Undercarriage
From
Angus McLeod@VERT/ANJO to
Digital Man on Sunday, July 17, 2005 01:29:00
I found the Seabee's main gear today. It took about 15 minutes, with my
long cutlass in the bush, to locate the missing parts. I think I'm pretty lucky to find it, because the bush is quite dense. It was 59 long paces
from the point of impact of the rest of the model. One of the booties is broken in half. There was also signs of paint and epoxy/glass that
obviously came from Rudy's model, and a few beads of white foam were
inside the broken boot.
Looking at the damage, I conclude that the severity of the mid-air was
greater than I originally thought. The front of my model is shattered,
but both blades of the prop were found at point of impact. And I
definately recall looking up at the model as it fell, with the spinner pointing straight down my throat and the prop banging around at 13,000
RPM. So I think the front end of my fuse was not involved in the impact,
and all damage occurred when it hit ground.
I think the two wings met, leading-edge to leading-edge, truncating
the Seabee's wing, and placing a large notch in Rudy's wing. But the
aircraft then must have spun around in the air, crashing and banging into
each other. I was flying west at the time of impact, but was going east immediately afterwards. Rudy's cowl and engine mount were smashed, and a second, smaller notch was found in his wing. And my main and tail gear
were dammaged, and carrying fragments of paint from his model. And the
side of my model had been kicked in. The beads of foam in the boot tell
me that the gear cut the second notch in his wing, and the damage to the
front of his model was done when it impacted the side and rear of mine.
Anyway, I'm glad to get the gear back. I'm sure it will turn out to be
useful at some time in the future. Rudy's model, all repaired, flew this afternoon....
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þ Synchronet þ Made of wood and glue, but mostly glue!