Quote from Colin Watkins on August 19, 2019, 4:30 pm

It is with great sadness that I have to report the demise of my 'Green Thing' as I used to call it.

This is the third season I have flown the Green Thing and it has been great fun! It was a gift to the club which I took on because I liked the look of it! After a bit (in fact - a lot!) of investigation online I found out that it was actually a Saturn Sandpiper which was available in the 1970's, which clearly makes it 'vintage'.

During the time I have had it, it has been rebuilt a couple of times, and has suffered the indignity of some major repairs. The last major rebuild was to change from tricycle undercarriage to tail dragger. This improved take-offs and landing no end. The original nose wheel seemed to dig in even on our perfectly mown take-off strip!  This resulted in a bent nose wheel on almost every landing and some very long take-off runs!

Each rebuild and repair added to its weight which was always too much for its own good!

On Sunday 18th August 2019 it was on its third flight of the day. The weather was blustery with some strong gusts. The Green Thing laughed at strong winds! Its weight meant that it wasn't too upset by winds and the first two flights had been full of loops, rolls, bunts and even some decent landings!

I was about to perform another high speed pass over the take-off area, something I had done many, many times before. I was turning in to wind some distance from the strip, it needed a tight turn to avoid disappearing behind a tree and I was on full throttle to build up speed. I had performed many turns like this before, but this turned out to be different! Half way through the tight turn the Green Thing suddenly rolled even harder in to the turn -and then reduced speed considerably. The cockpit cover flew off never to be seen again. I reduced throttle and tried to roll back to level flight. The Green Thing seemed to respond, but actually it was uncontrollable and doing its own thing. All I could do was watch as it fluttered ( probably not the right word for a model this heavy!) gently in to the top of a tree.

After wiping the tears from my eyes, I walked towards the tree thinking I would need the poles, but as I got closer I heard  crashing noise and saw the Green Thing disappear from the top of the tree only to reappear near the bottom. I could actually reach it from the ground. I gently removed it from the tree.

The fuselage had snapped just in front of the tailplane. I think that might have happened as it fell through the branches of the tree.

I carried the remains back to the car wondering how I might repair the fuselage.

 

However, as I took the wings off I noticed a ripple in the covering near the centre line  on one of them. Back in the repair shop I removed the covering to see that the veneer covering the foam core of the wing had been badly buckled! The wing could be 'flapped' without too much effort.

 

So, the 'tight turn', high speed pass, gusty conditions and the weight of frequent repairs had conspired to overload the vintage veneer covered foam wings. I really don't see how the Green Thing is going to fly again! Those wings are unrepairable and I'm pretty sure they're not available as a spare part!

Bye Bye Green Thing! Perhaps in deference  I should say Bye Bye Sandpiper!

It's now a day later and I've nearly recovered from the loss! In fact - I'm wondering what I should get to replace it!

Easystreet looks interesting!