It just flew away!

26 miles away!! Was it at a low throttle setting or did it have a very large fuel tank?. At average model speeds, your talking half an hour of flight. You sure had it trimmed well, lol!

Last week I got call from a farmer 26 miles away, said he found a small plane with my AMA name inside of it and called me.

The tail section was still up in a tree about 60 foot up, still in tack but very weather worn. Looked like it had made a noise dive into the tree. The engine and other parts where on the ground. Most all of the parts where still there.

Would you believe that the Como engine after cleaning, started up the first time! I couldn't believe it. All the servos and rec. where junk and froze up with rust and mold and just years of weathering.

But like a dummy I never thought of taking a camera with me to the site, and there is nothing but the engine to take a picture of now.

After so long I just can't believe I found it.

Live and learn newbie's!!!! Make sure you check your batteries before every flight! I learned it the expensive and hard way!

Rick Shaw

Please note Frank he did say Piper Cub........26 miles......believable. :-)

Mike

At several cross countries I've participated in, where fuel consumption was part of the way of determining the winner/winners, the best performance attained was in the 12 to 14 oz range for a 50 mile flight.

26 miles is easy to believe for even a 25 size glow model.

Mike R. wrote:

I believe it! I had a Telemaster 40 that had a radio failure just after takeoff. It just kept climbing in a big with its Saito 50 running at about half throttle. It disappeared in the clouds, but we could still hear the engine for about 15 minutes. If your Cub was in a fairly good breeze, it could easily cover that distance. I lost mine on a calm day and it came down in the woods about a mile from our field. A hunter found it three months later, kept it in his storage building until he removed the wing and found my phone number inside. I lost the plane in July and got it back in November. I put my phone number on the outside of the plane now along with the magic words "Reward for return". BTW, the Saito was fine, too. It flew again in a Cloud Dancer until my dumb thumbs crashed it.

Last week I got call from a farmer 26 miles away, said he found a small plane with my AMA name inside of it and called me.

The tail section was still up in a tree about 60 foot up, still in tack but very weather worn. Looked like it had made a noise dive into the tree. The engine and other parts where on the ground. Most all of the parts where still there.

Would you believe that the Como engine after cleaning, started up the first time! I couldn't believe it. All the servos and rec. where junk and froze up with rust and mold and just years of weathering.

But like a dummy I never thought of taking a camera with me to the site, and there is nothing but the engine to take a picture of now.

After so long I just can't believe I found it.

Live and learn newbie's!!!! Make sure you check your batteries before every flight! I learned it the expensive and hard way!

Rick Shaw

Now that is funny!!

-- Keith4322

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this thread:

Last week I got call from a farmer 26 miles away, said he found a small plane with my AMA name inside of it and called me.

The tail section was still up in a tree about 60 foot up, still in tack but very weather worn. Looked like it had made a noise dive into the tree. The engine and other parts where on the ground. Most all of the parts where still there.

Would you believe that the Como engine after cleaning, started up the first time! I couldn't believe it. All the servos and rec. where junk and froze up with rust and mold and just years of weathering.

But like a dummy I never thought of taking a camera with me to the site, and there is nothing but the engine to take a picture of now.

After so long I just can't believe I found it.

Live and learn newbie's!!!! Make sure you check your batteries before every flight! I learned it the expensive and hard way!

Rick Shaw

Awesome!

Thanks for sharing the story anyway.

Good point.

Marty

I wasn't doubting the story, simply marveling at it!

miles......believable.

Back around the early 80`s, we chased a plane (low wing trainer type) with the same problem, dead battery. after 10 minutes or so into the flight, the plane flew along from our field at Hummelstown Pa., bout a mile or so east of the Penn National race track in Grantville Pa. As the crow flies it`s about 10 or

12 miles. I recall everyone thinking if it only had a full tank would it have made the mountain, around 700 ft AGL (it was slowly climbing) and did not crash till it went dry.

I was in one of several chase cars and you could just make it out in the sky. We chased another one right around our field for 20 minutes once (old high wing type) engine quite and it glided down into the edge of a woods with only a small hole in the wing as total damage. If everything is just right it`s amazing what they can do. rick markel

My Model Aircraft Home Page

Read this

and marvel even more!

Peter

Here's another aircraft story. This one is about an air force F-106 jet a/c that not only flew itself, but landed itself and is currently on display.

Preety neat Fling Scale Models has free plans in there May mag. An Auster J5 Adventurer ,4ch control, .20 2stroke.

Mike