Oops, Notes to self 4

[patterndude at comcast.net]

A broken arm will heal, a crashed car will get fixed by insurance, a damaged pattern plane is real hell!
--Lance

--
District 6 AVP 
www.aeroslave.com

-------------- Original message -------------- 

Lance, I feel your pain.  Friday night I thought I'd grab a few flights on the new Impact--on No. 3, I screwed up in the middle of the sequence and went into trimming mode--ran it out of juice, landed a little hot and ran off the runway about 30'.  One of the nicer, older guys was setting up as I was flying, and as I was power taxiing it back after walking out to check it out, he started his take-off run and didn't see me until his airplane hit mine.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I guess the lesson learned is to clear the runway path asap even when you are (almost) by yourself.  I don't have any spare oz. either--I was in spitting distance--but now.....?!?  It got the area at the juncture of the fuse and leading edge of the right wing--the biggest problem is it hit the gear and broke the gear plate--I'm contemplating the lite fix--a little cf here and a little slo-cure epoxy there, tack-tack-tack the composite foam shell stuff.  Matt's gear be TOUGH.

Richard
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Lance Van Nostrand 
To: discussion at nsrca.org 
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 10:04 PM
Subject: Oops, Notes to self 4


The unfamiliar faces at the field thought my Symphony was so cool.  It was blowing hard on Sunday, about 30 mph.  Most were standing around but I was flying.  The plane gathered attention, so much so that when I began to do some work on it (change a glow plug) the guys generously decided to shield me and my plane from the wind.  They took the steel topped, steel framed 8 foot table and laid it on its side as a wind screen.
   What nice guys I thought.  After the maintenence I stood up and talked about pattern.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see it happen.  The tables had been laid with the legs away from me and the plane.  In other words, on the upwind side.  it was all in slow motion.  the table began to roll over, I screamed and made some uncoordinated lunge toward it but I was too far away. 
   I guess the shattered plane stand and smashed canopy weren't able to slow the force of the table. But the fuse and engine held better than expected.  I now have stress cracks all over the nose of the plane and a piece of table in my Mintor head fins but it is not ruined.  Fill sand and paint can restore the beauty, but I don't have that many ounces to spare in a Nats plane.  
   Note to self: even well meaning people can make mistakes around pattern planes.  Do not ignore their gestures, no matter how considerate.
--Lance
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