I am sad to report the loss of my beloved Extreme Flight Extra. It was the perfect flying airplane, until I crashed it into the trees and brush just beyond our runway. Everyone present thought that I could go right over to it, and retrieve the plane, but none of us could find it. As our club is located in Florida, stuff really grows here. The thick mass of trees, vines, and underbrush is on the edge of what was then a dry swamp. A drone was sent up on several occasions to do a grid pattern search of the area, to no avail. A different aircraft was found during the aerial search, but not the Extra. The place is like the Bermuda Triangle. Many planes have gone in there, never to be seen again.

Sorry to hear that. Is that at the “Area 52” club?

Right at the end of the 72mhz days I forgot to extend my antennae full distance and my 50cc Extra flew off into the wild blue yonder. We searched my uncle's 100 acre property for years and never found it.

the bush around the world famous TOC Las Vegas RC facility has disappeared a few planes too!

(Bill Bennett Field over by the silver bowl)

Frank from our field (OCMA) would find it (and bring it back) in a few minutes. He's amazing.

Originally Posted by ghoffman

Sorry to hear that. Is that at the “Area 52” club?

Yes it is!.

Originally Posted by Dablade

Yes it is!.

Nice place, I'd like to drive over and fly there sometime. Is there a Bermuda Triangle there?

Originally Posted by Mithrandir

the bush around the world famous TOC Las Vegas RC facility has disappeared a few planes too!

(Bill Bennett Field over by the silver bowl)

Joe Nall -
Even moving the tree line back up on the main flight line , they still manage to put them in the trees ......

Which way did it go down?

Approximate location (as perceived) of crash….

Speaking from experience, they are always out farther than you thought. We fly in the middle of acers and acers of corn. The best way we found is with a drone,if that dosen't work the farmer always finds them with the combine.It's never about the plane recovery, just the hardware.A few guys use GPS locators in the plane,they seem to work the best.

I’ll be out there tomorrow, I’ll bring my drone and spend some time in that area and see if I can locate it.

Although our field is in New York, not Florida, we do have a wooded area adjacent to our runways in which planes go down all the time. It is like a jungle in there, with thorned bushes, poison ivy, insects and ticks, and during summer nobody dares to go in.

We have 2-3 recovery drones that we use to scout the woods flying low over the tree line looking for the planes. In many occasions they come up empty, after multiple flights. We found that it always depends on the ANGLE that the downed plane has hit the bushes/ trees. If it hit the bushes on a nose-down attitude with the frame being almost vertical, the drones cannot see it.

There is only one guy (we call him the "balsa hound" ) who can go into that area, after he puts on a chem suit and grabs a machete and/or a chain saw. It is usually this guy that recovers the planes that cannot be found by the drones.

Good luck with your search. Whatever the condition of the recovered plane may be, you may get the whole plane or some parts, but at least you will get closure. Been here, done that, and I know how it feels.

Originally Posted by LIpilot

Although our field is in New York, not Florida, we do have a wooded area adjacent to our runways in which planes go down all the time. It is like a jungle in there, with thorned bushes, poison ivy, insects and ticks, and during summer nobody dares to go in.

We have 2-3 recovery drones that we use to scout the woods flying low over the tree line looking for the planes. In many occasions they come up empty, after multiple flights. We found that it always depends on the ANGLE that the downed plane has hit the bushes/ trees. If it hit the bushes on a nose-down attitude with the frame being almost vertical, the drones cannot see it.

Same here in Brooklyn along the coast except no drones
There is only one guy (we call him the "balsa hound" ) who can go into that area, after he puts on a chem suit and grabs a machete and/or a chain saw. It is usually this guy that recovers the planes that cannot be found by the drones.

Good luck with your search. Whatever the condition of the recovered plane may be, you may get the whole plane or some parts, but at least you will get closure. Been here, done that, and I know how it feels.

Same here in Brooklyn along the south shore, except no drone use allowed in National Park.

But our go to guy never dons any protective clothing, just grabs his machete, and can locate the smallest piece of balsa within about an hour.

And he never catches Poison Ivy, gets bitten by mosquitos or ripped up by wild rose thorns.

And that 35% CAP in my Avatar...he located plane in heavy coastal tangle about 100 yards away from beach in heavy coastal tangle and carried it out fully assembled while hacking his way through tangle and 6' tall seagrass. There was vitually no damage from either crash or recovery.

I dont believe he is human.

I have personally contracted poison ivy from planes he has recovered for me.

Originally Posted by GR8R8

I’ll be out there tomorrow, I’ll bring my drone and spend some time in that area and see if I can locate it.

Wow. That is a real act of kindness.