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.
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.
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