spritefiend Key Veteran Location: Camarillo, CA
| So i was out flying this afternoon. 4-5 flights in or so, doing inverted hovering, some tumbles, shot a few autorotations, tweaked the tail, and upped the rpm on my gov. got around to working on some tic-tocs for a few flights(first day working on them alone, first time out since i went over some with my instructor.)
Saw some deer too.
All was going well, or so i thought! this was about my 3rd flight of just working on tic-tocs, they were going pretty decent and i was all over the sky on and off, some were good some not so much. at this point im 100ft up or so, about 30deg to my right, on the inverted half of the manuver. best way to describe it, was just... the engine just let go, for a split second i was trying to think of what happened, my tx alarm didnt go off i know i wasnt out of fuel, i had full control so it wasnt a lockout.
I got it flipped over almost instantly, but i knew i lost a lot of head speed, i actually heard it winding back up as i dropped the collective, with almost no forward speed. at this point i knew i couldnt make it passed the 6ft tall brush, and weeds and snakes oh my, to make it to the runway. so i got it to just the point i knew i would loose sight, and started raising the collective.
Set my transmitter down, pointed the antenna in the direction it went down, went back to my truck to grab my cellphone, incase i got bitten by a snake as i was at the feild all alone and was wearing shorts, and digital camera to take pictures. Locked the truck up and went for a little stroll. I picked up a 5ft tall strongish looking stick to beat the ground ahead of me checking for snakes.
Got out 100 feet or so, and jiggled the cyclic a little. I heard something behind me, had my stick... beating my way in that direction, walked 50 feet back diagonally from the way i came, jiggled it again. definately headed the right direction, still beating my way through the brush and there it was* a mere 10 feet from the edge of the grass, and about 30 from the pavement. at this point, i could TASTE how close i was.
*notice the branch caught between the flybar cage which was making the clicking sounds that honed me in to its location. |