The weather was half decent today, so I thought it was time I did something about the wreckage of “Chicken of the Sky”, my radio controlled plane. “Wreckage” being due to the unfortunate accident involving an inexperienced pilot and a heavy collision with the ground soon after take-off back in September last year. A small quantity of cocktail sticks and some parcel tape and she was ready to take to the skies once more!
A useful piece of advice for would-be pilots everywhere: Beware of strong winds. I did notice that it was a little breezier than I'd have liked shortly before take-off, but I was all too eager to get the thing flying again. And hilarity did ensue :-)
Less than a minute flying time, a good hour of “so, how the hell do we get that down from there?” time. Climbing the tree was out of the question. Even the extremely helpful off-duty tree surgeon who happened to be paying attention to our plight wasn't going to climb up there... at least not until Monday when he'd have his ropes :-) An improvised grappling hook made from parcel tape and a small piece of tree was Dave's ingenious solution for reaching the branch that it was very well embedded in.
After several refinements of the process (I do wish I'd attended that Introduction to Grappling Hooks lecture) we eventually got it hooked on to the right branch and managed to dislodge the item, which I was fully expecting to take a nose-dive and disintegrate on impact. Miraculously it floated down and ended up on the ground unharmed. I, on the other hand ran into a low-hanging tree branch whilst running to catch the plane. Apparently this was an entertaining sight.
All in all this was a satisfactory afternoon's entertainment. Many thanks to Dave for all his help in getting that worthless piece of junk back out of the tree so that I may fly it into another one someday :D