"Someone Is Going To Die!"

Recently someone yelled, "Someone is going to die", about something I was doing. He really thought someone was going to die. No, nobody was in any danger and nobody was going to get hurt but the person that said that thought someone was. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago Kirksville, MO had their annual Airport Day. This is where the public is invited out to see the airport, look at the airplanes and get a airplane ride. We had several airplanes on display and several more giving rides. We had a helicopter from the local air ambulance service on display, powered parachutes flying by, food vendors keep your hunger at bay and radio controlled aircraft flying all around. This is where I came in.

I have been flying radio controlled airplanes and helicopters for 20 years now and I have performed in front of the public at dozens of locations. This is something I always enjoy doing and I get invites frequently for various events. Each year I get invited by the Kirksville Pilots Association to come down and fly at their Airport Day and I am happy to do this.

Using strict coordination between the airplane pilots and myself I get to fly between their flights. Once the passenger carrying aircraft have gone on their trip around town I fly my model aircraft for several minutes between the crowd line and the runway Then it is back safely to the ground before the returning aircraft take over the airport again. We want everything to be safe. The pilots and I talk about safety before the day so we both understand the needs and requirements of each. We plan for safety and we do things safely.

During one of my flights with my model airplane I flew a more normal flight down in front of the crowd. I do a lot of aerobatics and most of my flights are rather wild but this time it was more of a nice smooth pass, what some call a picture pass. This way I am fling more like a small airplane and it is easy for anyone in the crowd to snap a picture. From where my model airplane was it look about the same size as the real aircraft taking off. So it was hard to tell from the real thing.

When I got to about show center, the center of the crowd viewing area, I rolled the aircraft over and popped into a spin towards the ground. This is where the aircraft is falling to the ground while spinning around and around. If a real small aircraft does this, especially the one of the ones flying that day, it would be a disaster. While taking a break between flights one of the pilots who saw this yelled out, “Someone is going to die!” Every person around him looked and watched me pull out of the spin about 10 feet above the ground and go flying off. Everybody then realized that it was one of the model aircraft and not a full size aircraft.

I don’t think we will let him forgot this for a while. But he was a good sport and we all had a good laugh. He then took me for a spin in his airplane around town but I ended up flying him around. He didn’t even know that I almost have my real pilot’s license.