Back in the summer of 1982 I was teaching a buddy of mine that flew power
how to launch and fly sailplanes. After giving him some stick time on my
SD-100 that he flew very well. It was time to check out his plane(don't
remember what kit it was). We checked everything out to make sure they were
moving the right direction and all, and after a few hand tosses it was time
to put it up on my high start. I had placed my Airtronics XL 6 channel
transmitter in my flight box with the antenna still extended and really
didn't pay it any mind. I pulled the high start back and hooked up his ship
and all was ready for the big launch. Upon releasing his plane it took a
hard right turn (in the direction of my flight box) and the high start line
made contact with my upright transmitter antenna and got hooked under the
freq. flag and puledl it up and out of my flight box like a model rocket at
takeoff. About halfway up the launch the transmitter came loose from the
line and fell back to earth like a high flying lawn dart.
The transmitter hit the hard field with a load crash and bounced maybe 3
feet in the air. At this point I did not want to see what maybe left of my
radio, but once I did get the nerve to go look I was shocked to see that it
was all in one piece with only the antenna being bent from the crash. Maybe
the aluminum case saved much worse damage from the fall, not really sure.
But after taking the radio to a buddies house where he checked it out and
replaced the antenna the radio was back at the field the next weekend and I
used it for another few years.
I never left my antenna up or radio infront of a launch ever again.
Mark
Soaring Is Life!!
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- RE: [RCSE] High Start Stories Mark Wales
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