Barry (my father-in-law) likes to build and fly planes. The girls and I went out to watch the men fly and it was fairly cool. Tyler doesn't have a lot of practice but he does very well (despite the fact that he crashed). To give him some credit, it was very windy, too windy for good flying conditions. And there was so much dust in the air. The girls and I were watching from the car for a while and the dust would get so thick, you couldn't see the guys standing out on the field. Here is a picture of the guys in the dust. Tyler was flying the plane you can see (this is obviously BEFORE it crashed).
And to give Tyler even more credit, he really didn't crash--He had more of a bumpy landing and one of the props broke off. You can kinda see the pieces in his hand.
Not extensive damage but certainly the plane will not fly again until repairs are made. I didn't come out to the field until after the dust had died down, but it was still bitterly cold and windy. The guys don't seem to care though. They stand for hours watching the skies and doing tricks with their planes. If you aren't watching the skies as well, you just see a lot of this...
(that is Barry by the way. He has never let me try flying, but I think that is because I would break more than the prop. Maybe with a little practice...
Here is one more picture of the field and a couple of the planes the guys have built (pretty cool!).
This last one is just for fun. The girls all stuck their heads out of Grandma's sunroof. The wind was whipping back their hair and they were loving it. We weren't driving at the time, it was just THAT windy.
Wind at OVER 20 mph!!! To give you some scale--that would be like flying a real plane in a 500 mph wind. Needless to say, the tower probably wouldn't let a plane even take off...let alone attempt a landing. My dad gave me the following grades on today's flying: A+ for skill in flying; A+ for determination and confidence; D- for judgment. Well, that's kind of the norm for most of the things I do. Heck of a lot of fun, though.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should spend more time on the simulator--less costly for mistakes (and poor judgment).
After a careful examination of the physics and mathematics behind the wind calculations, I have determined I had no idea what I was talking about when I posted the "500" figure. It has been brought to my attention that this plane was in fact a 1:5 scale plane...not a 1:25 scale plane (something I probably could have figured out had I thought about it long enough). The proper number is "100." Even so, a 100 mph wind would really be something--at least I think it would.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing I don't have a job where I have to be detail-oriented or even mathematically minded...I mean how often do computers need math?
Fun stuff. My Dad loves flying models too...as well as the real thing. He's also got a boat we use in the pool. Kissable wants to get a helicopter which would be lots of fun too. I love the pictures of the girls. Ivory is so big!!!
ReplyDeleteOkay, Maleen, my heart did a nose dive when I read the heading, "Tyler was in a plane crash.." That was mean, but it did keep me reading!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad everyone's ok. I guess we'll never know what the ant headlines read that day..."Whole colony of ants wiped out by a careless human pilot..." I would have kept the 500mph number on. We never would have known the difference, and it's much more impressive! It looks like a lot of fun, though, and your girls look so cute in the wind! Glad you made it home safely, and I'm also glad there are plenty of potties from Idaho to here!
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