They say; "Revenge is a dish best served cold."

 

This was a moment that John Dussold has been waiting for; nearly 20 years in the making.  Back in May of 1989 (although it could have also been May 1991 - in either case a long time ago) I had received the wonderful assignment at the News Tribune to go out to the Jefferson City Memorial Airport to take some photos of some guys flying radio controlled model airplanes as a preview story for their upcoming event; the now defunct “Show-Me R/C Extravaganza.”  As much as I’ve loved aviation throughout the years, I was excited about this assignment.  I still hadn't started flying R/C airplanes myself, but was very interested in them.

I went out to the airport to find a small group of about ten guys including one or two that represented the City of Jefferson setting up to fly about as many R/C model airplanes.  Of course, they didn’t know that I was an aviation enthusiast.  I still remember Robert Wunderlich saying; “Don’t call your plane a ‘bipe’ he doesn’t know what a ‘bipe’ is!”  To which I replied; “Yes I do, it’s a biplane, no problem.”  They seemed surprised that I would know that information.

I distinctly remember taking pictures of Lance Campbell’s big ducted-fan Byron F-20 coming straight at my head as he bounced the landing and came straight at me as I was at the far end of the pit area trying to get a better shot of the airplanes landing.  I nearly saw more than I wanted and had to dive to avoid getting hit and let me tell you, a large-scale F-20 through a telephoto lens coming at your head is rather frightening.

However, the most memorable moment of that day was the flight of John Dussold.  He had his chrome MonoKote covered Hotts doing all sorts of aerobatic maneuvers.  To this day I still don't know how he could keep track of that shiny, spinning airplane.  I had taken some shots of him setting up, flying, then heard those words; “I don’t have it!”  We watched as it started to fly away, then spiral in and smash into the ground quite a distance away, but luckily it didn’t happen near any other buildings (or swimming pools).  As a news photographer, I knew I wanted to get a photo of these guys as they approached the crash scene.  After all, this is a very real part of flying R/C airplanes.  So as fast as this fat-boy could run (which was significantly faster then than now), I took off towards the airplane because I wanted to be set up on the other side of it as they approached it.  Rick Poire and John wondered; “What the hell is this guy doing?!”

Oddly enough, and out-of-breath, I was able to get there before them and got the photo I wanted of John Dussold picking up his crashed airplane, which, of course, showed up a few days later in the newspaper with a “before-and-after” style photo layout.  I’m sure John treasured that photo (he did mention today that he still has a copy of that article).  However, what I didn’t realize was that from that moment on, he started waiting for the moment when his sweet revenge would return.  It’s a wonder he ever even helped me when I was learning to fly R/C – or – when he did get a chance to fly my plane that he didn’t plant it and ask me to take a picture of that! Nevertheless, he’s not that kind of a guy.

Fast forward to the same month, but 18 to 20 years later; I was at the JCRC Flying Field on a beautiful Sunday afternoon that was custom-made for R/C flying on May 17th with my friends; Steve Bradford & John Dussold.  I had taken out my favorite Sunday flyer; my purple & white Sig LT-40 and had hoped to wear out the wheels shooting dozens of touch-n-go’s.  Over the winter months I had converted my LT-40 to the new Spektrum radio system. 

Since this is the plane that I use the most when training other people, I decided that I would save the wear-and-tear on my nice JR 9303 Spektrum radio and set up the plane to fly with one of the simple 5-channel DX5e Spektrum radios and use a simple trainer box with it when flying with others.  This was my first flight with the new, never-before-used radio.  I had tested it in the WorkShop and I had range-checked it at the field, everything has always seemed perfectly in order, except for one thing that I probably should have noted better, but it didn’t get my attention at the time.  I noticed that the rechargeable AA-batteries that I had installed in the radio seemed to fit rather tight, but they fit, they charged properly and the meter showed that they were at full power. 

I took off, even did a touch-n-go and headed back up as I had planned on doing many of them this afternoon.  I had just offered the radio to John Dussold, who was standing nearby to see if he wanted to take a lap or two with it, since it was so much fun to fly and land.  As I extended my arm to hand him the radio, all of a sudden the plane went to full throttle without having touched the lever.  I quickly brought the radio back to my chest and uttered those words John has been waiting to hear for so long; “I don’t have it!” 

I could hear the radio beeping as if it were being turned on, then off, then on, then off.  I knew it was the batteries in the back that were causing the problem.  As the plane started to circle over head, I realized that I had lucked out, instead of the airplane flying away in a straight line out-of-sight, the plane was staying over the field in a level, left-hand circle pattern that wasn’t even over the houses!  As I realized that I might have a chance to save the plane I took the back cover off of the radio and did my best to get the batteries to make proper contact.  I even asked John to help try to spin the batteries within the holder to see if we could get contact again.  He did his best and mentioned that they were in there so tight that they wouldn’t move.  I was able to get a contact just long enough, that the plane throttled back down and I had it back for a brief moment and began to setup for a hurried landing, when it lost contact again, but this time, it was in a left hand spiraling dive and it went straight in the ground in the field just beyond the cliff on the other side of the runway and there wasn't enough time to mess with the batteries again. 

It went in fast and hard.  I knew the ground was softened due to the recent rain, but I knew it was going to be ugly and sure enough, it didn’t look symmetrical any longer as I peered over the cliff to get a glimpse of the remains.  At that point John said; “I wish I had my camera so that I could run out before you get there and take a picture of it as you pick it up!”  I agreed that it would certainly be an appropriate and ironic pay-back for what I had done to him so many years earlier.  I offered him my camera so that he could get the photo he so desired to take.  (Additionally, after we returned to the pit area, he got out his camera and took more pictures, just in case I decided not to send these to Stacy Gillmore for publication on the website.  Drats!) 

Keep in mind that the crash didn’t happen because of the 2.4 GHz technology, it was working perfectly, in fact I checked my receiver with my 9303 after the crash and it works perfectly.  It was due to the crappy design of the battery box on the DX5e which is the other reason I am writing this story; to warn you if you happen to have one of these worthless radios.  Don’t use anything but AA’s that fit properly.  I was using Kodak brand AA rechargeable batteries.  Until tonight, I had no idea that AA batteries do come in different sizes and China isn’t held to the same production standards as US companies when it comes to tolerances for those different batteries.  I found this out via R/C Universe as I read stories about others who have had the same problem. 

Back then, John was able to rebuild the Hotts and get it flying again, but this time, especially with everything else going on, it just wasn’t worth the effort to re-build the LT-40 as much as I liked it and will miss it, the LT-40 is gone!  This story should also serve to answer any questions about the plane in the trash can at the JCRC flying field and what happened. 

John, we're good now, right? :-)

Happy flying!
Shaun