[RCSE] Shot down personally

[Loren Blinde]

This thread rings close to home tonite. Earlier this evening our club was giving a demo for some school kids at a small field in suburban big-money acreage land. I flew a tried and trusted Quaker old-timer with at least a couple hundred flights logged (yes, it had an engine, no, it was off, but that's irrelevant) and after three successful flights the controls locked up about a thousand feet up and away and the result wasn't pretty.

Extensive post-mortem shows the batteries were okay, the servos all function, a range check of the remains was okay and the switch was on and functional. And there were no other participating transmitters on my frequency. Which leads to the interference theory. I've been flying 26 years and have never experienced such an event and have a personal aversion to attributing pilot error to interference; I don't do that lightly.

But the nagging thought that keeps coming back (considering the local landscape) is that there could have been someone in the vicinity innocently flying a "slow-flyer" in the back yard.

I can't prove I got shot down, but can't help thinking it. The mass-appeal, "anyone can do it" mentality that goes with those damnable back yard abominations is going to signal the end of organized RC flying anywhere in radio range of modern suburbia...

My personal stance it that I won't buy one, fly one or even suggest that anyone use them to get into the hobby. And if you have one, next time you flip the Tx switch to entertain the neighbors, stop and think about anyone else who could be flying in the vicinity.

Loren Blinde

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