Dad, What Happens if You Hit the Power Lines?

I have always secretly loved the Japanese Zero. Why secretly? Well, I guess I felt a bit guilty about admiring the "enemies" design. All my airplane friends liked the American P51 Mustang or the British Spitfire. When asked about my favorite WWII airplane, I always answered, "the Spitfire," but secretly I was answering, "the Zero!" I like the design concepts the Japanese used then and still use in their cars now. The American fighters were big and armoured with tonnes of power whereas the Zero was light and maneuverable--partly due to the integral design. My first Datsun was a unibody structure unlike the American cars which were two big steel rails with lots of stuff bolted on.


At one time, there was a race class for Harvards. They were terrible airplanes. They tended to snap roll when full up elevator was applied if the C of G was not just right, but the racing was fun. I decided to build a Zero to race against the Harvards. I made a fuselage plug, then a mold from the plug, then finally a Zero fuse. I finished the prototype after about 200 hours of work (i didn't date much then) and test flew the airplane. I loved it! After the first flight, I knew I had a winner!


I was flying at an undisclosed location (I don't know the statues of limitations, so...) and there happened to be a set of high power electrical transmission lines. I got into a heated discussion with my flying buddy about electrical lines causing glitches with the R/C radios we fly . To prove my point, I flew under the power line with my new Zero. Then I flew over the power lines. Then, just to really drive the point home I looped around the lines. With my point made, I decided to do it again just for fun, but this time I pulled out a little soon and hit the power lines at 100 mph. The plane folded up and tumbled to the ground, but more shocking was the twang we could see moving down the power lines! We did what all responsible kids would do; we threw everything in the car and got the heck outta there!


After the unfortunate destruction of Mark's Zero at the hands of my American Bird Dog, I got thinking about building another Zero for this new combat event. I downloaded a set of three-views and started doing some very rough scaling. Twenty hours later (not 200 hours this time; with age comes wisdom) I took the Profile Zero out for its maiden flight. The sun was actually below the horizon, but I had enough light to do a quick flight. Three seconds into the maiden flight, I knew I had a winner! A little minor tweaking that night, and the next day I put her through her paces!

Today, in the middle of building concrete forms, I decided it was time for a short break--just 1o minutes for a quick flight just so my son could see her fly. I was snap rolling and looping and doing high speed passes when my son said, "Dad, what happens if you hit the power lines?" I flashed back to the first Zero I built and the power lines incident with it. "It's a bad thing!" I replied, knowing exactly what I was talking about. Not 2 minutes later, I smoked the power line in the yard at full speed, and, as before, the pieces rained down. I have been flying in my yard for 15 years and never hit the power line! What is it about the Zero?

I spent an hour this evening fixing the Zero and even added a few trim items. I will have you know that she flies as nicely as ever, but I am going to stay well clear of the power lines!

So Mark, you will have a friendly next to you in the sky at the next combat event. Until then, here is a nice shot of her flying off into the sunset.