Remote Control Spitfire Mk IIB
My newest hobby and one that I'm definitely going to continue (even in despite of what you're about to see) are remote control aeroplanes.
If you're evil and are just here to laugh at the pics of my Spitfire's death then click here - I look at them as well, it makes me laugh too (and then cry lol)! There's some captions and you can click the pics to see the damage close up.
It's something that I've always wanted to have since I was a child. I've been playing Flight Simulators right back to when I was 5 years old on my Granddad's ZX Spectrum so I know the principles of flight.
Back in 2005 (I think) I bought myself an indoor helicopter. It was great fun but the fun soon faded because it wasn't very controllable, it was incredibly slow at moving forwards and it would spin out of control if you so much as farted in the same room lol.
Then came an email from the account manager at eBuyer (who sends me stuff to my work email address) with a whole list of remote control planes. I took a look through them and thought they all looked pretty rubbish in all honesty, but it reminded me that I hadn't got that RC plane I'd always wanted. I went looking around and found a great web site called Squadron Leader. I saw the Spitfire they had listed there and didn't even bother looking at what else they sold until after I'd paid for it.
The best part of the Spitfire has to be the fact that it's a very good replica, it's got the distinctive wings and the exhausts - the only thing that really looks different is it has two props and not three but who the hell cares?
It arrived the very next day which was absolutely brilliant considering I'd ordered it late afternoon. I got it home, put it together but it was too dark to fly it that night. I'm sure I went to sleep that night dreaming about getting home the following day...
Anyway... I took a picture of the plane as soon as I'd assembled it and checked everything was aligned etc, and here's the picture below (I took it basically because I knew it was probably the last time it would look like this):
I got home the next day, grabbed my plane and set out to the huge playing fields I'm lucky enough to live next to. My stomach was churning because I was so excited but also because I was nervous knowing only too well that this type of plane was definitely NOT good for learning with. It's designed for pretty reasonable speed (top speed 40 MPH) and acrobatics. I'd actually been toying with the idea that day to keep the Spit safe and and buy a trainer plane until I knew I'd got the hang of flying them.
I launched the plane but it travelled a little distance and landed on the ground, I did the exactly the same thing again on my 2nd attempt as well. I was checking it over thinking that perhaps I hadn't aligned or balanced the batteries correctly and that was the cause. Some kids had stopped in their tracks and by now were kind of laughing at me thinking that I'd bought a crap plane. A guy walked over to admire the plane, he must have boosted my confidence because on my third attempt it was up and in the air!!!
I kept the plane in the air, managed to turn it around and fly past me in a circle, by this time I briefly noticed more people were starting to gather around. The kids that were playing football soon moved out the way when I flew over their heads and scared the crap out of them (was by accident more than anything though).
Everything was going great, I had full control over it, I was getting used to controlling it at every angle, I probably should have brought it down and tried to land it but instead I made it fly up-wind away for me. It was now actually getting quite hard to see it, it was turning to dusk and when I turned it around to bring it back I took a different direction and suddenly I was heading towards some really tall trees at the end of this park. I couldn't tell if the plane was left or right of them so the only thing I could do was pull up, I lost sight of the plane and couldn't work out where it was pointing and that's when disaster struck!!
The last thing I saw was my plane taking a nose dive, I tried to pull up but it was way too late. The funny thing was the only thing going through my head was 'cut the power when you land so the propeller doesn't snap' so that's exactly what I did. I heard the crunch, it was miles away but trying to be optimistic I said to myself 'relax, it will be fine'.
I jogged over to it with a couple of the guys that had gathered around me while I was flying it. What I saw was not good...
I learned the following lessons that evening:
- Lesson 1: Don't lose sight of the plane!
- Lesson 2: Don't fly when it's getting dark!
- Lesson 3: Setting the throttle to idle when in a nose dive does f*ck all to save the prop :-)
You can see that it's quite a mess and I'm pretty sure I can't rebuild it from the damage it took (even with all the spare parts I can buy).
It made quite an impact on the ground as you can see from this picture...
About the only good thing that came out of it, apart from the ABSOLUTELY AWESOME time I had while I kept it in the air was that I'd managed to keep the little plastic pilot alive :-D Remember kids, always fasten your seatbelt!
Even though I should have been totally gutted at this write-off, I was still grinning. I'd managed to keep the plane in the air for a total of 6 minutes and 19 seconds (give or take a bit because the timer wasn't stopped until after I'd yelled "noooooooooo!" - and that probably lasted a good 10 seconds).
One of the guys who'd been watching, sent his little girl home to grab me a carrier bag so I could put the pieces in it. That's when it started to set in - I'd screwed up £120 in 6 minutes flat. The worst part was the battery was still connected and while I was doing the walk of shame home, it was in the bag twitching as if it was in pain lol.
Anyway, Rest In Peace Spitfire #01 - you'll be sorely missed but your death will not be in vain, I have learned from this and I can't wait to get another one!
My crash is also featured on Squadron Leader's web site in "The Fallen" section. Click here to take a look.
