Top 10 things that might make you panic in the circle....

[Paul Taylor]

Kind of a David Letterman top 10 or how ever many post we have.


#10
You and your flying buddy go two up with Bi-Slobs. As you are back to back he YELLS over his shoulder ..."I'm going inverted!"





Lets see where this goes....

[Zuriel Armstrong]

On the way up to do the third loop of a clover, your IC motor starts to sound like and electric

[Trostle]

This is going to be fun.  Who gets to decide on the top 10 and the appropriate order?  My input, but may be more:

After hitting your own turbulence in calm air at the bottom of the second triangle, seeing the front view of your airplane.

KT

[Dennis Moritz]

Catching Ted Fancher, out of the corner of your eye, marking up your score sheet as you do an official on the L-pad.

[john e. holliday]

As you are coming in for a landing in the Navy Carrier event and every one is running for cover. 

[Randy Powell]

Dirty Dan chasing you with a knife right after take off.

[Paul Taylor]

This is going to be fun.  Who gets to decide on the top 10 and the appropriate order?  My input, but may be more:

After hitting your own turbulence in calm air at the bottom of the second triangle, seeing the front view of your airplane.

KT

I'm sure after all the post you guys will have to pick out your own top 10.

Keith yours should make everyone list. Yours post cracked me up!
I seen a few of my planes from the front. 

[Tim Wescott]

(This just happened to me yesterday).  In the middle of a maneuver, feeling a thrum and hearing a "twang" at the handle, followed by a marked trim change to the aircraft.

[Clint Ormosen]

You notice that the more you bend your wrist up, the faster the model goes down. And vice versa.

[Trostle]

I said that I would have more.

At a contest, you have completed your second flight and you are 3 points in the lead, but Bob Whitely has not yet flown his second flight.

Keith

[ray copeland]

30 laps after nailing your best pattern, you notice one judge has dozed off and the other is still staring at his stopwatch and your fp40 is still going strong!

[Tim Wescott]

You notice that the more you bend your wrist up, the faster the model goes down. And vice versa.

At least the scare part of that is usually brief.  Of course, the dismay afterwards can be pretty severe...

[steven yampolsky]

You just flew a maneuver and the judges are no longer paying any attention to your flight. "Did I skip a manuver?"

[Jim Kraft]

This probably only happened to me but,

 getting a third of the way through the pattern and you are starting your second level flight lap after the last maneuver and you cannot remember the maneuver you just did and you are trying to think of what comes next.

[Harleyman]

How about:

When you notice that your Father-in-law is driving his farm tractor into the circle with the bucket up.   

                   

[Jim Kraft]

You just finished the square loop in the old time pattern and you look at your watch and realize it only took you 3 minutes.

[Trostle]

In the middle of a flight, a pretty blond driving an expensive convertable with a child strapped in the car parks beside you in the center of the circle.  (This really happened to me when we could still fly at Mile Square in California.  She got the message real quick that she should not be there.)

KT

[Trostle]

(Another one from Mile Square where they flew RC on an adjacent runway.)

Watching falling remnants of two RC pattern ship that had an air-to-air collision directly above a circle where a friend was flying, totally oblivious of the canage that was drifting down on his circle and we could not get his attention to the impending problem.  The falling debris wiped out his airplane as well.

(Those guys were not supposed to fly over our section of the field, but they did anyway.)

KT

[Robert Zambelli]

You're ready to launch for your first official and you notice that one of the judges has a white, red-tipped cane and a seeing-eye dog.

Bob Z.

[Trostle]

(Another one from Mile Square involving our RC neighbors there)

A friend had just landed his CL airplane and just happened to look to one side.  A large ducted fan scale RC model had a power failure.  These things, even without power are fast and had just landed pointing directly at the center of the circle where our intrepid pilot was still standing.  He literally jumped up as the airplane rolled at a high speed beneath him.

[Joe Yau]

After hitting your own turbulence in calm air at the bottom of the second triangle, seeing the front view of your airplane.

KT

I had an incident about a year ago that resulted seeing the front view of my Magnum Plus stunter with a Stalker .61 flying straight towards me, as a spectator wander out into the circle about 20' or so while I was flying the level laps. The plane made a 90 degree turn around him, and head straight for me in the middle of the circle,    and crash landed about 3' from where I was standing.  

[Trostle]

This is not a real panic situation in a circle, but almost as bad

Just glued (epoxy) the wing to the fuselage taking special care that everything was properly aligned, then notice that the leadouts are coming out the wrong wing tip.

[Robert Zambelli]

 You and your flying buddy go two up with Bi-Slobs. As you are back to back he comes running by you and yells "DUCK"!

 Bob Z

[Randy Cuberly]

You've just completed what you consider to be the very best reverse wingover you've ever flown and as you pass the judges on the next lap you notice they're both writing and shaking their heads...

Randy C.

[Zuriel Armstrong]

You are completing what appears to you to be a great pattern and you remember your travel partner (the owner of the stationwagon) stating you will walk home if you place higher than him.

[Paul Taylor]

How about:

When you notice that your Father-in-law is driving his farm tractor into the circle with the bucket up.   

                   

Good one Chris, been there done that...

[John Stiles]

You and your flying buddy go two up with Bi-Slobs. As you are back to back he comes running by you and yells "DUCK"!

 Bob Z

[John Stiles]

How about:

When you notice that your Father-in-law is driving his farm tractor into the circle with the bucket up.   

                   

......what am I laughing about, I am the father-in-law....and the grandfather....and my tractor does in fact have a front bucket!

[Terrence Durrill]

My # 1 thing......Yes, it could happen to you!  It's the summer of 1967 and the Beatles are all the rage.  You are flying a Goldberg VooDoo with a Fox .36x, 9/7 Top Flite nylon prop, pacifier tank and Missile Mist fuel.......and its honkin'.  You look around and see a Denver, Colorado city cop walking quickly into the circle waving his arms wildly and yelling "bring it down......bring it down"....  (I was flying in a city park and a less than friendly neighbor had called in a noise complaint).  I finally got the cop calmed down and explained that to "bring it down" before it ran out of fuel would destroy the airplane........he stood with me in the middle of the circle untill the engine quit and I followed his order to "bring it down".  What an idiot!!!!!                      

[Jim Hoffman]

I had a combat ship crash into my stunt circle during an official flight.  Neither I nor my airplane were touched.  The judges yelled at me that I could have a do-over.  I thought I was cool and unaffected, and choose to finish the flight.  I guess I was more shook than I wanted to admit and discovered after landing that I’d left our several maneuvers.

Jim Hoffman

[dale gleason]

I was preparing to launch Phil Nickles at the Nats in very strong winds. The plane in the adjacent circle went slack, crashed vertically, shards of balsa and silkspan blew across Phil's plane as he was cranking it ....then, as the crashed plane's canopy blew between us, never once looking up, Phil remarked quietly, "this doesn't look good....."

dg

[ptg]

You’re up in three flights.  You put your plane in the pull test area and attach your lines and handle.  You notify the pit boss that you’re ready for a pull test and he obliges.  You wait until the flight ahead of you moves into the circle and you fuel up.  Every thing is ready and when it’s time to fly you pick your take off spot, choke your engine and signal your start.  One flip, its on and running perfectly.  Walk out, slip on the S-thong, find neutral and signal your helper to launch.  As you roll out on the take off you nudge the handle ever so slightly up and the plane starts to nose over a bit so you give it more up and that expensive prop starts grind into the asphalt.  In you periphery you notice the guy who launched for you is running after your plane as its rolling and you think, that's peculiar. You go about ˝ a lap and the nose is still down and the prop keeps grinding so you figure the line clips are tangled and you give that handle a quick wiggle and you’re finally airborne.  As you give it a quick flick of down to level off you find your self doing a tiny inside loop so you give it up to complete the loop and you realize its not turning in an inside direction.  As your plane is closing the gap between air and ground, you hear ‘THE SOUND’  Then every thing stops!  

As you stand there with the handle in your hand you think…that was an interesting flight.

[john e. holliday]

Maybe not a panic situation,but if you know about KCK City Park when it gets dark.  Getting home and unloading planes and equipment, realize your lines/handle are still at the circle.   Had to use headlights of the old ford to see them.

Another that happened only a couple of years ago.   Get to the contest and fill out the entry form.   Reach for billfold and realize the cash in still in the checkbook at home.

[wwwarbird]

I said that I would have more.

At a contest, you have completed your second flight and you are 3 points in the lead, but Bob Whitely has not yet flown his second flight.

Keith

 

[Mike Keville]

Flying someone else's airplane (okay, Lou Crane's beautiful red 'El Conquistador') thru a pretty passable pattern, only to have the engine stop dead at the very top of the Overhead Eights.  Fell like the anvil in a Road Runner cartoon.

To this day, I have not flown another's model - and never will.

[Bob Hudak]

You start your horizontal eights and the down line breaks... Eight inside loops and the bottom is getting close.

[David Russum]

My first day of racing practice, learning pit stops and flying 3-up....my Foxberg plane bumps the pitman's leg on takeoff and rolls for one complete lap with slack lines. Luckily it headed to the outside of the circle and I was able to regain control and fly the tank out.

[Steve Fitton]

Its top 20 day at the Nats.  As you finish the vertical 8 a huge bumblebee decides he wants to land on your nose.  He keeps trying for the rest of the flight...

[Eric Viglione]

It's your second official at the Nat's, and you wave at the judges without really looking at them to confirm and start your engine. First panic in the circle, your helper yells that they didn't see you and you look up to see the judges and some are pointing at their stop watch shaking their head "no" and others are busy posing for a photo.

You kill your engine and wait for the judges, they give you the option to drop back or go for it. You go for it, wave again (while looking this time) then restart. You burn in what may be your best flight ever,  but then the second panic in the circle comes when the engine burps in the first loop of the clover because you wasted that fuel on that first aborted engine start... (Yes I gritted my teeth and finished the clover ok, hey, it's the Nat's, no guts no glory!)

EricV

[Mike Palko]

Listening to the sound of airplanes crashing around you due to the extreme wind during an official flight at the National's.

Mike

[johnt4051]

You are pitting a .40-powered rat racer in the days before nitro restrictions ... this is an airplane that will go about 165 mph and the K&B 40S turns about 30,000 RPM.  The engine starts, you let go and ... the plane doesn't move because its needle valve is hooked on the hot contact ring on your finger.   

[johnt4051]

Despite my own nomination about the rat racer, this offering from Randy has got to be No. 1.  You had to be there to appreciate it.  Note that Randy was more panicked by the approach of Dan with the knife than he was by the fact that he was flying a stunt plane with the lines hooked through a button on his coat and had scampered around to the point that he was flying (wildly) right over a very expensive full-scale twin-engine airplane.   

Dirty Dan chasing you with a knife right after take off.

[Douglas Ames]

Beginner Stunt math - Realizing your three QQQ's is going to = a figure 9.  

[Douglas Ames]

Proving to your Clubmates that heavy Ringmasters really do stall and auger in when full up is applied.

[Joseph Patterson]

           Here's one- My flying buddy, Tommy Mansur, had been about one minute into his flight when an Army Apache helicopter tries landing in the flight circle, but heli-pilot realizes too late that somebody is flying in "his airspace", so he holds the chopper hovering at about a (7) foot altitude with the cockpit of heli at the edge of the circle and the rotors intruding completely into circle the span of the rotors!  Tommy was able to keep his cool and flew all remaining laps over the top of the rotors while we tried to communicte with chopper personnel to keep the chopper where it was at, which they were anyway. When the engine finally quit Tommy dove for the ground immediately to avoid the rotors and made a hot but smooth landing. He thought about walking the plane away from the chopper while he was flying, but was afraid he might trip in the tall grass in the inner circle. When he landed the airman rose out of hovering and landed in the field next to our circle. They said they thought just a man was standing in the middle of their landing area and assumed he would move as they got closer, didn't realize he was flying a plane in a circle until it was too late.
          Yawl might ask " What was a real chopper doing landing at our city park C/L flying field?" Well they had taken it over following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. This incident occurred about (1) month after the disaster- we thought the field was back under park control, because of what one official told us. In truth, our circles never were put off limits to fliers, we knew the Air Guard were using the circles so we stayed away for a month and heard from one park person it was ok to use.
         Doug    

[Hoss Cain]

Like Armstrong in post #2, I was just the opposite. THE STAGE: 1971 Glennview Nats, (last Navy personnel Nats) and I was starting RC but had 3 good years (68-71) in ORD town in stunt. I had opened a Hobby Shop in Mt. Prosect. Testors over by Rockford wanted me to give a try using their new, not yet released McCoy engine. I resisted too long, but the day before the event, I agreed to give it a try . Out comes my G-Ald. ST .40 and in with that ugly gray McCoy 40 with a Dykes ring.  In reality that engine was a K&B 40 inside a very ugly case. You already know what happened. 
I had made several patterns the first day before the event and it was OK. My first official was a barn-burner flight until finishing 3 loops of the 4-leaf and it went Rat Race lean.   Well some 11-12 minutes later I finally got a QUIT and landed. No Pattern No landing points. Had I received both with a mid-range score I would have qualified in my circle. You can guess the rest. I tweaked it a tad rich for the 2nd flight and it went richer after the reverse W-O and wobbled all throught the flight. P-P!
ME qualifying for the top 10. What a treat that would have been. 

That was the end of my competition stunt for all practical purposes.

[John Stiles]

Its top 20 day at the Nats.  As you finish the vertical 8 a huge bumblebee decides he wants to land on your nose.  He keeps trying for the rest of the flight...

A peanutbutter and jelly sandwich will tell on you everytime!   

[Derek Barry]

10. Is that a bird?

9. Is that thunder?

8. Walking out of your sandals on new black asphalt while backing up in dead air and having to finish the patter barefoot. (and it just so happens one of the judges is your friend who ALWAYS gives you hell about wearing sandals to a stunt contests especially the Nats.)

7. Having a jet powered speed plane fire up in the circle next to you while you are in a maneuver.

6. Losing track of where you are in the pattern because for some reason you thought it would be a good idea to have a random thought. Usually something like "will I have light beer or dark beer with dinner tonight?" that is usually followed by "uh, what maneuver did I just do?"

5. "Hey is that Rob Gruber at the edge of the circle?.......BAM......Yep sure was."

4.  The engine sounds and feels a little rich. Should I go for it?  And I always do.

3.  The engine sounds a and feels a little lean. Should I go for it?  Yep. always do.

2.  Is that judge asleep? Damn, he is asleep! Well this sucks....

1.  The wind has been blowing one direction all day long. Just before your flight it starts to change direction. You stall as long as you can before you tell the judges where you want them. You crank the engine and walk out to the handle. You signal for release. Before your first lap is complete you realize that the wind had picked the direction it wants to blow, you simultaneously realize that is opposite of what you want it to be and you fly the entire pattern with the wind blowing you in the face and having to run backwards to prevent the plane from getting blown away.....At the Nats.

[EddyR]

Down line breaks just after leaving the stooge

Last week flying the vintage Juno all flight good except the last flight is all over the place. After the flight nothing seemed wrong with the plane. When I got home and was cleaning it I found the weight box cover and weight was gone

Ed

[bob whitney]

flying my new Big Job on a grass circle that hasnt been cut for a week, on take off the lines snag a dingleberry about 2/3 of the way out ,B/J swings in and i am watching it heading straight at me , about half way in it turns and heads back out ,i grab the handle with both hands waiting for the big WHAM, Nada B/J gets to the end of the ines and with a barrel role continues on like nothing happened