I really wish we'd had a camera along, but we didn't, so this has to be a story.
One of my friends, Al really wants to get back into combat(he has LOTS of health problems, including dialysis, diabetes, multiple back surgeries, you name it.)  He did fly some combat 35-40 years ago and got fairly good.  So we got two planes together last week and put 'em up.  I'd gotten a couple of paper streamers together, but he already had a blue one tied on.  We got up together and practiced some maneuvering.  I showed him how to come over up high to catch up to a plane going the same speed, then dive down behind the tip of the streamer.  He made three or four tries and the got dizzy from flying high and trying to turn around at the same time.  So I took a turn.  The first pass hit the outboard wing and nothing dropped.  So I tried again, came down, lined up perfectly, hit the streamer with a big thwak about eight inches from the tip.  The motor stopped abruptly and the plane kept going.  It didn't slow down much at all.  So for the next 3 minutes or so we flew around with him towing my plane and he was getting dizzier.  I told him that since he was on the right he should walk towards the plane, I was on the left and walking backwards.  He'd been trying to walk backwards like he usually does, but it doesn't work.  We kept getting our feet tangled an bumping into each other.  Once he switched we walked around the same little spot pretty smoothly.  His plane quit and I glided in behind him for nice landings.  Looking at my plane it turns out he'd used a plastic streamer.  About six inches had wrapped flat around the front bearing and  prop driver and enough stuck forward that the prop had cinched it down and dragged the motor to a stop in about 5 revolutions.  Best shutoff I've ever seen.

It was a crazy accident and probably won't happen again in my lifetime.  It's why we generally don't use plastic anymore.  Paper flagging tape, if you can find it wider than an inch, or using a product called Smart-Fab, which is the same synthetic paper but not calendered into a solid sheet.  It's soft, cuts perfectly, and doesn't roll up or stop engines or cut into the leading edge.

Flying is Fun!.

Phil C

Phil, that had to be about the funniest "combat match" in the history of the event!

A video would be ... Priceless!



Dennis