OK, since the original "This sounds interesting" popped-up on RCSE, I
thought I'd "share" my first "Huh...Where'd that tree come from" experience
with everyone. I'm sure parts of it will give somebody a chuckle...
~Sheldon-YNT~
PS: Sailplanes can be so cruel sometimes...<G>
________________________________
This is kinda' long and I may have missed some of the "details but here are
the salient points:
1. Rewire my Graupner winch for the new Clipper footswitch I got from
Injoy
2. Winch doesn't work (strike 1), better go to Erie & have Reece look
at it to make sure it was wired right (it was)...Besides, we can fly (what
an excuse!)
3. Plan on leaving at 6:30am, left almost an hour later (strike 2)
4. Get to Reece & Mindy's, Reece applies power to winch in launch
position, magic smoke starts escaping (never a good sign)
5. Follow Reece to airport, & start setting up his winch
6. Drive Mindy's van and mine down the far side of the runway, reeling
out line...
1. Sheldon: That should be enough
2. Reece: Nawww...I want it all out
3. Sheldon: It's pretty soft out here...That should be enough
for us
4. Reece: All of it, besides, it's drier up ahead
5. Sheldon: OK...You da' boss
7. Less than 10 seconds later...Reece has Mindy's van stuck...Damn!
(strike 3)
8. Reece, gets out, checks & decides I should give him a little "nudge"
to get him going
9. BIG mistake! Now my van is stuck as well...Damn, damn, damn! (strike
4...NOTE: we should have "known" by this time...(sigh)...)
10. Airport manager lives on-field...Uhhh Mark, We've got BOTH vans
stuck, can you pull us out with your 4wd? Sure no problem & don' t go down
there again, it's too soft (Like we don't know this now???)
11. Mark pulls both vans out of the muck, & we finish setting the winch.
At this point it would be prudent to mention that we are now positioned appx
where Sheldon had said earlier "that's should be enough" (as noted above)
12. A bit of confusion setting up the retriever...A phone call solves
that puzzle
13. Wind is blowing about 10-13, with gusts upwards of 17. We launch...A
short but adequate flight, add a couple of click of down to keep the speed
upwind, with a landing that is not too bad, although somewhat distant. Put
in several short flights with the Soprano, a couple of pop-offs included,
something is still not right with the retriever.
14. Damn, that last landing I slowed it down too much, hooked the wing
tip landing it! (strike 5)
15. OK, we think we have the retriever problem resolved, lets launch
again
16. Launch again...Pop-off...A LOT lower than before, and Reece says
just fly straight-out
17. "I" think he means fly straight-out until I get some speed up (he
actually meant land it straight-out)
18. I've got airspeed, so I swing downwind, intending to just make an
approach & land, start to make my upwind turn for final...No rudder!
19. Then all of a sudden I have rudder, but it's too late...By about 10
feet, and the Soprano is in a tree...Damn, damn, damn! (strike 6)
20. We make the hike across the field & look up...WOW! It's REALLY in
there good...flew right into the crotch of a limb that extends straight-out
into the flight path, with branches capturing it top, bottom, etc. Then we
look down, the trees are in the middle of a bog, nasty! Now there's "dry"
land on either side of the trees, but the tree itself is in the middle of
the bog! (strike 7)
21. Weight a line, trying to get it over the fuselage (maybe we can
"pull it backwards" to free it???). After MANY attempts, we do get a line
over it, but no dice, this is not going well. This is not happening!
22. Reece calls his buddy Jay (who lives on-site) and says "Hey! Get you
ass out of bed & come help us get an airplane out of a tree at the east end
of the runway!)
23. Jay shows up about 20 minutes later, looks, says "no problem", &
proceeds to walk a fallen tree to the other "dry" side.
24. Reece spies a deer stand against a tree about 50' away...Hey Jay,
wait a minute...We got a deer stand ladder down there! So we go retrieve it
and get it across to Jay. Reece says go get your radio, Jay says if he gets
to it he'll just toss it and we can fly it down...& get me a bottle of water
out of the van too.
25. Go to the van & by the time I get back, Jay is already up in the
tree & almost to the plane (How the hell did he do that???)
26. Jay is at the plane, gets it loose, & says: How hard do I have to
throw this? Reece says it takes nothin'! Jay: OK, but I'll have to throw it
with the wing on the diagonal, I can't throw it flat. Reece: Just toss it!
27. Now you have to picture Jay, perched precariously out on a (not very
substantial limb), with a 10' glider, in a 12mph wind, trying to throw it
out of the tree, with one wingtip at a 45 degree angle up, at about a 45
degree angle to the wind. Surely this thing is gonna blow right over!!!
28. Jay heaves it, Reece flies it down right towards the winch (across
the field), and slides it into a landing.
29. Sheldon: WOW! Jay I owe ya' Dude...How 'bout lunch on me? Jay: No
problem ~ I'm always up for a free meal...Subway!
30. Get the plane over to the vans...Upon examination, LE is crushed a
little in 1 spot where the crotch of the limb stopped it, the carbon TE has
clean breaks in 2 spots, & a few of the carbon spar caps have popped on
either side of the breaks. CA will take care of all of the damages. Quick
check of the rudder & there's about 3/8" play either way...Hmmm...something
is not good there. We surmise that either the pushrod is damaged or its
teflon sheath has broken loose inside the fin. Screw it...I'll wait 'til I
get home & check it out.
31. Over at the hangars...Meanwhile, the skydivers have shown up & Reece
is supposed to take them up to 6K for a drop. While they're getting ready we
go to Subway & Sheldon buys lunch. Back to the airport, swallow lunch.
32. Sheldon needs a little time, 'cause he wants to go up with Reece to
make the drop...
33. Sheldon makes the "call of shame" to Helene & says...Honey...I flew
the Soprano into a tree, we have to get it down, I'm gonna be a little late.
OK, we already had the plane down - let's not dwell on it...Besides, Reece
is taking some skydivers up for a jump & I wanna go up with him. Is he a
good pilot??? Hell, I don't know, I've never flown with him. Helene is not
happy...I can tell by the sound of her voice. OK, I'll just stay long enough
to watch them jump, then I'll head home. Do whatever you want...(YOU all
know how it sounds AND what it "really" means!!!) (strike whatever...By now
I've lost count!)
34. The jumpers are ready, one of them pulls out an extra rig, positions
the legstraps on the ground & says:
1. Jumper: OK Sheldon, just come over here & step right into
these
2. Sheldon: What are you??? NUTS??? What the hell am I going to
do with that???
3. Jumper: Well, you're going up with us aren't you?...It's
"just in case"...
4. Sheldon: Hell, I don't know the first thing about what to do
"just in case". Not me Dude...If anything happens, I'm sticking with HIM
(Sheldon pointing to Reece).
5. Reece: (As he straps on his 'chute) Then you need a
'chute...'Cause if anything happens, I'm out the door & you better be right
behind me
6. Sheldon: Nope! The way my luck has run today...NO WAY...I'm
staying right here on the ground. I'll watch you guys jump & then I'm headed
home...
And THAT gentlemen, is the our lead entertainment story for the
weekend...Well...Almost anyway...
I got home about 2 hours later than I'd planned...Helene is not too upset, &
we decide to go out to the noodle place we like for dinner. Over dinner I
tell her the whole sad story of the day, etc. & show her the pic I got on my
camera phone of Jay, just as he landed from his jump (oh yeah, besides
retrieving sailplanes from trees, Jay has built & flown a couple of
ultralights, flown P3s, skydives, & who knows what else! <G>). Uhhh...Honey,
how about an "early" birthday present...for $150 & 5 hours training, I can
make a jump??? NO! But honey... NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! NO WAY! But... NO! I'm
gonna do it...You know that I've always said I want to skydive, just once,
make 1 jump...NO! I don't want to talk about it...I'll get up and walk
out...NO! (Hmmm...this is going to be more difficult than I thought...I need
a "plan"). Now I know this is not the "proper" time to continue this course
of conversation so I wisely shut up about it. We have our dinner...the bill
comes & with the bill of course there are fortune cookies. I let Helene
select hers, I take the one that's left, and this is exactly what it said:
"You should be able to undertake and complete anything". Needless to say...I
start LMAO & hand it to Helene...She reads it, scowls, & says...You guessed
it...NO!
(I'm still working on a "plan" to make a jump...Anyone got any "helpful"
suggestions)
-S-
PS: Reece & I have made a blood pact...From now on, 3 strikes & we quit for
the day!
________________________________
From: James V. Bacus [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 9:26 PM
To: soaring@airage.com
Subject: Re: [RCSE] Graupner Winch #2
This sounds interesting...
At 07:54 PM 4/15/2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
oh Sheldon ,tell them the whole tale.Let them know how it went from
bad to worse .Don't forget about the 4 wheel drive part
lol..............Reece
Jim
Downers Grove, IL
Member of the Chicago SOAR club, and Team JR
AMA 592537 LSF 7560 Level IV R/C Soaring blog at www.
<http://www.jimbacus.net/> jimbacus.net <http://www.jimbacus.net/>
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