Flight #2 was the painful part. I figured I'd be safe with some draggy, lower level stuff, so I pulled out the Estes DOM Orbital Transport Laboratory that I'd just finished. A8-3 flight, so it seemed it would have been safe. Things looked great at first, the flight was as arrow straight as the Patriarch, but it also recovered like the Patriarch. It raced toward the tree, the wires and the road, clearing the first two, but the chute was taking it down right into oncoming traffic. It cleared the first vehicle, but the second one caught it at 35mph. They never touched the brakes. I safed the pad and headed up to see the damage. The collision with the car had knocked all of the fins off. They were spread out near the intersection. The body had landed in the northbound lane and the chute had dragged it through the oncoming cars. One of them caught it full near the edge of the road. Completely flattened it. The nose cone and chute were perfectly fine. I waited at the field for the car to come back, but they never did, which leads me to believe that they didn't even feel/hear the collision. Anyway, back to the drawing board on this one. Luckily I still have all the patterns and templates down on the desk.

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__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Mini Dactyl Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2