The Good...The REALLY Bad...but All will be Good again...

The wind has been a near-constant companion here on the hill for the past few weeks, with only a few breaks that let me get some flying done.  Even slope soaring is out now that my favorite levee is sporting a brand-new NO TRESPASSING sign (yeah, Allen---the one we used so much back in the day), so I'm on the lookout for a replacement stretch that's accessible and aligned with our typical North/South breezes.

So when the winds backed down and smoothed out a bit yesterday evening, I figured that it was time to test the 3 Meter B.O.T.'s repaired wing.  Had a beautiful sunset in progress, with everything working, and the old Cox Sportsman .15 giving it's all.

By the time it's film canister fuel tank was empty, I had some good altitude to play with and got the old bird trimmed up.  Got some leisurely cruising done before heading out over the north pasture, and turning inbound...where the mis-judgement began.  

In spite of my mental note to allow for the breeze still coming across the hill, I turned to final too late to make my yard and the old sailplane once again smacked the fence at the edge of the pasture.  The really insulting part was that I thought it was clear of the fence, and hauled in some elevator to flair it.  Starting to think I'm really slipping with my flying skills.

The impact wasn't hard, with fence 'catching' the plane head-on, but when the B.O.T. settled back on it's tail, the whole aft fuselage folded right behind it's wing.  I had to hoof it down there quickly to shoo away my landlords cattle that were highly interested in this new diversion!

The old bird looked pretty pitiful with it's tail twisted back over it's wing.  I carefully reached over the electric cow wire, and took it by it's rudder, picking it up like grabbing a shot goose by it's neck.

Despite the hovering depression following me and my busted plane back to the shop, it turns out that maybe this was a good thing.  I knew the area right behind the wing had been stressed from a few thousand landings and clunks since I got the plane (I think) back in 2003.  Chips of paint had broken off right past the wings bolts over the years, but I'd figured it was from the fiberglass flexing.  Guess it was a lot more than flexed, as there was a clean straight break almost all the way around the fuse!

So, the GOOD is that it didn't give up in-flight, saving me my radio gear and maybe the total loss of everything (I've flown around some fairly swampy areas). And MORE good is that, knowing the B.O.T.'s wing had repair on top of repair, last November I'd bought another one for hi-starting.  This method of launching a sailplane is for healthy wings only, and I'd been patching the old one along for a long time.  

The irony in all this is that the patched wing came though just fine, so it's gonna pack the engine pod on future flights, while the new wing is gonna do the pure sailplane hi-start stuff.  Probably also head down to Painton for some serious pattern work/practice !!!

Thus concludes 'Kim's Novel of the Week'!