushed wing tip from another rock/cement piece. No other way that could happen. That all adds up, I had 4 hits.
The landing gear fell free from the plane (that is likely what was keeping the plane in the tree). I found the gear a few feet from the plane.

So all in all, happy to get the remains. I'm going to patch it up and try and fly it again. Lesson learned, so don't throw rocks at your plane until you give a chance to be blown from the trees................................ View attachment 158852 View attachment 158853
Great! The scouts are tough birds - mine was sooo beat up by the time I retired it and that wasn’t even the reason it got decommissioned - I was having servo issues so that’s why I put it away.