Ahhh...the fog...

Took the plane up to the cabin to try some scenic mountain flying. I've been waiting to get a better distance and practice before trying in trees and tough recovery locations, like mountains and dense trees. Well, with the last couple flights and testing out the eagle eyes diversity and antenna tracker, and with spring setting on, I figured it would be a good time to try. So, packed it all up. I always forget something, but it is better now with a dedicated tote box of stuff. I still forgot any way to recharge the futaba 9CAPs, but made due. Well, Saturday morning hit, and there was a dense fog (typical in Cascade, ID) from all the snow melt and warm weather coming after a chilly night. It stays low in the valley and can be pretty spectacular when I've rode my dirt bike up the ridge to get above it. So, I wanted to see if I could get video.

Waited for it to mostly burn off, but still have a lot of it in pockets and tried a launch. Hind-sight is 20/20, and reviewing the tape, I'm amazed how many times I missed some outs that would have prevented what ultimately happened. But things are moving fast, you have things set in your mind, and you get focused on doing something when you decide, rather than adapt. Even adapting can be the wrong choice. Anyway, the goggles are far tougher to see details than the video in full resolution after the fact, and most of what I saw was a grey amorphous blob. Very little indication of up/down or upside-down. I was just trying to get it back to me close to recover. As luck would have it, if I had just railed the throttle, I would have probably climbed out of it pretty quick (provided I was right side up, which was questionable at times), and at the very last, I took the goggles off desperately trying to find the plane visually...I could hear it, just couldn't find it in time. And at the very end, you can see daylight and freedom. Of course that might have just lead to me flying further away and eventually losing the plane completely, grin, so I try not to second guess this too much. Though watching the video, after the fact, I find myself screaming at the screen "Turn right, you stupid fool!" Grin.

Ah, well. Live and learn. Enjoy.