With friends like Garland, who needs enemies right? Since I've been goaded, I'll try to explain what happened.
For the first time in MWSC history we tried "foamy warbird racing". WW2 era foamy's were allowed, and no, Zagi/Boomerang's weren't allowed as B-2's. The course was set up in a pasture that caters to north winds. Just guessing, the course was about 150-200' long. The unique feature of this race was instead of the normal "stay outside the pylons in turns", we had to be inside the pylon, meaning the plane was between the pole and the hill, and to count, the plane had to pass below the streamer that was attached to the pole. We only had to pass the inside of the pole on the pilot's end, not the flag end of the course. The streamer was about 20' above the base of the pylon, but only 10' or so above where the pilots were standing. You have to picture this: 4 guys racing while almost the entire rest of the group (about 65 people!) are lined up behind you cheering, whooping, hollering, and generally being rowdy. I've never seen so many people watching 4 planes race around pylons and try to knock each other out of the air. Did I mention you get extra points if you get a "KILL" on the course? I don't remember who else was in the race other than Scott Miller and myself. The lift was quite choppy next to the hill and that's exactly where we needed to be on the pilot end of the course. We had made one lap down and back and I led Scott by about 2 airplane lengths going into the pilot pylon. A huge gust of wind lifted Scott's airplane into a wing over, which unfortunately terminated in my face! The left wing hit my transmitter and severed my rubber ducky from the transmitter, while the right wing accosted my head. Needless to say, my plane went down. I initially thought I'd only need to install a new antenna. Unfortunately I found that the radio had suffered some type of damage as several of the control functions ceased to function. It's on it's way to Airtronics for a checkup. One thing I'd like to mention. Scott apologized and offered to pay for the repairs. I think that is the appropriate thing to do in this situation. I accepted the apology and declined payment, as it wasn't Scott's fault the plane hit me. Now if I find out he WAS trying to hit me...;-) Anyway, the racing was a blast. Next time I think I'll bring a helmet AND and extra Ducky! ;-) gv > > Garland wrote: > > > ...we witnessed a rubber duckie being "taken out" > (along with the pilot) during the warbird races at > the Midwest Slope Challenge this past weekend! An > errant foamie warbird (perhap two) nailed the antenna > and broke it off along with part of the radio! > > > > Care to elaborate, George? > > Garland RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
