Ep 113: Reggie’s got a story to tell

[00:00:04] Hello everyone welcome to the rc plane lab podcast i'm ron i'm tom i'm dave and i'm reggie we have reggie back today welcome back reggie thank you he's got a few stories to tell not so good but some well we'll make the bad stories more educational yeah yeah they will

[00:00:27] Help i believe our listeners so all five of them anyway what do you want to start talking about do

[00:00:35] You want to get into that or you want to go over some happy stuff first go over some happy stuff so we we i haven't had a chance to sit down and talk to you since we went to the jet meet over

[00:00:43] In monticello what did you think i loved it i mean every time we've gone to a jet meet as far as you or me by myself or just even watching people fly regular jets or the edfs i've wanted to do it yeah and it's been my quest i've been slowly buying a few edfs here and there learning trying to figure them out horse destroying but eventually either getting some new ones or just working with

[00:01:10] The ones i got so did you come back from the jet meet with the goal of getting a turbine i think

[00:01:16] Both of us did yes we did yeah and i think he's gonna beat me like i said it's a challenge yeah it's

[00:01:22] A competition to see who gets who gets one first i'm fine letting him get one first are you though

[00:01:27] I really am because i am i'm on my two-year goal i'm still saying that's what i want because i don't have any interest in rushing into that i still think i have a lot to learn before i bite that large chunk of change bullet and bring a new airplane like that in the house well that is a chunk of change yes it is can be and even i mean yeah yeah it's expensive no matter really how you look at it

[00:01:54] I think i'm in no rush like you i'm just gonna kind of see what falls in my lap

[00:02:00] Of course good opinions i've never had one fall in my lap so i guess

[00:02:05] Tommy stumbled across that s-box of mine and it basically dropped in my lap and brand new in a box motor and all that and i i'm gonna look for another deal like that if i can was that was that new or was that it was brand new it was all brand new oh yeah guys bought it and tom you found it on one

[00:02:23] Of the websites i believe yeah i think it was it was been it may have been rc universe way back then but yeah i stumbled across it a guy had bought all the stuff and either decided to go a different direction or it didn't have time to build it or whatever the story was but it was all yeah it was all brand new in the box so basically just drove up to chicago and got it

[00:02:43] Yeah oh that was even close i mean there's been some used jets that we've found online that have been texas or pennsylvania or i don't know if it's worth a huge long haul like

[00:02:55] That or not absolutely you think one of the guys here is a truck driver is all over the country well

[00:02:59] That's true but he doesn't always go where we need him to go that's true so if you wait if you're patient well it depends how long they'll hold it for you well like if you find something you want it's

[00:03:09] Going to have to be pretty so i've i've i've done it several times for for reggie and our other friend bob both i've driven all kinds of places to pick airplanes up for them for me it's like an adventure i love it like well i yeah but the excitement seems far yeah yeah it depends on

[00:03:27] Where that's not a two-day trip kind of thing that would be more of like a can be i mean you think so yeah i mean that's a lot of drive although you drive so it's only about 11 11 and a half hours to

[00:03:39] Dallas yeah basically it's really if you think about it it's not that bad i mean yeah 11 hours is a long time to be in a car by yourself or whatever take somebody you can get there and get

[00:03:47] Back the same day absolutely i never thought of that just switch out drivers yep yeah so well we'll keep an eye open but would you be willing to find something used or are you wanting to go new i

[00:03:58] Want to go new i mean it's got to be money bags you may have to sell a few things or any to facilitate i already know or stop i can think of a couple of things you probably ought to just sell right now what are they well he's got a certain howcat that i've been after him for but that's an

[00:04:20] Arf isn't it it is that's not put together yet it is not oh yeah that's a good idea that'll still

[00:04:25] And it's more room that big box it takes up a lot of space so you could free up a lot of space if

[00:04:30] You got rid of a few i freed up some space today did you yes yes the viper jet is now 90 millimeters now together it's actually in the back of the suburban so it actually takes up more space

[00:04:41] Now because it's complete and now it's a complete airframe taking up more space of an airframe as

[00:04:47] Opposed to just the box nice rectangle anymore yeah right i still got a cable to put above everything

[00:04:53] Else so it's gonna go up that way so your plane room is what you're talking about another cable to go across to store more airplanes like i was over there the other day that's been a couple weeks ago three weeks whatever now month even wow i mean was that the first time you'd seen it no okay but it's first time we've seen it recently recently he was there with you one time yeah i mean he has really like there's not a lot of room in there for walking let alone anything else i am i'm impressed with the the jenga that goes on to get those to fit it's been cleaned up a bit since

[00:05:28] You've been in there has it yep a little time well you did i was gonna say i was just getting ready to say well you had a little bit of time to to organize and clean so and of course we freed up

[00:05:38] Another spot today with our deal so we did not we did how do tell that mustang that you wanted

[00:05:46] Yeah but how does that free up another spot well because you're putting a well i don't know how big it is about the same size plane in its place what the did you get a mustang so we're we're yes we are trading he wanted that twin star thingy that i bought him a long time ago so he's getting well he's already got that back and then that cloud dancer that i picked up in ohio like i i get excited about things and then i'm like eh it's time to get rid of it okay i got everything ready on it but haven't

[00:06:16] Flown it i don't really care to like i originally wanted to fly it but it's like i just want it gone i want to simplify so yeah i'm trading those two airplanes for well i don't even know it's a hangar nine p51 trainer style gas yeah meg yeah my old p51 so it's still in the family yeah i'm hoping it's

[00:06:37] A good airplane like i hope they run fly it's been years if it actually flies really well but i'm just

[00:06:43] I'm hoping the motor still runs well not like a typical p51 it's so weird it starts every time does it well and you get two brand new batteries go with it yeah and i'm not not saying like you didn't take care of anything i just i've never had a gas engine that small and i don't know longevity how long those work but i've also never had i don't think i've ever had a mustang before

[00:07:04] I didn't not that i remember like that seems like one of those quintessential airplanes that everybody has to have like a mustang a cub yeah i mean those are i've had cubs but i don't think it looks like a mustang but it doesn't fly like well it kind of looks like a mustang well it's like a cartoony version to make it fly better which is fine that's okay i mean the mustangs are never and the little gas engine is super convenient yeah the mustangs have never been like my favorite airplane it's just for as popular as they are amongst rc hobbyists they just really don't do a lot for me everybody

[00:07:35] Has to have a cub everybody has to have a mustang right so now of course you see corsairs do nothing for really yeah like they're neat to watch but i would never want to own one i don't know why they just don't do enough for me to make me want to buy one you've got a few and you've got a few mustangs

[00:07:56] Reggie they do seem to fly a little different though he has a really nice and i can't believe

[00:08:01] I'm saying this but a nice foam p51 that flies awesome the day we flew with the church man right tail yeah i can't believe how well that thing flies oh was that the one i saw at your house that you hadn't flown yet no i'm sitting on this floor this one's for a foamy is big it's like yeah 800

[00:08:18] Millimeter yeah that's pretty it's stout it's heavy yeah yeah for a foam yeah but man i thought you

[00:08:24] Hadn't flown that one when i was over there i thought i was having an issue i think there's a connector that's going to loosen it and this would maybe stop flying it for a little bit oh

[00:08:32] But yeah so that will be our so this is all this is all the all the trading and the moving and the

[00:08:38] Horse trading is all in preparation for a jet is that no no yeah i was gonna say no no this is just what we're doing yeah because are we still talking about the jet meet or have we moved

[00:08:50] On oh we can go back to that but we'll finish up so when he came over he liked the the cloud dancer and i was on the outs with it for some reason okay which i don't i mean it's it feels like it's a very well-built plane oh yeah the motor on it's nice it's an old in-runner type motor that it actually mounts to the nitro engine mount oh like it's a it's a cool little setup yeah like i said it runs well i just haven't flown it and i'm just ready to not worry

[00:09:24] About it he liked it so it's like well it's either that or it's going up to brian's might as well let it stay in the family and have somebody enjoy it yeah so yes that's that that's our deal we're going to finish that up today and be done and move on but the jet meet what was your favorite part

[00:09:41] Oh i can't think of that one jet that young kid was flying but every time he made a pitch with it one way or the other and that sound that would make i know the best parts that and that oversized what looked like an old e-flight i can't think of that airliner of some type oh the a380

[00:09:59] Yeah the a380 is that the big one the ginormous that he was sitting on 32 batteries or whatever it is that i don't think will ever fly yeah that was impressive it was crazy that was remember they

[00:10:08] Used to have a a model of that from was it park zone that had umx you mean no it was it was

[00:10:15] It's a good size one but nonetheless dave's drinking and that sounded so funny

[00:10:23] It's just sorry just i was like what is that sound it was about size of this table maybe a little bit longer but oh really yeah that one flight one yep yeah it was inside a park zone i can't remember who had it it was e-flight yeah it had a real long landing gear just like this one here did it had a weird name to it i can't remember i can't either but i did stumble across one a long time ago and waited and it wasn't even a day it was gone you should never wait if you see something you want

[00:10:53] You got to jump on it true isn't that right tommy we'll talk about that free wings got that airliner

[00:10:59] Now it looks a lot nicer they got two the al-37 and the p pj or pb50 the cessna looking thing yep yep

[00:11:09] Yeah but yeah there was a lot of cool jets up there i had never seen like i'd never been to a jet meet before like that was the first time i've actually been to nothing but jets and the sound just i don't know what it is about a jet but it's just so relaxing even though it's like not relax i mean what i mean like just watching it there's like no moving parts there's not an engine that you see you don't see the the prop going around and all that kind of stuff it's just very relaxing to watch

[00:11:38] Them fly and the sound sounds awesome it did just the whole process of watching them get them started and taxing them out and then flying and whatnot i was nervous for them to be honest with you oh yeah

[00:11:51] Well i think you have to get to the point where you don't mind crashing like you don't want to but you

[00:11:56] Have to not be bothered by it well we've said it before too you you have to be prepared to let go of whatever it is you're flying because if you're really that attached to it and you can't swing or you can't handle losing that airplane then maybe that level of the hobby is just not for you yeah i mean yeah

[00:12:18] I get it and i mean that's yeah it's just so difficult though because you fall in love with these airplanes and it's not stuff happens oh every airplane if you spent your entire hobby

[00:12:30] Budget on a jet let's say and it crashes and then you can't enjoy the hobby after that well maybe you

[00:12:36] Shouldn't have what i'm saying i see where you're going on that one yeah i'm more thinking mentally like not necessarily financially but just like getting attached to it and then having

[00:12:44] To deal with that that's a hump to get over yeah and still it sticks with you just you want to make sure everything's perfect you two or three have the eye for everything i seem to slip and jump over

[00:12:55] Things so you don't you don't have an eye for details like that's the problem like you and we've said it before like all of us would be like oh i would not fly that and reggie's like oh give me the controls let's do it it's just if there's something just not right and you're getting better the the longer you've been in the hobby but it usually is if something's not right you're like hey that's okay it'll be good enough whereas we're like i'm not gonna fly that does anybody

[00:13:22] Else agree or disagree oh i agree okay many times that i've drug stuff out to the field going

[00:13:28] Take it back home yeah many times i've done that too yeah i don't feel i don't feel the obligation to just because i brought it to the field i am flying this thing regardless yeah yeah i'm okay with taking it home if i haven't flown it it's fine yeah i mean like i was it because it'll be in one piece

[00:13:48] To fly again the next time right it's true i want to fly it but i don't want this to be my last fight with it over something that i knew was iffy yeah because that would have and it doesn't have to be a

[00:13:57] I mean the the detail the attention to detail doesn't have to just be limited to the airplane either it could be the conditions maybe it's a little too dark yeah maybe it's a little too little foggy maybe maybe the clouds are too low maybe yeah maybe the visibility is not where it

[00:14:12] Needs to be or it could be anything i do recall though one of the last times we were out there with reggie i remember what airplane you had you were trying you were trying to get high enough to fly through the clouds yeah there's been a few of those oh well i haven't been there with all of them but i was looking up and it's just like this dot in the air and i'm like is that your plane or is that

[00:14:36] Like fair to be fair you made the comment here just recently that you probably ought to have your vision checked i probably should but that's for night so anything that could potentially look like a dot to you at the moment if it's oh i see what you're i see what you're saying yeah it

[00:14:53] Could be i mean reggie's vision may be much much better than ours we don't know but still it might be like blurry at that size but it still looks tiny i'm trying to give rent he is and you are but i'm sure i'm up there more likely yeah but his goal was to try and hit the clouds yeah i know and i'm like the clouds are a couple thousand feet up there i don't think you're gonna oh yeah

[00:15:18] For a person who has flown through the clouds it's scary the second that airplane is there and then disappears disappears did you do it on purpose when you flew yes oh okay so is this a thing i don't know about that is it i've never we had a very low cloud deck one day and a bunch of us decided we

[00:15:36] Should try to fly through the cloud deck i can honestly say i've never actually intentionally tried to fly through a cloud neither have i i it's really into the ceiling or anything like that

[00:15:48] You can see the airplane and then instantly it's gone there's no it's getting fuzzy it's just so when

[00:15:53] It disappears what do you do chop the throttle and wait for it to fall out and sometimes that can take a moment so you've done it you've actually done it before but you have no idea where it's going to fall out like okay let's say it you lose it in this spot in the sky well it's more than like you're

[00:16:10] Not going to come back in that spot so generally you're going straight up or close to it so hopefully

[00:16:16] It comes down kind of in the same spot oh so your goal is to go up into it vertically not actually to

[00:16:22] Fly horizontally correct yeah okay bust the cloud layer and then come back down mine's was clouds

[00:16:30] That were all separated there was quite a bit of space p per cloud which is what you were doing when we were out there it was just a white fluffy cloud day going for one cloud and go into it and i went into one and once it got in there it didn't come back out i literally chopped throttle and waited and kept weeding and it's just stayed in there so i don't know if it was still kind of just creeping across the cloud or what it did but i walked from where i was at well it was sitting on the cloud like it came to a stop and landed yeah that's a possibility i wouldn't say it wouldn't be all i know is i walked from where i was at clear back to my truck which is probably about a good hundred feet or so

[00:17:04] And finally i seen something fall out of the cloud and now i'm fidgeting with the roll control controllers and all that trying to get it back and came back to me battery's dead but came back so where was this it was over in ohio okay i was gonna say this wasn't when i was out there with no no this was one of my road days when i was still doing it out in the highway you had to make sure

[00:17:24] There wasn't enough traffic on the off-ramp yeah i was in a rest area and give me some credit here i was just a rest area that's right off the interstate right off the interstate a couple hundred

[00:17:36] Feet maybe something like that right off the interstate right off the cloud wasn't over the

[00:17:40] Interstate it was good ways away clouds move pretty quick by the way yeah and aren't clouds usually claw or caused by updrafts and stuff is that what you were saying yeah yeah so if you get into that

[00:17:51] Then that means your plane could quite possibly just float away i thought it was gone for a while what plane was it do you remember a little t-28 one of those basic yeah so it got small real quick but

[00:18:04] I did see it go in and aren't those white yes red tips yeah so it was gone kind of matches a cloud that's what it did wow oh god reggie i've never i can like i said i've never even thought of trying

[00:18:18] That no the only time i got scared one time when i was flying this has been 10 years ago eight years ago whatever was when it was foggy out and i thought that the fog had lifted enough to fly and it was like perfectly clear up to a couple hundred feet but then all of a sudden if you went up another 20 feet it just disappeared and so as soon as that happened i was like now bring it down and land because i will wait until i can see the blue sky before i take off again

[00:18:49] And that was enough to make me not want to do it again i think you remember it was the

[00:18:53] First time i was on the show i told you guys i lost a little p51 i can't make a name of it now not e-flight version i just said the name of park zone and sure enough i thought the fog had lifted enough for me to go flying it what i didn't realize is that fog was still moving and ah i flew it got over top of my apartment complex and all of a sudden it disappeared got over the top of my apartment complex and sure enough when it disappeared i caught that there was not much i could do trying to find it

[00:19:26] Kept look cut and throttled make sure i could get it back down and i never did find it it was about four or five days later i found it a half a mile away oh so the only thing you have to give you a

[00:19:36] Frame of of reference in this case the sound the throttle makes let's let's get the airplane to disappear in a fog bank and then let's go ahead and cut out the only other frame of reference i have for knowing where the airplane is and let's just chop the throttle in i was hoping it would drop that's

[00:19:55] What i was hoping for i was hoping it's going to drop to where i could see it oh it dropped oh you just don't know it didn't drop that was just it it kept going it cleared the apartment complex the lake some trees an intersection and went almost another quarter mile up the road before it did come

[00:20:10] Down how did you find it you said you found it a half mile away like how driving home before you're just driving all of a sudden you're like wait is that my plane i did because it was the tail end was

[00:20:19] Sitting up out of a ditch i could still see the yellow tail from there the bl there's a park zone bl that looked over that looks familiar i turned around went back and sure enough there was my plane it sat there for four days after a snowstorm in a ditch which ditches are right next to what roads which was right next to the taco bell that it stopped from oh but you don't do this anymore right no

[00:20:45] No i said years ago yeah safety has now kicked in quite a bit i hope the faa doesn't listen to this what's your last name and address i'm sorry

[00:20:58] Safety so that that would be a good segue yeah getting into the whole safety side of things would

[00:21:04] You like now to talk about what you want to talk about with your accident or would you like to talk about your new planes and then end with the the cherry on top of we can talk about the accident

[00:21:18] Okay well then the floor is yours that was about a month and a half ago i guess i'm just pushing two doesn't matter give or take something around there yeah i was at the field with my s-boc and this is

[00:21:30] The s-boc by the way that is 11 cc 111 cc 36 36 big airplane and rushing to beat the sun

[00:21:41] I was planning on getting one more good flight in for the day trying to end my day on a

[00:21:45] Good note so this was beating the sun set yeah trying to get it started so you could fly before

[00:21:51] It got dark and of course this plane takes a minute to put together so going through everything the best i can get it done make sure everything's working so you hadn't flown it yet that day that was

[00:22:01] Gonna be the first oh i don't know why i thought that was like a second flight i was hoping to get two

[00:22:06] But that was only one i'd flown something else earlier that day but that's when i was wanting

[00:22:11] To get done that day but in that trip that was the first time it was going together and okay i got you see i'm still learning stuff about this i didn't realize that so after getting together i

[00:22:23] Realized i left my our retainer i can't think what they call this playing restraint you're playing restraint at home so i grabbed a strap out of the back of suburban and hooked it around to i think it was a little gate or i hooked it onto something this i thought was pretty well secure

[00:22:41] It wasn't gonna go anywhere this is just like a normal tie down strap that we're using and apparently

[00:22:46] Somewhere i don't know if the hook came off the tail wheel or if the strap just pulled off the little bar i had it hooked onto the process of starting it it popped like normal and it lurched forward which scared me and i jumped and accidentally kicked off the choke and the plane was still at full throttle when it did fire up and sure enough got me right in the hand broke my hand in two different places side of my palm and one of the fingers which almost took one of the fingers off but it

[00:23:17] Didn't died the first carbon fiber prop yeah what it's a 27 inch by 10 inch carbon fiber yeah prop correct broke one of the blades off two blade yeah two blade prop one blade now right which i still have by the way oh do you really i have the broken blade yeah okay but yeah broke snap the snap the one of the blades completely off and we found it 20 feet away 20 feet away yeah in front

[00:23:45] Of the pits it actually went right by my face i saw it when it went by i mean i kind of felt it i looked up just as it was going by and i felt the second prop hit at this point the plane did die which was probably the best thing ever yeah because that would come right up my leg oh yeah i would have been found the following day somewhere out there now that would have been that bad but it could have been i mean it's hungry and you're done yeah well that's yeah yeah nonetheless of course now i'm

[00:24:14] Starting to freak out and which but if if i may you were out there completely alone completely alone

[00:24:23] Yeah and this all started right around eight o'clock and i stumbled back a little bit kind of just get myself together start looking at my hand i could see the blood running out of the glove

[00:24:35] And so you did have a glove on i had a glove on so it wasn't just bare handing it which was probably what saved your finger honestly thin glove though i don't know that's it's a pretty thin glove that's a mechanic's glove i thought that was a wasn't that one of those cowhide kind of

[00:24:49] That's what i use leathery kind of no it's it's a textile type it's just one of the mechanics gloves

[00:24:55] Oh okay yeah it's just enough to keep my hand from getting cut flipping it but not protect me from anything else really yeah and at this point i'm now sliding that glove off which i was told

[00:25:05] Was a bad idea i should have left it on oh i never thought of that but yeah you should have went and

[00:25:11] Pulled the glove off and got to looking at my hand and trying to access how bad this really was but at the whole time i could feel myself starting to slip into shock it was starting to tremble get a little nauseated probably getting the chills yeah no it's getting a lot there's a bunch of things going on at this point yeah so did you feel it oh yeah oh did you okay i felt it when it hit but it didn't hurt okay yeah the longer this went on it started to slowly increase yeah that's the shock

[00:25:43] Like i i don't know if everybody knows i cut my fingers off on a table saw several years ago and i did not feel a thing like i heard it hit something and i had no clue what it was so that's why i asked if you felt something it wasn't just a a weird out of left field question i felt it it just i didn't think

[00:26:02] Much at first i just knew i hit it yeah the plot prop flew past my face i was kind of thinking that's not good yeah yeah that could have hurt when i was standing there just kind of trying to calm down i just knew okay i've really screwed up this time this is going to be an issue i pulled the glove off everything was out of the glove i could still see everything i just knew the one finger did not look right at all and i did not want to look at it no more well that's no that's fine i can't blame you i wouldn't want any of that either i can look at anybody else's issues but your own my own i cannot do

[00:26:34] If you guys start talking to me and getting specific about something that'll bother me i can stare at it all day but you get specific about anything in detail or me looking at something on me like that

[00:26:47] I was getting ready to pass out anyway yeah i don't handle that stuff very well either so so we do

[00:26:52] Have a first aid kit at the field and it's it's where our old frequency board fly actually still is and you were at the very last table right so yeah go ahead and talk about that at this point

[00:27:06] I stumbled back over to the table my phone was on the table and proceeded to call a buddy of mine

[00:27:15] And he didn't believe me he thought i was joking the whole time and i kept trying to tell him no this is serious dude i'm kind of screwed up here so he told me to call 9-1-1 i did call 9-1-1-1 first try it was over a minute ringing nobody answered second try about 40 seconds nobody answered third try nobody answered after six rings i gave up i tried to call tommy which at this time i wasn't thinking i knew he was at a dinner and he didn't answer i called dave who did answer and told him

[00:27:49] What i'd done he told me where the first aid kit was and i said dave i'm not gonna make it yeah i

[00:27:55] Barely made it back to the table now the first aid kit is roughly 20 feet away roughly maybe yeah from where he was from where you were yeah yeah maybe and the fact it was telling to me because this plays into the conversation i had with dave when he got a hold of me or when i called him back the fact that you couldn't make it 25 feet or whatever it was to the first aid kit to me it was like oh god this is really really bad i was thinking like in my head the prop had sliced up your arm and gotten that brachial artery brachial yeah right there behind your elbow and you're bleeding out or whatever

[00:28:29] That was that was what dave told me when when i got a hold of my first impression of the from the

[00:28:34] Phone call was he stuck his hand in the prop and he can't make it to the first aid kit well i didn't know that in the beginning so i thought i just stuck his hand in the prop okay just put pressure on it i'll come get you we'll go to the hospital yeah and then when he said he couldn't get to the first aid kit yeah holy crap holy crap yeah this is bad i gotta go now and i'm getting dressed yep and that must be when you called me yeah i made it to the field in a little over six minutes that's impressive which i live 20 minutes away yeah so yeah but the ambulance did come

[00:29:12] Shooting past me yeah over 100 mile an hour i mean that thing was flying and then they missed the turn

[00:29:17] So hold on you did actually then get a hold of 9-1-1 because you never called me

[00:29:24] Just gonna throw that out there well first of all i knew you was the farthest away so true yeah i didn't want to call you i wanted to call whoever was closest that would be the closest yeah during the conversation between me and dave springfield police called me and i told dave hey look there's a springfield police that's calling me so let me grab this and dave said okay he's on his way well then talking to springfield police it started seeming like it was going downhill because he could not find me every time i try to give him a reference point as far as the medevac chopper

[00:29:59] Off upon he rode off of beagle road you had to come past the state police barrack barracks off of 55 and how to get there he seemed clueless on where i was at see that's just nuts i mean like how can you not

[00:30:14] Like did you not tell him what the actual like our our airport is called yeah yeah that's on a map i mean that's just nuts that they couldn't find where you were the only thing he rung his bell he

[00:30:26] Eventually figured out where vegal i think it's vegal or beetle vegal yeah yeah he forgot where that was at and he kept asking me was i in pawnee i was like no i'm not in pawnee i'm off of pawnee road yeah but he did call pawnee police who then eventually found me out there they was asking if the gate was open or not i heard him ask me three or four times and it's fine he just

[00:30:50] It clicks like yeah yes the gate's open i'm the only person back here but somewhere in there i passed out i think at least once or twice because all i know is i didn't hear the chick pull up i did feel her shoving me trying to wake me up and at this point my hand was up in the air it's dripping on my face she looks in she thinks i'm dead she said she could see my legs hanging out

[00:31:13] The back of the truck oh so you're in the truck by now yeah you were in your truck okay and just

[00:31:18] Basically fell in and laid there for a while and trying to keep my hand up the only thing i could think of to do was to keep my hand up above your heart yeah so somewhere and i just know i went to sleep or something but she woke me up and then the other officer came over and he started wrapping my hand up and she just kept holding my hand kept telling me to stay awake so was the cops over there

[00:31:40] It wasn't yep yeah Pawnee police department yeah Pawnee cops got there first so they are they the ones

[00:31:45] Then that called an ambulance or well i did i i would assume police must have yeah because you

[00:31:50] Never did make it through to 9-1-1 no no but i would thought springfield police knowing that i'm now been lacerated by an airport i told them what happened would have called an ambulance well then

[00:32:03] Maybe they're the ones that did then i don't know that's well Pawnee like i said it went shooting past me

[00:32:08] Yeah there was what three ambulances there and four or five volunteers that showed up you got two

[00:32:13] Ambulances and a police car yeah okay yeah and me and yeah so i had a nice little ride the hospital he kept asking me where's my pain level i kept telling him eight so he gave me a round of fentanyl or something 10 15 minutes later oh where's your pain level at eight yeah got to the hospital well where's your pain level at eight and they just kept sticking me with more and more stuff but yeah it never went any lower than an eight but it did definitely go higher than eight when she stuck

[00:32:45] Me directly in a nerve with the needle there so so and i felt every stitch that went in every time she moved my hand twitched or whatever i felt all of that really and just that sucks i guess the best part of that whole deal was all of a sudden tommy's wife was my wife because that nurse didn't know she

[00:33:04] Was there she got there i guess right after i got there yeah so what i think this is when we kind of come into where somehow like the first guy you called called me and asked do you think he's joking about them like he would not joke about something like that so we all ended up like tommy you and your wife went out to the field and you met up like before i actually pulled in right behind dave did you yeah so you guys were there and then laurie yeah she wrote well no she didn't ride you had

[00:33:32] She took your car yeah she she left and followed the ambulance to the hospital yeah and then dave and i stayed back and and you helped you you showed up shortly after yeah and we loaded we put all of

[00:33:44] This line up and clean up the blood and yeah and then it was just like so yeah when when reggie got to

[00:33:51] The hospital it was reggie the paramedic that was on the truck and my wife yeah lori and she's the one that followed in was i mean so naturally they assumed that i really thought it was strange

[00:34:03] They kept asking her yeah if it's okay you can have this or i can have that can you have this can

[00:34:08] You can you can you sign this form and lori's like oh sure well and she was kind of live tweeting

[00:34:14] To us not tweeting but texting us what was going on and stuff and i mean like i i felt bad for her because she wasn't like for me giving me enough information and i was like we're just on the phone while they were i don't even know if you remember that reggie she was in the i guess the operating room or whatever wherever they took you she was in the room with you and she was telling like me on the phone what was going on and all that kind of stuff and she's like well there's not much going on now i'll just text him like nope let's just keep telling me what's going on so i can kind of listen because i i didn't see anything i didn't know how bad the hand was or the arm was

[00:34:49] Or what actually was gotten well i didn't i didn't either until i got to the hospital because when i pulled in they already had you in the ambulance actually the ambulance was more or

[00:34:57] Less pulling out as we as dave and i pulled in yeah they were not there very long ago they they

[00:35:02] Grabbed and ran yeah i don't blame them so i didn't see it either until we got to the hospital

[00:35:07] And it was yeah because you don't know it's scary and you want to know everything that you can

[00:35:12] Know as soon as you can know it yeah and in the back of my head like just from seeing like when i got there and seeing the scene laid out in my head it was the worst possible scenario yeah so like when i got there i'm i had to assume that you had left the plane exactly as it was when it after it hit you i assumed you probably didn't try to clean up the clean up the area and this is what i this is what i saw when i got there the airplane was on the ground obviously we're at the very last

[00:35:44] Stall where we generally start our big ones missing half the propeller and there was a there was a a tie down strap kind of looped over the tail around the vertical and down around the horizontal and the end of it was just laying basically kind of over that little half high or knee high little fence sketch fence or whatever pvc fans little pvc fence but it wasn't looped around it wasn't tied up it was just kind of hanging over the side of it yeah it was totally so to me going off of what

[00:36:17] You had told dave who had told me that the airplane had started at wide open you'd pulled the choke off real quick so it revved up and i pictured you putting your hand out to stop it to keep it from climbing up your leg or whatever and i just in the back of my head i could just see slash marks all the way up your arm into your brachial artery which is a pretty big artery by the way the only way you can stop bleeding from there usually is a tourniquet so that was what was playing in my head and i didn't have

[00:36:45] Much more information because i saw you for like five seconds yeah shoving you in the ambulance long enough to get your keys is about as long as i saw you yeah and they had already had your arm wrapped up to your elbow and gauze so i had no idea how right far i never saw you

[00:36:58] I never saw anybody be honest with you well you wouldn't have seen me because you were already they already had the door closed and getting ready to leave with you as we pulled in but yeah you you would have seen dave because you handed him your keys i don't even remember yeah

[00:37:11] To be honest with you i just i all i remember is getting into the back ambulance that's that's about

[00:37:16] It yeah yeah they they must have enough fentanyl on you at that point but and and when when i walked

[00:37:22] Like i got out of the car and you you were on your way out and i met up with dave and as dave and i were walking up to the table where the where the stuff had happened either a cop or maybe it was a one of the people maybe paramedics from the other sam from the ambulance company okay he was out there with water like dousing down the area trying to wash all the all the blood away so that's that also that scene was like oh man yeah i knew it was a good hands

[00:37:48] Though because i worked with sam up at the hospital so yeah yeah yeah it was a scary moment that's yeah

[00:37:54] For sure yeah it was getting dark yeah first of all and second of all i didn't know how fast anybody was going to be there was i going to bleed out i mean i don't think i was bleeding that much but looking at the ground from where i was kneeling sure i was like that's a lot yeah so absolutely

[00:38:09] When you're not accustomed to seeing it yeah for sure so he's here with us he's fine yeah one ride and one plate later it broke yeah broke broke this bone on the side of your hand i think they call that a boxer's break normally but it's a that bone opposite your thumb on your hand broke that one in three places and then took almost the entire tip off of your ring finger or the middle finger middle middle okay it did take the tip ring finger oh that's the one it also broke oh and

[00:38:38] It broke the finger too okay so so so yeah so the ring finger was broken yep and now that's come okay so you don't have that wrap what's your middle fingers wrapped for it also got me there i got

[00:38:48] Right in the side of the finger it didn't break it it just cut it that's right that's why my fingers

[00:38:54] Won't straighten that right now yeah but what what's it wrapped for what's the oh she just

[00:38:59] Wanted me to keep that in a splint she's trying to get it to straighten out oh okay so eventually it's gonna straighten out if not they're gonna have to go in and re adjust the tendon i guess

[00:39:08] Well as you start using it it should break up a little bit and i'd hope i'm doing everything i

[00:39:12] Can to push down on it as you can see yeah pressing on my knee yeah it's not going down at all so

[00:39:18] In time and to reggie's credit and i would not have been able to do this myself the very next day

[00:39:26] Oh you went out and flew yeah yes with a broken hand that hadn't been fixed yet with yeah hadn't

[00:39:32] Been hadn't had the plate put in for the bone and had the surgery no surgeries nothing the day after

[00:39:38] Yeah he was out there back in the saddle had to had to i didn't want it to scare me especially i'm waiting to get back to the s box but i couldn't let it scare me that bad yeah i will admit this is a very very stupid mistake and so okay so let's talk about what

[00:39:56] What did you learn like like if there's a lesson or more than one that hopefully other people can learn and that other people can take away from this what would it what would be or what would

[00:40:06] They rushing is not worth anything okay there's just if you start skipping stuff eventually somebody's gonna get hurt that would be me and the severity of what this could have been versus versus what it

[00:40:18] Is oh yeah yeah yeah you absolutely got lucky extremely if that prop clubbed you in the head

[00:40:23] You'd be out yeah never made the phone call and we've been out there all night yeah pretty much

[00:40:28] Nobody would have known so let's let's start with flying alone like we we all have different opinions on that and and i mean we've all done it obviously ron flies alone here at the house all the time even though he's got crystal usually inside but an airplane of that size of that capability probably shouldn't be at the field alone when you're flying that type of airplane i think i

[00:40:54] Got mixed on that yeah i i admit i am too you're perfectly right though i mean i see your full side of that point because anything happens yeah there you are a little electric foamy or or heck even a

[00:41:06] A 40 size sport plane well okay it's probably going to be okay but an airplane of that size and magnitude and that much power and ability to slice it just i get nervous when people fly

[00:41:22] Airplanes like that alone well we had one of our buddies here not too long ago with a year or so ago that got it in the forearm and of course we're all there it happened but also just a week before

[00:41:33] You got yours yeah or one of our other club members got his hand and chopped a finger almost completely off or i mean almost the entire but yeah the tip of his fingers same type of deal he got it caught in the prop i mean these things are these things can be but it was a smaller prop right yeah that was just what was a 50 cc though i think it's 50. yeah it's still

[00:41:54] Somebody else that had what like a 60 size i think what it is oh yeah they're all capable he got it pretty good too and had nobody been there for that where he got it at and that could have been really bad sure yeah i had posted on facebook well even our friend bob has pretty nasty scars from where

[00:42:11] That's who i was referring to yeah so but i mean they're all capable of hurting us but from where what got him up electric electric i thought it was gas i was gonna say i didn't know it was electric

[00:42:21] It was an electric they're in the forum because it was running on the table he rushed over it to get his

[00:42:25] Controller okay all right well i think with electric because they keep running they won't die no they won't

[00:42:30] Stop yeah i had posted on facebook my stupidity and saying be careful blah blah blah i think it was two weeks three weeks later somebody else posted what seemed like i'm not sure it was just this year for the last couple years or whatever on some of the severities of getting caught by a prop and this to me was a scratch compared to what some of those guys got some other ones yeah sure so yeah

[00:42:55] And then so another lesson plane restraints i mean we have for our smaller airplanes we have tables with uprights on them to hold the wings and those work perfect for smaller airplanes but when we're dealing with our big airplanes have some sort of dependable easy almost thoughtless way to restrain that airplane especially if you're going to fly alone man yeah yeah that won't happen again combination of factors but you were you were in a hurry you didn't have a restraint so you improvised which is fine but i think you may have forgotten to tie

[00:43:29] Off that other end of the i believe so that's what it looked like well even though i was gonna say even

[00:43:34] If he did tie it off onto something it wasn't even if he hooked it i should say onto something that can fall off when it's not positively like when there's no pressure right yeah and so to me whenever you start a big plane the last thing you do is grab that propeller and pull it towards you just to make sure it's restrained against the restraint yeah that's why i always use a 300 pound restraint my brother but see that yeah it's effective it works it is as long as they don't i always worry

[00:44:06] About the tail ripping off i mean well some of these planes probably do make enough power to do that

[00:44:13] But my world war one stuff is pretty fragile in the rear end that's true yeah yeah there's i don't

[00:44:18] Know so yeah don't don't be in a rush don't fly alone different opinions on that but definitely have

[00:44:24] Some way to restrain the airplane absolutely and have an actual list of things in your mind that you follow yeah steps that you do to make sure you don't miss anything yeah right it's just safer that

[00:44:35] Way well we're glad you're okay yeah me too yeah it could have been so much worse and and we can talk about startup procedure and all that kind of stuff but i don't want to get into that because you'll ask 10 people you'll get 10 different opinions on how you should start a big gasser but all that

[00:44:51] Aside i'm glad you're okay and it was much appreciate you guys coming out there for me there's no question about that i do thank all of you for that because that would be bad if i had been just

[00:45:01] Stuck that's what that's what friends do friends do yeah exactly so i think this all brought us closer

[00:45:06] Together i think so yeah i'm still gonna make fun of you but i know you will yeah for sure i mean tommy even stayed at your house for how long i mean like he he was he was your nurse i mean he did

[00:45:18] A good job on i just made sure he was breathing that's really he was a little loopy yeah yeah reggie but oh yeah you can't remember but you were looped yeah you commented on how much stuff they pumped into it was a bunch and when it finally when it finally kicked in after the nerves and after you you kind of settled down at the house i had to walk in and make sure you were breathing

[00:45:37] Occasionally because man you were really really relaxed i i all i know that was three days three and a half days i'm trying to get off that anesthesia oh yes and that had me so jacked up on anxieties and stuff i mean literally just to walk out the front door is giving me problems to walk anywhere in the house was giving me problems brushing my teeth was giving me problems i mean just

[00:45:57] I was not me at all i'm sorry i agree 100 yep and it was good to see you finally getting back to

[00:46:04] Getting back to yourself too so yeah so you you had the nausea and stuff with that or what oh yeah yeah

[00:46:11] Yeah he had it all i mean he had the he had the nausea he had the the whole psycho what's it what's there is some some psycho he had all he had yeah he had that up the anxiety yeah i felt really bad

[00:46:26] For him actually but tommy stayed the night and then had my best friend she stayed the night

[00:46:32] About three nights so now do you remember the next day going out to breakfast with all of us yeah okay okay i didn't know how out of it he was for that that was before the surgery that was that was before the surgery yeah well that was before the surgery but that was after that initial night because the first night when tommy's talking about you checking you for breathing and

[00:46:50] Stuff was after but then the the the day of the surgery he was out for another few days because of the anesthesia and all that that they put him out under that was a different drug that was the

[00:47:01] Worst part of it to me that was the worst part yeah i could not focus on anything everything was making me am i gonna do this am i gonna do this is this gonna happen what's gonna happen now

[00:47:11] I remember when i was out with anesthesia i did go i'm sorry that's what i was just gonna say i didn't have like the the anxiety but i just felt stupid it took like i don't know how many days to just get back to being able to concentrate and do things i remember going back to work and like i was talking to my boss and stuff and i just i literally said hold on start over like talk slowly to me because i'm not understanding anything that you are saying right now and it was just the weirdest thing like i've never felt like that before anyway sorry what were you gonna say well i mean it was a traumatic

[00:47:43] Event yeah and and for for sure you had a little bit of post-traumatic stress probably in in dealing with that so yeah it was a it was a valuable lesson that that we were all able

[00:47:59] To learn from you thank you he's telling me he has to go pee so all right we're gonna take a pee break well we only have a couple minutes to go anyway because all we're going to talk about

[00:48:12] Your new planes do you have time to do that no okay well reggie's got to go so we shall stand by and we're back do you feel better ready you look a lot more relaxed now oh yeah i was starting to

[00:48:43] Google his leg isn't moving i don't so are you getting to that age where you have to go like

[00:48:50] Every 40 minutes now it just depends on what i've been drinking sodas or anything with a lot

[00:48:57] Which is what you just had so that goes right through you he drank like an ounce of it oh even

[00:49:02] I can't even see behind the computer i just see the oh what i drank before i left the house okay oh that's barely even sipped out of yeah so anyway now that we've been through all of that let's finish up our couple more minutes of new planes what have you got what have you gotten rid of and what are what are your real goals here for the next few months new planes new planes you've bought

[00:49:24] A bunch yeah like should i get my phone out and we'll start rolling through pictures that you've sent us oh no you don't have to let's see do you remember them even i do i don't let's see i got the

[00:49:36] Hanger nine extra 330 which just flew maiden here was it yesterday i think yesterday or day before yesterday

[00:49:44] Extras are all over the place i they don't do anything for me was that 30 cc what it's electric

[00:49:51] It's got a power 60 on it i say it looks like it's 60 size okay yeah so it's a balsa yep yeah nice all

[00:49:58] Built up all ready to go oh is that the red and white one yep oh okay yeah that's sharp it's nice like i just got to clean up some servos on it or at least figure out what's going on and i think they was saw not it might have some slop in the aileron rods probably connect yourself which i'm guessing i'll have to beef the rod up in order to fix that not necessarily not necessarily you might need to

[00:50:19] Replace some hardware if the holes are elongated or wallered out or something we'll have to look

[00:50:24] At and see what's going on by we he means day was that a new one or a used one it's used okay used so what else see i got the havoc 90 millimeter jet which i've gotten four good flights on before it was destroyed it was just i don't think i heard that yeah at the church i went to take off and she listed left for whatever reason and tried to save it and she just took a wing in and that was the end of it foam chunks yep wow i mean it's that was a 90 millimeter 90 millimeter i think on the third flight

[00:51:00] I wouldn't wait for anybody that might not know 90 millimeter we're referring to the diameter of the

[00:51:05] Fan mm-hmm so she did something weird off i took safe off and then that should have been my tattletale to stop and i checked everything out i didn't i couldn't find anything so how much of those i bought that one used so oh well that's not as bad then i guess yeah no i think brand new for that one is like right around 500 or something like that so i was trying to figure if that was like

[00:51:28] Like 70 bucks a minute for flight is what you got there you go just doing the math trying to be helpful it plays into that hole you probably ought to be

[00:51:40] Prepared to lose them yeah well you guys say that we're talking about actual jet turbine jets that's that's a different story i know just cannot get that go down yet just thinking about that well there should

[00:51:53] Be a lot more care and checks and all that stuff that goes into a real turbine well then your little foamy jet things i mean honestly like you should spend a lot more time going over it well because

[00:52:06] You'll be spending a lot more money too yeah but yeah yep but still you should be prepared absolutely

[00:52:13] For its loss well i've never ever ever ever thought about prepared for the s box i just don't even want to think about it that's why i look over that one real good if i get questions i won't call you in a heartbeat and just so far we've been pretty decent at it yeah but every plane has this number

[00:52:35] I know so rather get rid of it before that number for that number yes exactly well then don't ever fly it again and get there you go i mean really that's the only way you can make sure you're not

[00:52:44] Going to crash it next time you fly it looks good on my wall i mean well that's wrong theory with this big yak so it works for him all right i haven't crashed it in years see it works for you

[00:52:54] You can just put the wings on it and mount it in the wall right above the tv set and leave it there there you go no that plane needs to be flown they both do anything else new i got i finally found another carbon zt28 and i still have an extra 300 and a motion rc a10 that i need to go pick up

[00:53:16] Oh all that tower hobbies voyager which pretty much brand new and motor look like it'd only been ran a couple times or so but it has that's a beautiful little plane as well he also had something else up in there that i told him that i'm interested in and i can't think of what the hell it was it looked like a decathlon but then again it has some kind of weird wrap on it was it

[00:53:43] That really big one what one were you talking about that was like 140 inch wingspan or something 140

[00:53:48] I thought maybe i was talking to somebody else yeah not me i'm not sure what this is but it's got a weird wrap on it that's the one i'm interested in and there's another fiberglass body

[00:54:00] Jet that he's got in there that i'm interested in so so this has all been within the last i don't know what month that you've gotten all these i would say two or three months well since your hand yeah yeah and i remember you saying you had to downsize so how's the downsizing

[00:54:21] Well that doesn't seem to be working very well obviously it's funny the apartment next door

[00:54:27] Yeah he might well she did move out you never know there you go just reggie's apartment and then the plane room is a plane apartment there you go but all right yeah you just keep you keep bringing

[00:54:39] More in well i think we've all at at some point here in the last few months we've all made the statement i've got too much stuff i need to get rid of and i've never gotten rid of anything

[00:54:50] Oh that's not true i have gotten rid of several gotten rid of stuff but also added more yes yeah but that was why i was able to add more but of all of us that say we need to get rid of stuff reggie is

[00:55:01] The one that says that most yeah well you did ask what did i get rid of i did get rid of a bunch of park zone stuff a little smaller t28 the first one that came out the wildcat no more wildcat i get the i have the banana hobby version of the f4 folding yeah i remember that one we talked about that before i think the e-flight sukoi and there was one more i gave away with that group

[00:55:30] If you're ever getting rid of sukois or yaks i will be happy to take them off your hands

[00:55:35] All right it's my favorite plan i still have the escapade that i told ron i was going to take a part and give to him and that was last year that was this year it's either that i'm going to give

[00:55:49] You the cowl i got for it so you can do whatever you want with it there's something else i was

[00:55:53] Wanting to get rid of and i can't think of what it is now it's probably that hellcat yeah i think

[00:55:57] That's the one he was talking about i need to start bringing stuff off that loft to be honest with you

[00:56:01] Yeah so there's just funny stuff out there's probably stuff up there that you've forgotten about actually there is there's something i forgot all about that flex innovation that's been up there the well i can't think what the hell it is now yeah because you forgot all about it time to mamba no no it was a balswood model oh it looks like your red bull model that i gave you

[00:56:24] Like that one which one the pilotist no the other one oh yeah whatever you call that thing okay

[00:56:30] That's what it looks like but it's that's still sitting up there and i've forgotten all but i got all the parts to it i just never put together

[00:56:38] Anyway yeah get busy yeah just get busy getting rid of stuff yeah i gotta admit i'm at net zero for

[00:56:46] The year i've lost one gained one but so that's that's okay that's really good i'm at net positive a

[00:56:52] Bunch i might be close to yours i think i mean just gave away four and still give ron one i actually gave ron that'd be two i've already given you two this year right the pilotist and the zen that

[00:57:04] Wasn't this year that was last year yeah so no yes i just give me more then that's fine okay

[00:57:11] Of course i got the twin star back from you yeah now i'm gonna get the cloud dancer from you right so

[00:57:19] That means you're taking two in for getting rid of one true whereas i'm losing two and gaining one it's what i like it's a no-win situation yeah well it's all win i mean any airplane you have is always a win so all right well i'm getting bored anybody else ready to get off here do you have anything else you want to say or just glad to have reggie back in one piece me too thank you dave yeah thank you good to see you appreciate that and thank you for coming on and talking a lot of people i think would be embarrassed and want to kind of hide what happened well it's a good lesson i mean it's a really

[00:57:51] Good lesson to to learn yeah a couple of lessons actually it's letting that rushing is not going to get you nowhere but hurt yeah people keep saying these things are toys

[00:58:03] These are not toys they can kill you they are they're definitely capable of hurting you seriously yeah

[00:58:10] For sure there's always a plan that you should go by and when you're running out the door you're not thinking twice about this plan you're just trying to beat whatever reason you're running to get there and get it done and get back yeah and just it's not worth it no it's worth it truer words have

[00:58:28] Never been spoken yeah so before i put you guys to sleep i'm sorry it's not you it's me yeah it is anyway all right well then i think until next time are we ready i'm done yeah i'm i'm good thanks i'm ron i'm tom i'm dave and i'm reggie with all five fingers i can't say that

[00:58:49] All right good night all right good night we hope you enjoyed this episode of the rc plane lab podcast for topic suggestions to ask questions or to give anything back connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either ron at rcplanelab.com or also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. please subscribe rate and review us on your favorite podcast app until next time may your landings be gentle