moanranger

THE “MOAN” RANGER!

This account is a footnote to the “JUST PLANE CRAZY” story. Tim reminded me of this incident after reading the above-named story that chronicled our muddled attempts with flying model airplanes. This account is about when Tim and I were in “The Model Airplane Club”, which was started by our 7^th grade teacher Mr. Cranston. Tim was always trying to impress people, especially Mr. Cranston, with his imagined many “talents”, and wanted to do everything right! This time he wanted to “get in good” with Mr. Cranston by showing that he could “do something well” and have a successful “free flight” model airplane flight. One of our classmates had just completed the “paper and balsa wood free flight Ranger 30 kit” for Tim. This plane was really neat! It looked like a Piper Cub and sported a .039 fuel engine! One day after school at a club meeting, Tim was all excited about the “Maiden Flight” of the Ranger 30! He figured he sure couldn’t mess this up this time, since the Ranger 30 was a “Free Flight” model. All he had to do was to start the little engine and throw it up in the air and it would commence its perfect flight pattern and land flawlessly on the turf of the “Airport” (i.e. the school athletic field). It is worthy to note that at this time, Tim still had his thumb bandaged from his recent cherry bomb thumb incident. Tim completed all pre flight preparations and had the Ranger 30 held up with the little engine at full throttle ready to launch. He yelled to get Mr. Cranston’s attention, and then gave the plane a push to start its flight. The wire hook that served as the “tail wheel” got snagged in his big thumb gaze bandage and the plane went around in circles while stuck in his bandage! It eventually let go ( naturally at the bottom of the circle when it was pointed toward the ground) and immediately crashed into the ground and broke into hundreds of pieces! Tim said, “Mr. Cranston just shook his head and looked away!”



	THE “MOAN” RANGER THE “MOAN” RANGER! This account is a footnote to the “JUST PLANE CRAZY” story. Tim reminded me of this incident after reading the above-named story that chronicled our muddled attempts with flying model airplanes. This account is about when Tim and I were in “The Model Airplane Club”, which was started by our 7^th grade teacher Mr. Cranston. Tim was always trying to impress people, especially Mr. Cranston, with his imagined many “talents”, and wanted to do everything right! This time he wanted to “get in good” with Mr. Cranston by showing that he could “do something well” and have a successful “free flight” model airplane flight. One of our classmates had just completed the “paper and balsa wood free flight Ranger 30 kit” for Tim. This plane was really neat! It looked like a Piper Cub and sported a .039 fuel engine! One day after school at a club meeting, Tim was all excited about the “Maiden Flight” of the Ranger 30! He figured he sure couldn’t mess this up this time, since the Ranger 30 was a “Free Flight” model. All he had to do was to start the little engine and throw it up in the air and it would commence its perfect flight pattern and land flawlessly on the turf of the “Airport” (i.e. the school athletic field). It is worthy to note that at this time, Tim still had his thumb bandaged from his recent cherry bomb thumb incident. Tim completed all pre flight preparations and had the Ranger 30 held up with the little engine at full throttle ready to launch. He yelled to get Mr. Cranston’s attention, and then gave the plane a push to start its flight. The wire hook that served as the “tail wheel” got snagged in his big thumb gaze bandage and the plane went around in circles while stuck in his bandage! It eventually let go ( naturally at the bottom of the circle when it was pointed toward the ground) and immediately crashed into the ground and broke into hundreds of pieces! Tim said, “Mr. Cranston just shook his head and looked away!”