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[07-11-2007] TRUE STORY! - DON’T FLY NEAR TREES ON WINDY DAYS!
It was a beautiful day when I went Dragonfly flying this afternoon. I went to a local park and to a baseball field which ironically enough was full of real dragonflies. I could almost here tiny voices yelling "Mommy!, Mommy!" as I walked by with my Green-eyed Flying Machine.
I did a couple of test runs while I adjusted the trim on my Dragonfly. I knew it was a bit windy but I was in the middle of a big baseball field and I figured I'd just let it fall if things got out of control.
Boy was I wrong. Before I knew it, my Dragonfly had floated almost 40 feet in the air and was drifting fast over towards some pine trees that were 20 to 30 feet high. I tried turning but the wind grew even stronger as the Dragonfly climbed higher. In a second it was over the fence and hovering over a big patch of trees between the field and the access road.
My heart sank as I watched $50 of fun drop into the mini forest. Even though the forest patch was only about 30 yards by 100 yards, there were no walkways, the pine trees were very tall, and it was a big enough area of dense greenness that there was no way I'd find my favorite flying machine.
Now the story has a happy ending. As I was walking around the forest patch along the access road, it turned out that miraculously enough my Dragonfly had floated completely over the forest patch and nosedived into the right edge of the access road behind the forest patch. And I was doubly lucky because no cars had come by and flattened my winged wonderthing. But that was indeed pure luck and by all rights I should be on the Radio Shack site right now ordering my next floating beastie.
However the lesson stuck because for the full 15 minutes I was looking for my Dragonfly I believed completely that I had lost my airborne pet. Don't learn this lesson the hard way!
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