This morning I had a very upsetting experience with an R/C flier.
I was behind the local Middle School, doing my normal orbital flight training, when a guy pulled up and he and his wife asked me all kinds of questions about my P2V+. I also had my Radian Park Flyer on the ground because I intended to fly it right after the two P2V batteries were depleted. This is a wide open area that's awesome for powered gliders, which I love more than any other platform. Since I was within three minutes of my Quad battery dying, I landed it and then, put my Radian together for flight.
They both seemed to be extremely friendly people. I had no reason to expect what happened.
This guy is big. I'm 6'2" and 220lbs. I'm not exactly fat, but I'm not a "built" guy either. This guy was about 4" taller and perhaps 75lbs heavier. Reminded me of my 190lb days when I was pretty cut and defined. About 10 years younger than I.
He brings out this highly repaired THING. No way to know what it was originally. Shrink wrapped wings and fuselage to reinforce the strength of the Styrofoam. An ingenious use of such material I will admit. Had a wingspan of roughly 5'. Twin electric engines. It flew very well from what I saw. But then, a couple of Red Tailed Hawks came into our area. Lofting on thermals, doing their normal hunt flying. This ******* laughs when he sees them and starts climbing towards them with his plane.
My Radian was about 200' up and 500' away from me. I made the decision to bring her home because the Hawks were getting very irritated by their flight. My plane has a wingspan of 78.7". A length of 44.7". It looks huge, but is only 30oz in flying trim. So it is noticed.
This guy starts chasing one of the Hawks. He is laughing the whole time. His plane is very agile and powerful. He causes the Hawk to make some very panicked moves. The other Hawk flew away. This one was trying to but this jerk was harassing it. So I made a sudden decision to harass HIM with my returning Radian. I flew it around his plane when I could. He was laughing. So I chose to return to the field and fly it within very close distance of him and his wife.
He suddenly yells, "WTF are doing? You almost hit us!!!"
He is right. I almost did. But luckily, I missed them both. My Radian doesn't have the power his plane had and it went into a brief high power/high speed turn stall I was able to recover from by leveling the wings. Which is why it came so close to them. About 20' away and at 10' altitude. Which with over 6' wings, appeared to be much closer.
I brought her in for a rough landing. No damage done, but not the best I've managed in the past. He lands his aircraft about 45 seconds later and comes stomping over to me, screaming at me asking what I thought I was doing.
Calmly, I looked at him and said, "I was doing the same thing to you that YOU were doing to that Hawk you F'ing *******! How does that **** FEEL?"
His wife starts laughing now. She says something about how she has told him not to mess with birds in the past, how it would feel to HIM if he were harassed.
He made some threats of physical violence and I simply, calmly said, "I would GREATLY enjoy it if you did big guy. That would be another lesson I'd teach you today." My 85lb Chocolate lab, the one seen in my Avatar, was going batshit crazy growling and barking. He was tied by his leash to the back of my vehicle.
Man, I was barely containing my fury at that point. When I get pissed off, I get calm as hell on the outside, but sheer FURY is going on inside. Like a tornado in full swing. I just wanted this prick to take ONE more step towards me.
Luckily, he didn't. He became suddenly shy acting. Like he had been caught kicking a cat or something. His wife? She was PISSED at him and very apologetic towards me. I find it hard to believe she would have come there knowing he was the type to do that kind of ****. Perhaps he was having a HUGE lapse in judgement and had never done it before. But his glee, demonstrated by his laughter while chasing that Hawk, tends to make me think otherwise.
I'm sitting here wishing I had kicked the **** out of him. My anger is still boiling red hot over this event. I got his tag number and have already reported him to the local Ranger Station since technically, this is a National Forest where animals are protected. I wish I had flown the Radian first and the Quad second so I could have gotten video of his behavior. Right now, it's just my word against his and, unless his wife were to voice against him, he will get away with it.
Not only am I disappointed in his actions, but my own.
I was behind the local Middle School, doing my normal orbital flight training, when a guy pulled up and he and his wife asked me all kinds of questions about my P2V+. I also had my Radian Park Flyer on the ground because I intended to fly it right after the two P2V batteries were depleted. This is a wide open area that's awesome for powered gliders, which I love more than any other platform. Since I was within three minutes of my Quad battery dying, I landed it and then, put my Radian together for flight.
They both seemed to be extremely friendly people. I had no reason to expect what happened.
This guy is big. I'm 6'2" and 220lbs. I'm not exactly fat, but I'm not a "built" guy either. This guy was about 4" taller and perhaps 75lbs heavier. Reminded me of my 190lb days when I was pretty cut and defined. About 10 years younger than I.
He brings out this highly repaired THING. No way to know what it was originally. Shrink wrapped wings and fuselage to reinforce the strength of the Styrofoam. An ingenious use of such material I will admit. Had a wingspan of roughly 5'. Twin electric engines. It flew very well from what I saw. But then, a couple of Red Tailed Hawks came into our area. Lofting on thermals, doing their normal hunt flying. This ******* laughs when he sees them and starts climbing towards them with his plane.
My Radian was about 200' up and 500' away from me. I made the decision to bring her home because the Hawks were getting very irritated by their flight. My plane has a wingspan of 78.7". A length of 44.7". It looks huge, but is only 30oz in flying trim. So it is noticed.
This guy starts chasing one of the Hawks. He is laughing the whole time. His plane is very agile and powerful. He causes the Hawk to make some very panicked moves. The other Hawk flew away. This one was trying to but this jerk was harassing it. So I made a sudden decision to harass HIM with my returning Radian. I flew it around his plane when I could. He was laughing. So I chose to return to the field and fly it within very close distance of him and his wife.
He suddenly yells, "WTF are doing? You almost hit us!!!"
He is right. I almost did. But luckily, I missed them both. My Radian doesn't have the power his plane had and it went into a brief high power/high speed turn stall I was able to recover from by leveling the wings. Which is why it came so close to them. About 20' away and at 10' altitude. Which with over 6' wings, appeared to be much closer.
I brought her in for a rough landing. No damage done, but not the best I've managed in the past. He lands his aircraft about 45 seconds later and comes stomping over to me, screaming at me asking what I thought I was doing.
Calmly, I looked at him and said, "I was doing the same thing to you that YOU were doing to that Hawk you F'ing *******! How does that **** FEEL?"
His wife starts laughing now. She says something about how she has told him not to mess with birds in the past, how it would feel to HIM if he were harassed.
He made some threats of physical violence and I simply, calmly said, "I would GREATLY enjoy it if you did big guy. That would be another lesson I'd teach you today." My 85lb Chocolate lab, the one seen in my Avatar, was going batshit crazy growling and barking. He was tied by his leash to the back of my vehicle.
Man, I was barely containing my fury at that point. When I get pissed off, I get calm as hell on the outside, but sheer FURY is going on inside. Like a tornado in full swing. I just wanted this prick to take ONE more step towards me.
Luckily, he didn't. He became suddenly shy acting. Like he had been caught kicking a cat or something. His wife? She was PISSED at him and very apologetic towards me. I find it hard to believe she would have come there knowing he was the type to do that kind of ****. Perhaps he was having a HUGE lapse in judgement and had never done it before. But his glee, demonstrated by his laughter while chasing that Hawk, tends to make me think otherwise.
I'm sitting here wishing I had kicked the **** out of him. My anger is still boiling red hot over this event. I got his tag number and have already reported him to the local Ranger Station since technically, this is a National Forest where animals are protected. I wish I had flown the Radian first and the Quad second so I could have gotten video of his behavior. Right now, it's just my word against his and, unless his wife were to voice against him, he will get away with it.
Not only am I disappointed in his actions, but my own.
