Taking Flight....for awhile!

Some of Eric's favorite memories of his grandfather are of his model planes. He was sad when his grandmother sold them to her neighbor after Poppa's death, but was ecstatic when the opportunity came to buy them back, plus some, for a killer deal. We've had several huge airplanes scattered around our house, his parents' house, and Meemaw's house for the last several months. After much practice with a simulator and a few outings with the modeler's club, he finally had the confidence and the time to fly his planes on his own. He had several successful flights and surprisingly to me - I actually enjoyed watching - along with several neighbors lined up on their porches. Eric's a natural, with loop-de-loops and all, whereas I'm not allowed to come anywhere near the remote. I can't keep a plane in flight for more than two seconds on the simulator. We took it out again last week and I finally remembered the camera (it would have been nearly impossible for me to walk the 100 ft back to our apartment to get the camera the other times I forgot it! :))

Here they are ready to take flight.

It was a beautiful day. A little Cessna kept flying low over the field where we were flying. We think he was trying to figure out what was going on. Can you tell which plane is real and which is the model?

Everything was going great until we decided to refuel and take it up again. When the plane was barely taking off, it veered hard to the left and was headed straight for an apartment. Eric corrected it and we thought we were out of the woods when it veered again and clipped an electrical wire, which sent it crashing straight down on a wrought iron fence. We're not sure what happened. Maybe a gust of wind? Anyway, I forgot to take a picture at the scene and I really wished that I had the video camera, but I still got a picture of the aftermath. The nose split open and the engine and battery are on the ground. The wing is damaged, but not too bad. Eric is anxious to fix it. A part of the engine cracked, but besides that, we're mostly worried about the integrity of the nose and it's ability to support the engine once it's all put back together.

Eric is still mourning and I'm sure he will be for the next several days. Wish him luck with his repairs!