The Y6 Debacle

Debacle - A sudden and ignominious failure; a fiasco.

That's the best way to summarize this failed attempt at a Flite Test episode. If you've been watching the show on a regular basis, you know that David Windestal is the crazy Swede that lives in my basement. He's very smart and likes to have fun with multirotors, planes, and pretty much anything R/C related.

David built a Y-6 multicopter last summer and he was trying to think of an interesting way to show it off. So he says "Hey Chad" (in a high pitched Swedish accent) "let's lift the biggest, heaviest plane you have with the Y-6 then we can release it and have Bixler fly it safely to the ground." Without hesitation I said yes!

Next thing I know, we're in the middle of the field and we're loosing daylight. Josh Scott and Josh Bixler both knew this was a bad idea. I started to realize how bad of an idea it was when the strong prop-wash was hitting me in the face. But I was committed to quality entertainment and I wasn't going to let down our audience and crew! Or maybe I just needed to be "committed"... hmm. Either way David and I kept going despite the warnings from the Josh's.

After shooting this episode, we knew it wasn't going to make to our normal release. But, I couldn't resist putting it together and sharing it with you guys. Please learn from our mistakes and don't try stupid stuff like this.

- Chad Kapper -