Back in early summer, on maybe the third or fourth flight of my Hobbyzone Stratos, I unfortunately intersected it in time and space with the top of a 100 foot tall tree. Sadly, like many new RC pilots attempting to train themselves with a good training plane like the Stratos or Champ, I attempted to fly it in an area about a third the size that was recommended. This area is a soccer field just by my house and is maybe 200'x300' and the perimeter is lined by 20 to 30-ish foot tall trees. Using simple trigonometry (no numbers involved here) you can picture that if you are standing not too far away from a 30' tall tree, you will not be able to see the 100' tree behind it across the street. Henceforth, that large tree will be known as "Darth Tree."
Darth Tree, being an evil tree, decided to use the Force (the magic one from IV-VI, okay, not the one with the Midichlorian B.S. in I-III!) (And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, well, I don't know what to say then.) Anyway, Darth Tree, Force, etc. grabbed my plane out of thin air and, through no piloting error of my own, yanked it into its tenacious maw. Wait a sec... maybe Death Tree-star and its Millennium Falcon (TM) tractor beam would have been a better analogy. Okay, henceforth it shall be known as... "Death Tree-star!"
No amount of forward/reverse (I made that up, it has no reverse capabilities) or hyperspace jumping (also made up), was able to free it. Darkness was approaching and recovery efforts had to be suspended. About an hour later, the worst and only real rain storm of the entire season started and my Stratos was stuck outside at the top of Death Tree-star (catchy, huh? yeah, better than Darth Tree).
Luckily, my friend and his wife, in whom (who?) the Force is strong, and who climb mountains, offered to bring their considerable climbing skills and expensive equipment to bear on the recovery of the Stratos stuck up there due to Death Tree-star's tractor beam and NO PILOTING ERROR OF MY OWN.
Tree branches have this quirky thing of being large near the bottom and getting smaller and weaker the higher you go. The ones at the top (in which my plane was stuck) were so small that birds and squirrels made them bend. This was also an oak tree and the first branches started at about 20 feet up the trunk. (In the thumbnail, you can see Jedi Kelleigh about halfway up, harnessed and roped in.) So the plan was for Kelleigh to climb up as far as possible, then lower a rope to which a long pole would be tied and then hauled back up by her. Then she would use the pole to span the distance she could not climb due to the small size of the uppermost branches. The pole she used was a collapsable fiberglass dome tent support pole that was placed into a bag when she hauled it up. She used webbing and carabiners to lock herself in for breaks and her husband to belay her when climbing to the next good branch.
Operation Stratos Recovery went smoothly and we (she) "greased the skids" with the property owner by trimming some dead branches out with an electric chainsaw while she was up there. When she finally knocked the Stratos free of Death Tree-star, it "flew" straight down and impacted its nose, the breakaway wings, well, breaking away. These are all nice design features Hobbyzone included that are akin to crumple zones in cars. I was amazed to see that despite the rain and exposure to the elements, the Stratos seemed to work well after power was reapplied (even the Lipo that was in it still works fine after being recharged). Unfortunately, the illusion of proper operation faded as it started acting very oddly while checking all the controls on the ground. An inspection of the little ESC/Receiver/micro-servos circuit board showed a fair amount of corrosion in one area. Also, the motors were a little less smooth-sounding from water and probably corrosion inside them. That said, a good oiling fixed the motors and replacing the circuit board fixed that. Since then, I have (in a much larger area) had dozens of successful flights with no issues.
Hopefully this will give you a.) reinforcement to select a properly-sized flying area for your plane and skill-level, and b.) give you some ideas on how what I thought would be an impossible plane rescue, can be achieved in case it happens to you.
p.s., I still fly in the soccer field with my Hobbyzone Champ, Parkzone UM Corsair, and Parkzone UM Spitfire, (and sometimes Stratos) but give Death Tree-star a wide berth now! (Even though this incident was due to a tractor beam from a large Oak tree and not due to piloting error.)
p.p.s. Kelleigh is pretty freakin' ninja.
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