Have you ever had a mid-air?

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Posted by David Ashby - RCME Administrator on 07/10/2011 08:15:57:

Posted by Tim Mackey on 06/10/2011 17:54:05:

 

"one at Greenacres when a big bipe exploded my little foamy Sabre'

 

 

..... that was memorable

 

I was on the flightline flying with Tim when that happened. Like many I suspect I use my ears quite a bit to judge where other models are. On the day in question there was the drone of a couple of 4-strokes and the whine of EDF in the air. Then, all of a sudden there was only the drone of a couple of 4-stokes! No "crunch" - just a change in the ambient noise

 

BEB

[ken anderson.]

when you fly along side 'enrico the foreign lad' it will be sooner - rather than later when you have a mid air/kiss from him..... its his trade mark ...

 

ken anderson ne..1. mid air dept.

[buster prop]

The only mid-airs I've had are during indoor flying where they are quite common. I did get my PZ Ember chewed by a shockie once. Outdoors, I haven't had any mid-airs myself but have seen one or two. Had a few near missed though..The most spectacular was at our club fun fly. Someone was hovering a 3D electric plane over the runway and had his model completely blasted by an i/c plane doing a fast low pass. I didn't see the collision but heard it from the pits and looked round to see bits fluttering to earth. The .91 i/c plane wasn't damaged at all.

[Tim Mackey]

Ah, now if we are including the general mayhem and silliness that is indoor flying, then my tally increases a lot...especially if you count crashing into people as they retrieve a model

Edited By Tim Mackey on 07/10/2011 10:44:30

[Bob Cotsford]

I did put zero mid-airs, but then thought, do mid-air collisions with trees count - I've had a few of them!

[BB]

Heres mine. My Wot Trainer vs Christen Eagle.  At about 2 sec's + 25 secs you can see my Wot-T going off into the distance unscathed.

 

 

BB

Edited By Basildon Biggles on 07/10/2011 10:54:44

[buster prop]

What about mid-airs with the planet Earth? We've all had those!

[Mogs]

There's been two this year at our club, which inspired me to ask for this poll.

In March a head on resulting in damage to the undercarriage of one model and considerable destruction of the propeller, wing and fin of the second, both Arising Stars (I think). However the two models were landed satisfactorily back on the strip, one with twisted piano wire undercarriage, and the other deadstick and considerable aerodynamic impediment!

Last weekend, the club trainer (Arising Star again but not one from the march incident) was met with a WOT 4 climbing gently from the opposite direction. The AS trainer was struck from below slicing three areas along the fuselage, with the loss of half of the port tail plane and elevator and main landing gear detaching. The aircraft was landed safely back on the strip. The WOT 4 was not so lucky! The wing was broken in two resulting in the inevitable vertical dive, where she was deemed irreparable.

Maybe Arising Stars are jinxed at our Club!

[PatMc]

Posted by ken anderson. on 07/10/2011 10:35:51:

when you fly along side 'enrico the foreign lad' it will be sooner - rather than later when you have a mid air/kiss from him..... its his trade mark ...

 

ken anderson ne..1. mid air dept.

I think that's because Enrico flies more than the rest of us put together.

[Brian Clamp]

Fortunately my mid air's have been indoors in the sports hall.
They happen on a regular basis and are mostly repairable between slots. With more than 6 in the air at once in a sports hall mid airs are inevitable. With such a crowded airspace it certainly keeps your reaction times up.

[Vecchio Austriaco]

Had a few - worst one I remember is some 30 years ago - I was flying my 2.8m Simprop Diamant -composite fuselage and foam sandwich wings with airbrakes - typical design of the time and not particulary light - when I crashed frontal into a much smaller slopesoarer having about 2m wingspan. As the models were different in size and quite high up we both miscalculated the position. My plane came down with a new double-V shape of the wings (The crash added dihedral by bending the steel wires and both wings broke at the start of the aileron) and without any control surface. All controll surfaces were ripped out and came down seperately. The plane was spiralling down in a rather flat spiral - landing on the back of a cow. The other one was looking worse as it hit the T stabilizer and was cut into 2 parts. The remains were only collected to keep the area clean...

 

As the times were different I repaired the glider (Made new wings, built up from balsa)...

 

 

 

By the way - I don't count the indoor ones - happens quite frequently there...

 

 

 

Edited By Vecchio Austriaco on 07/10/2011 12:05:15

[Jez Harris]

Hi

 

I've had two...both when I have been deadstick and completely unable to do a thing about it.

 

First time was years ago...I was deadstick on finals and a clubmate flew his wot4 fullchat into mine..total loss.

 

The second annoyed the hell out of me..It was at the 2010 Southern Model show at Hop Farm. During the lunchtime trainer session I had been giving people trial flights with my 1/4 scale Super Cub. As it was under show conditions all the pilots had spotters.

My cub being larger than the rest of the usual artf trainers in use was being flown high to avoid what was a pretty crowded sky. Anyhow, after about 40 mins in the air I ran out of fue and dead sticked, I called Deadstick and went off downwind, I then called "Deadstick landing from the left "which was repeated by my caller.

As I turned onto finals I was hit full speed by some donkey flying a trainer very low and fast.

The things that really grated on me were the fact that what on earth was the pilot doing as it was supposed to be a trainer slot for people who had never flown rc before - why was he flying like that?... and what was his spotter doing? but more infuriating was the fact the other pilot never even approached me to apologise. All I do know is it was one of the Reds from the funfighter display team.

The Cub was a complete write off - damaged the 26cc Zenoah too. I'm still p'eed off about it to this day!

Needless to say I didnt do the trainer slot this year.

 

In my view its lack of thought and lack of communication that usually causes midairs, I fly with the Dawn Patrol and despite having up to 15 x 1/3 scalers in the air at once, weve never had a mid air, and have recently been practicing opposition passes etc. Pilots who have the usual mid air always seem really suprised its happened....

 

Jez

Edited By David Ashby - RCME Administrator on 09/10/2011 16:15:55

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Posted by Mogs on 07/10/2011 11:19:27:

considerable aerodynamic impediment!

 

LOL! What a smashing expression! - I must remember that one.

 

BEB

[Cyclicscooby]

I've only ever flown on my own, so unless you count a tree, the floor, and me, once with a minium, then no...

 

My Silverlit heli had a mid air with a cat paw.. The cat was 3ft off the floor, so technically a mid-air, but I dont think thats what you're on about is it. !!

 

Luv

Chrisie.. xx

[Mark B]

I fly a lot of combat slope soarers, but the annoying thing is when they lock together and crash. Poor slope lift means low level combat - right where they collide and blow back into you!! 1 and a half kg of epp goin at 20 odd knots hurts!!!!!

 

By the way, combat epp soarers are destroyable - i flew a canterbury sailplanes eraser knife edge through a wire fence, not technically midair but it never returned to earth!!!

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

If there's such a thing as a funny mid-air then I saw one a few years back which still raises the odd smile when we recount it...a couple of friends were flying in loose formation, communicating all the time until the pilot of the Stearman said,"I'm going to land soon" so the other replied,"OK, I'll get out of your way then" - and turned his WOT 4 straight into his path with an instant explosion of confetti being the result...

 

Luckily the owner of the first model was quite OK about the incident although both were write offs - it was the last time he'd intended flying it, having already promised the airframe to a senior member who runs on a limited budget and the other one only had himself to blame.

 

However, the old boy who was in line for the Stearman was rather less amused and declined the offer of the black bag-full of bits!!!

 

 

[Brian Cooper]

Years ago we had a craze at our field for flying (Flair) Atillas, and we flew them in combat with streamers trailing from the rear.

One day, there were several Atillas engaged in our usual passtime when two models turned towards another one . . . and we all met in the middle. Yup, a three-in-one mid air.

 

B.C.

[Allan Bowker]

Not happened to me yet (I guess it will one day!)

 

I just read through the posts to see if Timbo had reported the oblitteration of his Sabre.

Yes David, that one was very memorable due to the spectacular way they both went down (Sabre vs Pitts).

Did Timbo win the 'Best Confetti Display of the Show' trophy?

[Dave Bran]

The chance of having a Mid-Air is inversely proportional to the desirability of having one.

 

Combat with loads up = no chance, innocent simple flying around with one mate = loads of opportunity

 

 

I have had a mid- air with myself.....................

 

 

Flying an extremely powerful pusher wing, went from fast glide to wide open throttle, the motor mount sheared, then the motor, screaming away at warp factor 5, flailed violently around on the wiring and ate the taped wing covering, turning the plane instantly from red and yellow to white and then confetti.................

 

Tis but a scratch....................quoth I.

[Stephen Jones]

I voted yes 6+ as this was at an indoor flying meeting where there are lots of models in a very small space at the same time .

 

But never outside .

[Seamus O'Leprosy]

I never had one but when I was a begginer the guy test flying my plane mid-aired it on its maiden and last flight.

I caught on my camera today a near miss. sorry about the quality they have been blown up a bit

 

[Engine Doctor]

Obviously some obscure law of physics is at work as the "two planes" in the air seem to have far more mid airs than the rest ! I voted yes for two planes in the air. Some years ago, after several near misses I asked a club mate ( we were the only two at the field) if we could fly at opposite ends of the field. After a fast low pass and vertical climb at my end of the field My plane found his at the top of the climb which was instantly turned to confetti . My wot 4 carried on without missing a beat with no damage.The silly thing is that I couldn't do it on purpose if I tried .

PS ; were still mates .

[Stephen Grigg]

In a manner of speaking 2.One with my Pulse with someone on a Buddy,I was able to somehow land the Pulse with a badly damaged wing,which was repaired easily..2nd one was my Stringalong,we were trying to get the merco 61 to run properly and on the 2nd circuit my expert who was flying at the time said "I think weve cured it when a red flash took the bottom wing clean off.It was a colleguesExtrs 300 but we were able to land the Stringalong by just letting it come down in a straight line with no ailerons and ver little damage easily repaired

[Jed]

Earlier this year my Mugi Evo (electric flying wing) was cut in half by
the undercarriage of a big petrol aerobatic aircraft. I did have to fly
through his prop to get to the undercarriage first. He managed to land
minus undercarriage. What was left of mine floated to the ground...Only 2 of us in the air.

[Sheldon Holy]

I was flying a friend's Magnatilla doing formation touch 'n' goes with a WOT 6 (Homebrew 80" WOT 4 with a 26cc petrol engine)... He chopped my tail clean off and the poor maggie flopped down to the ground like a fish out of water.