Blinded By The Light

The last three days or so have been incredibly windy so there has not been any flying.  This morning started fairly calm and I headed to the field for a few flights.  Bill had other plans today so I made the trip alone.  There were a few others there but no-one was flying.  The sky was bright blue with a slight breeze out of the East.  It was supposed to pick up again by 10 or 11 so I figured getting a few flights in before it became windy was a good idea.

In the last few weeks I have progressed to doing all my manoeuvres in Advanced mode and am feeling quite comfortable with rolls and spins.  The last few flying days I have even been able to get the plane inverted and keep it in that configuration for a short period of time while flying straight and level - upside down.

Today was going to be a normal day and I typically do ten minutes of flying, with eight minutes of aerobatic flying and the last two doing approaches to land to get myself set up for the final approach at the ten minute mark.  Flight number one went off without a hitch and I was feeling pretty good about things as I taxied out after a battery change for flight number two.

The takeoff was routine and I climbed up to my usual altitude of about 200 feet to carry on with some aerobatics.  The wind was starting to pick up a little bit more and I could see the aircraft drifting so compensated a bit and did a wider turn at the East end of the field to my right.  That worked great until I rolled out directly between me and the sun.  There was no way to see the aircraft at all so I think I kept it on the same heading it was on and hoped I would be able to see it on the periphery.

I switched the controller to Safe Mode remembering my close call a few weeks ago, but at this point I could not hear the aircraft at all, and certainly could not see anything.  I began walking toward where I last saw it in hopes I could catch it without the sun behind.  Too little, too late and the plane was lost.

I got in the car and drove out to the road to a point roughly where I thought it would be in a straight line from where I was standing.  As I got out of the car I saw the aircraft immediately.  It had likely come straight down as the wing had separated and there was nothing left of the fuselage from the wing forward.  I gathered the pieces and have salvaged whatever can be salvaged for a possible spare kit.

In the meantime, we are heading to California for the day this weekend to an auction so perhaps may find a replacement aircraft at that time.  Otherwise, the company that sells these little aircraft does sell replacement parts so I could be flying again in another week or so.

I have had a great time with this hobby over the last month or so and count my blessings I have made it this far without incident.  The club has an award that is handed out each month to the guy with the most, or most spectacular crash, or crashes.  Thankfully the award for the last month was awarded at the monthly meeting already so there is a good possibility my mishap will not make it to the top of the list for next month.

Thank you for reading.