Fly Away!

Hopefully the owner followed AMA rules and had his name, address, and AMA number in the plane. Perhaps someone will find and return it to the owner.

1. Set a transmitter or a stick on the ground pointing as exactly as you can in the direction of the departing aircraft.
2. Get a compass. Determine the heading.
3. Get a map. Draw a line showing the model's track across the ground.
4. Go hunting out thataway.

I carry a compass in my field box for helping to search for downed aircraft.

Marty

Open fire. I find a little light game shot does the trick for most model aircraft. I always have a shotgun in the truck for such situations. In this day and age it's simply irresponsible to let an aircraft fly out of control outside the field's designated airspace - much better to bring it down yourself than risk it causing a potentially dangerous or expensive incident when it comes down of its own accord.

Russ.

There's nothing i like more than finding a love letter from "Martin X. Moleski, SJ" :

I usually wiggle the controls when i'm looking for planes, so many i have found by hearing the servos operating in the near distance :D

That is some truly amazing eyesight y'all have to be able to see a Pete n'Poke three miles away. Perchance were you using very powerful binoculars?

Pray that it'll run out of fuel or current before it hits something or somebody.

Texas Pete

CRY!!!!

...and shooting a gun into the air is safer? What about all that lead you're launching, especially when you miss? It's got to come down somewhere.

Yes, binoculars were used at the end. It was high and against very white clouds. As is I said, it was only a field estimate. I think in the future we will have a SPAD on standby as the ready fighter to "splash" the run-away plane. :) Bob

The lead he's talking about is very small - in the range of .032" to .045" diameter. When it comes down, it feels like big rain drops. I've experienced it when out dove hunting.

David

I would not do it........but Mathew, he did say shotgun....used for hunting ducks, geese, birds, squirrel, rabbit, dear and so on. A RIFLE is a big NO NO to shoot in the air.

I was hunting for squirrel when some hunters 75 yds ahead of me shot at some in a tree in my direction ( gee how do you miss seeing someone wearing

250 sq in. of blaze orange??? ) I heard the shot and felt it as it fell through the trees. No big deal. Like rain. Mike

Yes. The effective range of a shotgun is less than 50 yards, and over

100 its just lost all momentum.

Completely different from a rifle, which is lethal (but not accuarate usually() up to a mile or two.

A self destruct or an automatic parachute system...in a james bond world....I would also consider not putting enough fuel in a rc airplane to travel 40 miles (As I'm guilty of)....I think this is just a freak incident and you really can't plan for such an event...it's like planning for the engine to depart....and kids to run on the runway....things just happen and we deal with it....I like the idea of the shotgus...but I can never see myself making the decision....thinkgs happen way to fast in this sport to have guns on the flight line.....they may be used against that guy that turns his transmitter on at the wrong time....

Nosnar

At one of the Giant Scale fly-ins held at a local field, a guy took off a

100" P-38. After the climb out and gear retraction, he indicated he didn't have it. The plane flew around at about 1/2 throttle for exactly 6 minutes, doing loops and circles. The reason I know it was 6 minutes is I have it all on video. Plane finally went into a death spiral, crashing on the only concrete pad for miles around. Lost everything. Upon post-mortem, it was found that the battery pack, a brand new one, never charged.

So at the fields I fly at it would not be a flyaway until it is far over two hundred yards. So how is he going to run to his truck and get the shotgun and hit it at 300 yards? This all sounds like BS to me.

A 6 ounce tank feeding a properly tuned .25 in a medium drag airframe (SuperSportster .20) will go for at about 25 miles at WOT. So, your 40 miles of travel is NOT outside the realm of reality, like that shotgun is!

any chance you could make a small video of this & put it online...must be some great manouvers caught on video ;)))