despite the constant misting rain, my aa241x (aircraft design) class headed outside today to test the half-scale model (wingspan of about 5 feet, just to give you an idea) of our airplane. for the record, i had nothing to do with the half-scale model, because i was busy working on the solar cells and propulsion system for the full-scale plane. you’ll understand why i clear myself of responsibility in just a moment.
so we all head over to roble field, professor kroo holding the plane. we arrive, and he does a few quick jogs back and forth with the plane held high to see what sort of moments it’s experiencing. professor alonso and pete, the t.a. who will be flying the plane, look on. the rest of the class makes jokes and prays that the thing will fly. i stand idly watching since i’m one of only 5 people there who didn’t actually help build the model. but it’s still a model of the plane we’ll eventually build, and we want to see.
finally dr. kroo and dr. alonso and pete are ready to launch. most of the class is standing down at the other end of the field with the profs, while i stand a few hundred feet away with valerie, andy, and john. the plane is launched, and awkwardly climbs, but is starting to stabilize. the conversation goes something like this”
john: “cool, it flys.”
valerie: “neat!”
andy: “yeeaaaah.”
me: “uh oh.”
we all watch as something oblong and white falls from the plane to the ground.
john: “something fell off.”
andy: “uh oh.”
we continue to watch as the plane turns and begins to glide over our heads.
valerie: “UH OH.”
me: “oh crap!”
the plane floats past, makes a sharp left turn, stalls, and plunges 20 feet directly into the ground. the balsa wood fuselage shatters. the wing and tail are still perfectly intact, but the battery and nose counterweight fall out and lay among the shards of what used to be the fuselage. andy, valerie and i run over to the plane. the rest of the class runs toward us to see what happened. john goes to see what fell off.
class: “oh noooo!”
john walks up. “here’s the problem, this fell off.”
we all look to see what he is holding, expecting to see a servo or perhaps a control surface. instead, he is holding the propeller. we all stare for a second, and burst into laughter. fortunately they built a back-up fuselage, so a few people who will still be around tomorrow are going to attach the new fuselage and fly it again, hopefully with the propeller much more solidly attached.all in all,it was quite a funny experience. the propeller fell off! how absurd can you get? hours later, the whole scene is still cracking me up. hee hee hee. : )
maybe you had to be there…
