Video is on this web page. http://jalopnik.com/5617310/video-crash-of-rc-plane-into-real-one-sparks-dogfight-over-air-rights Looks like a fly-in and r/c air show is being held at a small airport. A guy on the ground is flying his $8000 r/c model that is built to 1/2 scale. That's as big as a UAV, in my opinion. He hovers it straight-up over the center line of the runway and then lets it start to climb. Meanwhile, the pilot of the Pitts comes down the runway to do a low pass for the crowd. He has his smoke going, so he is easy to spot. The planes collide over the runway. The r/c plane is destroyed. Thankfully the Pitts could still fly and the 2 people in it land safely. Wasn't anyone listening or using the CTAF? Any why couldn't the r/c folks do their show on the taxiway instead of the runway? .
Here are some thoughts: Is that really a Pitts? Doesn't look like it (not that it matters). FAA says plane with people has right of way over rc planes. FAA says don't fly so close (the biplane) to people! (Unless you are taking off or landing). Looks like the biplane pilot was hot-dogging. How do you not see a model plane that big hanging in front of you (biplane pilot). Lack of communication somewhere obviously.
I want to know more about this "event". If this was an bona fide airshow, whether the place is a controlled airfield or not, then the folks organizing and scheduling the event have to be at least partially, if not fully, to blame. This isn't some guy sneaking his R/C plane out onto the field unannounced. Nor is it some pilot hot-dogging for no reason. Somewhere between the two is someone that was supposed to tell one pilot or the other "negative ghostrider, the pattern is full".
I saw something very similar albeit without a collision about 16 years ago. My architect, his son and I flew from Sacramento to Madera for the annual RC pylon race, and the airport had issued an advisory with the FAA for all pilots that the airfield would be closed from 10AM until about 5PM IIRC, and in the middle of a heat, some fellow and his wife in a mid-wing homebuilt aircraft landed on the runway causing all the RC pilots to scatter their planes. The pilot of the full size plane really got reamed by the airport administrator and I'm quite certain it resulted in some form of discipline by the FAA. Don't automatically assume that the RC pilot was at fault here. It's not like the idiots who intentionally flew an RC plane into the Goodyear blimp some years ago.
common sense would dictate that a real plane with people has priority over a toy. lack of communication just made it potentially fatal for those in the pitts ... just glad no one was injured, or worse ...
