What are the odds???

[Earl Vincent]

Hey guys I do not even say the actual word anymore, we call it the (M) word and I lost three pattern planes one
year and one the next at the same contest same round and get this the same set of club judges as the year
before, I think the flying sight was on an Indian burial ground, but all planes have an expiration date on them
somewhere, I have never been able to find it. The good ones always seem to go first.  sorry to hear of your loss.
Earl Vincent
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bruce Underwood 
  To: discussion at nsrca.org 
  Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 5:43 PM
  Subject: Re: What are the odds???


  Brett Bowen said:
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: FlyFutabaGuy at aol.com 
    To: discussion at nsrca.org 
    Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 3:35 PM
    Subject: What are the odds???


    Yesterday, during our annual fun day for the ARC (association of retarded citizens) fun day. I was coming in to land the trainer I was flying the kids on, and I mid-aired Gordon Anderson, who was also flying a trainer. Luckily I got mine back, Gordon's was a little lift impaired with 1/2 a wing and didn't get his out of the flat spin.. This was the first mid-air I have ever seen... Today, practicing pattern, my dad took his Olympian off, and on the procedure turn mid-aired with Dennis Cone, another local pattern pilot. Both planes destroyed.... WHAT ARE THE ODDS??? think we should take a week off to let the curse wear off??

    -Brett Bowen
    District 8 Advanced 

    Brett:  I have asked that question (the one you typed in all caps)...many times down through the years and
    have never gotten a satisfactory answer.

    I am a youngster of almost 66 and have flown RC since its' inception.....(halfway reliable single channel in
    late 50's or early 60's)...and have had 8 (eight) doggoned mid-airs....all but one of them while flying pattern
    in a contest.  One of them was while practicing at the local field.

    A few years ago...lost two pattern birds the SAME year....1 a Daddy-Rabbit when Bill Kite of Kingsport, TN
    and myself sought the same airspace at the Atlanta, GA SPA contest....then later that year at Ron Van
    Puttes' contest in Florida, Fred Voegeli and myself dueled our spinners above the runway.  Complete
    model ruination in all 8 of them.  3 years ago in Morris, AL at the season-opening contest, the Birmingham
    Club's President was performing a procedure turn at the same time I was jetting thru an 8 Pt. roll when
    our birds collided resulting in the spray of debris covering about 100 feet of the turf underneath the point
    of impact.  There is still a digital JR servo and an 1100 mil pack buried somewhere near that scene.  Just
    too many briars and chiggers in the area to linger looking for everything.

    Sometimes I awaken from a sound but unrestful slumber.....filled with nightmares that culminate with that
    unmistakeable.............T H U D........that only results from two RC models meeting that sudden demise.
    Wow, it is good to realize it is only a nightmare and not the real thing this time.

    I still believe, even with the 8, that the odds are very great.....that it WILL NOT happen again.  Naturally, the
    odds lessen with more exposure....and we pattern folks who sometimes fly for the school gatherings etc.
    at the same time others are doing likewise continue to diminish them..............but, golly, hadn't you rather
    be flying an RC airplane than MOST anything else?  ( I would have deleted the word MOST in the last sentence
    had I been addressing only geezers, such as myself, SPA age).

    I have threatened to take a week or two off, as you've said you and your' dad might do....but, fortunately,
    have always seemed to have a "back-up" on the wall here at the house....and was burning fuel again within
    a day or so (during the season)...and not allowed myself to be intimidated by the "mid-air" plague.

    Hope you and your' dad both have another and will only let these "adversities" become a topic of conversation
    under a contest suntent in the future.

    Best wishes,



    Bruce Underwood

    NSRCA  493
    AMA 5977
    SPA 15
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