Well that was a crazy Friday evening. I went to help my friend fly his model plane. He builds tons of these things, powers them with lithium ion batteries, sets them up with cameras etc. Flies them. My job was hold the antenna up for signal strength, just had to hold it in the right direction. He was supposed to kick in its long range sensors if he went out too far... wellllll
He was flying it, about 13,000 feet away from us, 1400 feet up. Mind you, this thing is hand-made from styrofoam and plastic for the most part. The plane got caught by some strong gusts, and dipped to a lower altitude causing it to lose the arc which kept it in signal range for the short range sensor. Lost signal and it plummeted into the ground. We drove out to see if we could find it, and we did find it, but then we got stuck in thick mud because we tried getting out the wrong way cause we weren't thinkin' So wound up sitting out there waiting for a tow truck to get there to tell us that he couldn't tow us, but he did give us a lift back to base. Gotta get someone with a 4-wheel drive out there soon to recover the car.
We managed to recover the camera, and it had indeed recorded the footage of the final flight this thing took. It was a model of a B-17. The thing I found humorous and awesome was that the Liberty Bell Pin-Ups that were on the front nose both made it through the crash unscathed, whereas the rest of the plane was almost entirely obliterated.