Mid Air . . .

After 14 years of flying model airplanes in close proximity to other flying model airplanes, I experienced my first mid air.  My  buddy flying a "Dirty Stik", a model I once owned, flew into the bottom of my "Big Stik 60."  His propeller chewed up my right wing, it looked like I might recover, then the plane went out of control and spiraled in.  His prop also destroyed the receiver.  So I had not control, just watched things transpire.

There were bits and pieces fluttering to the ground.  My airplane was confined to one location except for the wing debris.  My buddy's airplane was off in a distance but equally destroyed.  The working pieces are okay, like engines, fuel tanks, batteries and most of the servos. 

Servo gears for the most part are made of nylon and shear teeth easily.  The one that usually takes the brunt is the throttle servo which gets jarred severely in such a melee.  And my throttle servo does indeed need new gears.  I will get around to fixing that later.

I cleaned up the engine.  The engine mount was intact even though the airplane remains went in nose first.  The engine was okay, I found one breather nipple broken off, but that does not mean it occurred in that crash.  I suspect it is an "old injury" and manifested itself with the nose first jarring.  Simple to fix, just replace it with another nipple and the job is done.  Had to send off the part, but I could have cannibalized another engine, just  chose to get a new part and spare at the same time.

Now I am trying to resurrect another plane.  I am having problems setting up the configuration.  Not sure what is the cause. but have contacted Hitec, the manufacturer.  And they gave me a phone number and said call, it was too difficult to describe the fix by phone.  Interesting.

And the beat goes on.  And yes, this time the bird was not fixable, or at least I did not wish to spend the effort to fix it.  I have another in box, just have to assemble it.