What did I fly today? Let me tell you...
I went out to my regular spot to fly the Dakota in an open space this time. It was about 3:30. The sun was shining, the almond trees were in blossom, and the grass was green every where. It was a good day to go flying. I plugged in my battery and walked out the the center of the field. After testing all the controls, I gave it a toss, and started to turn left. I noticed that it needed a little down trim, so I gave it a few clicks while keeping it level. Then I saw it was kind of far off by then, so turned around and headed back towards myself. There was a tree between me and the plane,
and then things got risky. The throttle cut out for some reason, and I was about to hit the tree, when it came back. But I still hit the tree. It got stuck at the very top, and at that moment, I had flashbacks of the last time I had an airplane stuck in a tree. That time took four hours to get down. I walked down to investigate, and the airplane was at the very top of the tree. I'll measure later, but it was
way up there. I thought I could climb the tree to get it down, so I started up.(This is getting kind of long, so I'll abridge, if you're still reading this, then congrats). I climbed so high, then I was able to look at it closely. It was only being held on by a twig
. I had previously called backup from home, so I knew that once my brother got there he could use the throttle to pull the plane out (I had left the transmitter on the ground). Once he arrived, that's just what he did, but then the airplane got stuck again, less than 2 feet below where it was before! This time, it was within my range so I knocked it down with a stick. Thank goodness! Now for the hard part: getting down
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It was as Tucker Gott says,
Risky Biscuits
Needless to say, I made it down safely(with the exception of a many scrapes on my arms) and made it home just an hour later
. That went well, I thought. Then I went into my room and smelled that I had left my hot glue gun plugged in the whole time.
There were times climbing that tree when I asked myself, "am I really risking my life for $50 worth of electronics?)