Someone need to follow me around with a camera

[19000rpm]

As anybody who's been following BT's crashes thread knows I have had the Black Hawk in the top of a very tall and large oak and flown it out. That, I figured, used up at least 10 years of luck. Maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I just used up another 10 years this afternoon. ;D

Today I was at an alternate site (Darn kids using my soccer and fottball fields fields for soccer and football of all things) and after I burned through my heli packs it was time for a little plank fun.

I broke out the Corsair and after the usual warm up I glanced off in the distance at a few Eagles. Having had Eagles attack my Spitfire this year I was keeping an eye on them. Well, sure enough, they come closer and start stalking the Corsair. So, based on my prior episode with the Spitfire, I thought I better land and play it safe. Too late!!! Before I knew it I was on a collision course with one and only a few feet away. I'm thinking, "This is gonna get ugly!!" Whomp! Feathers flying! I'm sure it scared the Eagle as much as me. Never wearing those Depends when you really need them. ;D

After the feathers cleared the Corsair's still in the air and so is the Eagle. Remarkable.

But that's not the end of the story. I'm now flying the Super Cub and kind of ignoring the on going construction noise from across the road when the "construction noise" materialized over a tree in the immediate vicinity in the form of a Bell Ranger about as low as you could fly it. Well, as low as he could fly it, I wouldn't dare!

Those of you that have guessed that the Super Cub is on a collision course with the Ranger; go to the head of the class!!

My jaw is dropping almost as far and fast as the Super Cub is being blown down from the rotor wash. WTF! I could have thrown a rock and bounced it off the Ranger, but my hands were busy, busy at the time.

With both planes safely back in the truck I head home to tell this story. So, 20 years of luck used up, I guess I shouldn't be surprised if I experience a personal RC Armageddon for the next 20 years. ;D

Happy landings

[Dave]

Well they say things come in three's, think you just had yours for the next 20 or so years 19k. ;D

Dave

[Solitaire]

Man, 19k

I guess that's one way to hone your stick skills. Dodging Eagles and full size Jet Rangers

WTH was the heli doing flying that low?

[19000rpm]

Sol, I'm not sure what the pilot was doing except, possibly, taking some close in photography. Realtors use a lot of aerial photos around here. He seemed to be following the ridge line on the construction site so maybe pictures of that.

Either that or just sightseeing. "OK, lets see if we can scare the bejesus out of a few people." Darn near worked on me. ;D

There's one guy who likes to fly his Robbins 22 close to the water and when he comes to a bridge just kind of hop over it.

Since we're surrounded by lakes we get a lot of low flying float planes doing practice approaches and landings. One of those coming over at tree top level is awesome. I had the sunroof open on the truck and a Cessna 210 flew directly over head. When I looked up I could actually see the rivets on the floats.

We also have a bunch of warbirds that fly in formations. Last year one of the guys buzzed our group of boats at anchor, (Think it was a Dauntless) maybe 50 or so feet off the deck, with smoke on. That was really cool. ;D

Happy landings

[akent]

Amazing stories!!
It's too bad you didn't have a video camera rolling!!

Where do you live?
Kent

[19000rpm]

Hey Kent, I live a half hour west of the Twin Cities out by Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota.

And the stories continue:

While flying the Super Cub the other day I had a small flock of Canadian Geese try to recruit the Cub into their journey south. They kept flying by, circling, start to fly away, and look back to see if the Cub would follow. So, I finally joined up with them and stayed with them until the Cub was almost out of sight.

A few days later I was flying the Cub and the motor mount broke and the prop and motor came flying out of the cowling. It was really comical. The Cub's abrupt stop, just kind of hanging there with the motor and prop corkscrewing into the dirt. I was able to land the Cub pretty well considering the CG had been thrown somewhere south of the wing. Even the motor survived. Not the prop. Not a bad day after all. Ironically, it was the last flight of the Cub before I was going to temporarily borrow the motor from the Cub to use in my new P51 so, it saved me the trouble of pulling the motor.

As I mentioned before; we have a lot of light plane and heli traffic around here. It's not unusual to have one circle overhead while I'm flying the helis and planes. Even a Black Hawk flew over one day that was covering a Home Land Security exercise close by. That was really neat. ;D

Just as much fun was having a real Super Cub circle while I flew a full pack in my little Cub. It was even painted the same; Blue over white.

Happy landings

[rcdbutz]

Those are some cool stories there 19k. I'm always having little birds fly around my helis and planks, but none of them have ever made contact. I think it stresses out the birds more than anything.

I'm actually flying out pretty close to you in a few weeks too 19K. I have to fly out to Waseca MN (hour south of twin cities) for work all of the time. I always bring the sim, but never brought a heli on one of my trips. It certainly looks like a great landscape to fly in. It's gotta be rough out there in the winter though. I'd imagine it's hard to fly out there with winds blowing -20 degrees. This summer didn't seem to bad out there, but I've been there on some pretty nasty hot and humid summer days too.

[19000rpm]

Don't think I've ever been to Waseca rcbutz, but just east of there, in Owatonna, they have some great heli events. I was just there in August for the "Rotary Ring Out". You might keep that in mind for next summer. ;D

Minnesota is a pretty decent Midwest state for weather. The humidity is up and down, so we don't usually get more than a few days where it's too humid or too dry in a stretch.

The MN winters range from mild to brutal. Last year was brutal, lot's of -30's, but I still found a day or two most weeks when I could fly either my helis or planes. I usually go for low wind days with temps as low as -10. 20 degrees north of that is referred to as "shorts" weather by the natives. Biggest problem is keeping your hands warm.

My planes I fly with skis off the lakes. The helis I just find a shoveled parking lot and let it rip.

The most fun I have with the birds is with the Purple Martins that swarm in the summer around the helis and, in particular, my little 3D plane. The birds are feeding on flying insects so the heli must be creating a ring of the insects that the the Martins are feeding on. They are really comical swooping and diving. Never even get close to hitting one. They are just too fast. The 3D plane; I'm not too sure what the attraction is, but they'll be sitting on a phone line and as soon as I launch they're in the air after it. Maybe they like it because it flies kind of like they do. ;D

Happy landings