The dumbest thing I've ever done with a high start was about 1980 near West Carrollton, Ohio. I was a DARTS member and used to fly at WCHS where I went to school. But, for some reason, football practice or something, we (me and Everett Wick) couldn't fly at the school that day so we found a smallish field just outside of town.
It was a windy day, and gusty too. The field was just long enough for a moderate pull on the high start. I was flying my own design standard class. No problem, right?... with that high wind a moderate pull is enough... but, and here's the dumb part, we were launching with power lines about 20 feet behind us along the road. Hey, we *really* wanted to fly and that was the best field we could find that day. What could possibly happen? - the power lines were behind us - I wasn't going to fly back there! Only a dummy would do that! I launched in smooth wind and immediately a strong gust pushed the sailplane back behind me over the road. Then the gust subsided and up it went, right through the power lines, cleanly sawing one wing off about 12" from the fuselage. The wing fluttered down nicely, but the rest of the model corkscrewed itself quickly into the hard ground and was dragged another 100 feet or so. I rebuilt it and flew it for several more years - but never again at that field! I had my first hour flight with that sailplane. It was lost in a stolen truck in 1985 but I still have the plans, crudely drawn when I was 16 - using Thornburg's Model Builder articles as a guide - I even "designed" the airfoil. I'd love to build another one but there are a few, um "features" that I just can't justify now that I've been edumacated in the ways of flying machines.... Maybe a MkII... Andy Page Seattle -- apage ------------------------------------------------------------------------ apage's Profile: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=30330 View this thread: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=360059 RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
