It's about the corn !!!!

[Frank v B]

Facts:
- the corn is about 7 feet tall.  If you go in with one of Dr. John's reasonable-rent flag sticks you cannot be seen.  I had to tape a stick onto a 3' long painting stick to be visible.  When Frank Candu went in to retrieve his airplane we could not see his 7' flag he held up on his tippie-toes until I stood on the top rung of a 4' ladder at the start of the corn.
- two of the most useful search tools are a cell phone and Toby, Graham's foam sniffing dog.
- the taller the corn grows, the stronger a plane magnet it becomes.
- the stalks were dramatically fatter than last week, leaving less walking space both across and with the rows.
- Take your bearings from the sun!  The noon sun is directly south of the flight line.  You will not be able to see any landmarks when you are in the corn (tree-line, telephone poles, trees, etc.) save for possibly the cell tower behind our flight line.

After this morning's flying session, here is my advice to myself:
- you're an idiot.  You crash where you fly...... so fly in closer.
- have a spotter with you while you are flying.  His job is to be the spotter when (not "if") the plane goes down.
- fly a large visible airplane, not a medium size or small size camouflage one.  If you can't see it, you will not find it.
- when walking the corn rows, walk across them, not with them.  If you are walking with them you can see about 6' over left and right.  When you are walking across the rows, you can see about 15' each way (down the rows).
- As Frank Candu found out, a locator beacon will only be heard for about 10', much less than I thought.... but he wouldn't have found his plane without it.


Toby the foam-sniffing search dog found the GWS C-130.  Good boy.  The extra Milkbone is on its way.

[Frank v B]

GWS C-130 crash- post mortem.

Description- GWS C-130 with two 2805 out runners with 5x3 Cox props in the inboard nacelles on one 3 cell 1350 Lipo.  The two outer props were free-wheeling.  Not flown since last year.

The first take-off attempt failed even with full up elevator.  The CG was way forward at the leading edge.  Moved the battery from its usual position in the nose cavity to the main cargo area under the wing.  Took off fine.
Did about 5 laps under full control.  When setting up for the landing, the plane suddenly lost altitude and nosed in as if a full "down" elevator had been given.

I downloaded the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) and FDR (flight data recorder) information onto my flip phone (sure! ) and found out the following:

The CVR was not very helpful.  When the event unfolded all I could hear were all kinds of Korean expletives and the name "Frank".
The FDR revealed a massive and sudden shift in the CG when setting up for the landing.  When we found the plane, I disconnected the battery and then found a second 1300 mah 3 cell battery all charged up and taped off. 

The second hidden battery must have suddenly shifted when I gave "down" elevator for the first time.  The hollow nose cavity allowed it to move freely about 6" forward.

At least we know now...... that I'm an idiot*.


Frank

* over to you, Andy

[Candu]

Facts:
- the corn is about 7 feet tall.  If you go in with one of Dr. John's reasonable-rent flag sticks you cannot be seen.  I had to tape a stick onto a 3' long painting stick to be visible.  When Frank Candu went in to retrieve his airplane we could not see his 7' flag he held up on his tippie-toes until I stood on the top rung of a 4' ladder at the start of the corn....
....

- As Frank Candu found out, a locator beacon will only be heard for about 10', much less than I thought.... but he wouldn't have found his plane without it.....

Hmm...  The math doesn't work out...  The flag is 7 feet tall, Candu on his tippie toes and raised arm adds another 7 feet, 7+7=14. Now, the corn this week is only 7 feet tall so the flag should be 7 feet above the top of the corn. But the flag is not visible from the pilot station... So it must be the curvature of the earth, Frank!

Actually, the Loc8tor I was using is not the audio beeping type, it operates on 2.4Ghz RF band, it activated at about 30 - 40 feet from the plane. It guided me directly to the plane without having to do a zig-zag search pattern.

[Frank v B]

Frank Candu

re:The math doesn't work out......  But the flag is not visible from the pilot station... So it must be the curvature of the earth, Frank!

Yes it does work out.

Draw a line from eye level (5'- 5.5') at the pilot's station to the 7' corn level at the edge of the corn at the field and you will not see a stick 12'-14' tall when you are 100-150' into the corn.  Line of sight is the hypotenuse of the triangle.

When I stood on my 4' ladder on the top rung (about 3' off the ground) at the edge of the field I could see 4' of your stick and flag above the corn line.
So the fact that you are short, that I am not tall enough and the curvature of the earth explains everything.

Frank

[Candu]

So the fact that you are short, that I am not tall enough and the curvature of the earth explains everything.

Frank

Now with all the facts on the table, the solution is obvious. Let's get Dr. John to trade in the white flag pole for this: