Matt Carlton Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 The motor arrived for La Mouette. I thought I would fit it today. Full of optimism, I pulled the model out and set it on the table. Whereupon, the cat got scared of nothing and ran under my feet. I tripped, impaling my arm on a broken fishing rod which one of my beloved children had cunningly hidden behind a curtain. Reaching out with my unimpaled arm, I caught the table, upending the model. By some curious twist of fate, said model arrived underneath my not inconsiderable bulk as I landed. One crushed fuselage, one crushed wing, one broken tailplane, one oblivious cat sitting watching the proceedings from a dresser. On close inspection of said model, I proceeded to remove all the radio gear and hardware before. At this point, there was only one thing I could do with the ruined airframe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cooper Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 WOW, that must have been quite a scene. Happily, I have never experienced that much destruction before a model was even finished. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies 3 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 If you're going to kill a model, always go for the most comedic method possible. This is right up there Matt (assuming you are OK of course). We should start a thread for this. I once donated a model to a friend. His first flight was in a field I had permission to fly from. There were two adjoining fields and the farmer would move cattle between them. He didn't mind me flying either, but clearly best 'sans cattle'. Anyway, this one day the cattle free field was partially flooded. As the small herd were at the far end of the remaining field, we continued. Turns out an Irvine 20 at full chat is quite an interesting sound to a cow. It also turns out 20 cows running at you is a bit startling. And further, it is really hard to trim out a new model when covering 100m across a cow-pat strewn field in a time to rival Usain Bolt. whilst looking over your shoulder and working out how to vault a stile... To make it worse, once the model met it's inevitable demise, the cows lost all interest. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Flynn 1 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 When I was still at school, 1962 ish, control line was the only method of flying. I had a friend called Kenny, who was a far better builder than me. I used to go around his house and watch him build or play with his latest model, while telling me what I had done wrong on mine. He decided to buy a KK Marquis, lovely kit. Anyway he really got stuck into the build, and every visit I saw this model looking as good as it does on the tin. My last visit he was covering with tissue, and was going to dope ASAP. It all ended in disaster when his mum, fed up with the smell, put it in front of the fire to hurry up the drying process. He still has tears in his eyes on the Monday morning telling me all about it. I never did see a Marquis fly. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Carlton Posted February 22, 2022 Author Share Posted February 22, 2022 On the plus side, I can now tell my wife that another model "won't cost that much because I already have most of the equipment to go in it" And be honest when I do... ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Well at least the model broke your fall Matt.......it could have been worse if you were injured instead! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 1 hour ago, Tom Flynn 1 said: My last visit he was covering with tissue, and was going to dope ASAP. It all ended in disaster when his mum, fed up with the smell, put it in front of the fire to hurry up the drying process. Been there, done that… I was probably 13 or so and had built a glider from a kit - tissue and dope covered but I’d managed to introduce a warp. No matter, stick it in front of the electric fire and tease the warp out…the inevitable happened and I just about managed to get it out of the French windows without setting the house on fire! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J D 8 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 KK Jetex powered Gloster Javelin, a bit fresh from the doping and in a hurry to try it out. Up in flames as I lit the fuse. Tom, I did get to see my Marquis fly but only half a lap before it turned in on the lines and piled in.? However it's horizontal tail feathers do still fly today on my OD three channel fun fly FunGus. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuban8 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Not exactly a previously unflown model........but a couple of months after the 1987 'Hurricane' I went slope soaring on the North Downs and on arrival had to take a long uphill hike to our usual venue. The track got increasingly icy as we went up and after half an hour or so and within a short distance of our destination, I slipped, fell on and crushed the one and only model I had with me. A couple of hours drive, a lengthy walk and then a cold and miserable day waiting to go home. Character forming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 One of my club mates gave a Stearman to one of the older members. He decided to have one last flight… The new owner couldn’t even be persuaded to donate a bin bag! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul De Tourtoulon Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Does mine count ?, I was Living in Newcastle and bought a Spitfire kit, the fuselage was some sort of planked thing but I saw somewhere a Spitfire scale fibre glass fuselage so I bought it, retracts an OS .61 Gold head and a Mcgregor 6 channel radio, up to the 'town moor' and find an experienced pilot, engine set up and off it went into the blue yonder,,? it came back in a bin bag,,,? That was an expensive flight,,,,? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 11 minutes ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said: One of my club mates gave a Stearman to one of the older members. He decided to have one last flight… The new owner couldn’t even be persuaded to donate a bin bag! Its a rule of mine to never have one last flight as it usually is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Walby Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Saw a TN P51 advertised, good price and looked ok although the photos were a bit fuzzy. Phoned the guy and said I would be around to take a look. Interest got the better of my judgment and although it looked okay I did the deal. Once home on closer investigation all the components were as cheap as he could have bought, paint had been sprayed in places it should not go and and the construction quality was rubbish. As I stripped the bits out I found more and more problems (major structural defects you would not find unless you were to remove the sheeting), dumped the air frame on the bonfire and told myself a bitter, but a valuable lesson had been learnt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Carlton Posted February 22, 2022 Author Share Posted February 22, 2022 25 minutes ago, Jon - Laser Engines said: Its a rule of mine to never have one last flight as it usually is. I always have tell myself I'm having two more flights at the end of the day and give up half way through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Had a couple of close scrapes in the workshop that needed a lot of superglue and a few hours of bad language... most recently dropped a nigh-on complete fuselage which then split in two and ripped a load of formers out. The closest call was when I slipped up on a wet muddy patch of the field while carrying a plane out, both glows live and spinning, for the test flight - somehow I fell right next to and not on top of the model itself, although I got a trifle muddy, and to this day I have no real idea how the model came out unscathed (despite being plonked down hard enough to have both props whack the mud and stop). Definitely less than all my nine lives left on this front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 38 minutes ago, Chris Walby said: Saw a TN P51 advertised, good price and looked ok although the photos were a bit fuzzy. Phoned the guy and said I would be around to take a look. Interest got the better of my judgment and although it looked okay I did the deal. Once home on closer investigation all the components were as cheap as he could have bought, paint had been sprayed in places it should not go and and the construction quality was rubbish. As I stripped the bits out I found more and more problems (major structural defects you would not find unless you were to remove the sheeting), dumped the air frame on the bonfire and told myself a bitter, but a valuable lesson had been learnt. Have you seen my ugly mustang thread? ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 45 minutes ago, Jon - Laser Engines said: Its a rule of mine to never have one last flight as it usually is. 18 minutes ago, Matt Carlton said: I always have tell myself I'm having two more flights at the end of the day and give up half way through. Yes, I used the term advisedly - I always say "I'll have another flight" when planning the last flight of the day... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon H Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 19 minutes ago, Matt Carlton said: I always have tell myself I'm having two more flights at the end of the day and give up half way through. Likewise. The last last flight i had was a galaxy mustang. Sun was getting low, did a practice approach under the sun and it was ok. Went round, turned in, checked the runway and tried to roll out out my turn a little. Imagine my shock when it went the other way! Long story short, i thought i was turning right but it had rolled itself to the left. The silhouette looked the same, but alas. A 350ft (I was flying over a valley) vertical dive through the canopy of a 200+ year old beech tree did my mustang no favours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 My mother was a Taylor and used to work from home, she was making a coat for a girl who was in my class. She came for a fitting while I was building a KK rubber powered Hurricane which I had just covered. Ooohhh ! that's nice she said as she picked it up by the fuselage as if it was a sledge hammer, if our parents had not been there I may have done her an injury. Two weeks pocket money in the bin. Many years later my wife bought me a Mick Reeves 80" Hurricane kit for our 25th wedding anniversary which had many flights but was destroyed by a Kawasaki, not the aeroplane but my son's GPZ1100. I had been doing a repair on the wing mount in the garage and assembled the aeroplane to check it, as it was getting late I left it assembled. Next morning my son who went to work before me said Dad I owe you a new aeroplane, I come in late last night and did not put the stand down right in the bike and it's fell on the plane. 48yrs. on I still await the replacement Hurricane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyB Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 6 hours ago, Matt Carlton said: The motor arrived for La Mouette. I thought I would fit it today. Full of optimism, I pulled the model out and set it on the table. Whereupon, the cat got scared of nothing and ran under my feet. I tripped, impaling my arm on a broken fishing rod which one of my beloved children had cunningly hidden behind a curtain. Reaching out with my unimpaled arm, I caught the table, upending the model. By some curious twist of fate, said model arrived underneath my not inconsiderable bulk as I landed. One crushed fuselage, one crushed wing, one broken tailplane, one oblivious cat sitting watching the proceedings from a dresser. On close inspection of said model, I proceeded to remove all the radio gear and hardware before. At this point, there was only one thing I could do with the ruined airframe. Sorry, we need video proof... ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Chin up Matt, was it a good fishing rod ? ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lee Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Back in the 80's one Club mate built a black plastic bag into the fuselage of all his models for when the inevitable happened. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Carlton Posted February 22, 2022 Author Share Posted February 22, 2022 1 hour ago, john stones 1 - Moderator said: Chin up Matt, was it a good fishing rod ? ? Fortunately not, it was a broken old whole cane pike rod butt, which sort of lurked around the shed, which one of my offspring had decided was a light sabre. Obviously. Onwards and upwards though, I am sketching away at replacements. Not sure what the "Dick Dastardly" inspired machine is all about. Generally I just sketch a few dozen ideas and then decide on one to follow through with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john stones 1 - Moderator Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Second one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Carlton Posted February 22, 2022 Author Share Posted February 22, 2022 Thats my thought. Closest to what I just broke. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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