BAZINGA !!! Rivets Lives !!!!!!!!

Finally got a beautiful evening to get Rivets and the Mini Stunt down to the airport for their first flights, along with bud Patrick's shakedown flight for his RTF Flite Streak.

The wind was up just a bit, so I didn't get the Rivets hooked up and ready to go 'till almost sunset. Even with Bad Boy screaming bloody murder, the Rivets made a leisurely takeoff run across the concrete, lifting into the air, and almost completing a full lap before all crap broke loose!

The down line simply dropped away, and Rivets pulled up and rolled into the circle with me yelling "Oh Crap!" in total disbelief all the way to it's impact! It smacked down on an almost vertical line, and scattered it's nose across the ramp. The concrete wasn't kind to the racer, and it kinda took the stuffing out of it's pilot also !!!! Still, Patrick and I collected every scrap of red plastic we could find, and I intend to re-piece the nose and mount for another flight, along with perusing ebay for a replacement snout.

The leadout and flying lines were in perfect shape, with the down-line's snap securely fastened closed, so the only thing I can figure was that I had just snagged the lead-out's loop along it's edge, with it not looped completely through the snap. Don't really know...this is about the most mysterious crash I've experienced!

We'd spent a lot of time in setting up Pat's new flying lines and logging time on his Flite Streak and my Shark, so I was a bit rushed to get Rivets going with enough light to run some video...and so, the adage "haste makes waste" came down with an iron fist !!!! I usually make these video flights the "Sole Event" of the day, and will probably return to that policy!!!

I wasn't in the mood to take "autopsy photos", but got video of the carnage, and will post it as soon as I retrain myself on how to edit footage from my sometimes-difficult Sony "Easy Cam"!

To add additional insult, the Pee Wee in the Mini Stunt decided to act up, barely dragging the little biplane around it's 20 foot circle. My mind had already demonstrated it's lack of brain cell activity, so the little green monster got cleaned up and stuck back in the van while it was still in one piece !

The good news is that Patrick's plane flew well, and my "Shark 15" cooperated as it was rung-out above the tarmac.



"Film at Eleven" ..........