Lost one in a tree today
 

I went to my usual field and it was overrun with a soccer tournament so I went to a nearby school. I flew a Semroc Spaceman on an A8 which had a wonky arching flight and ended up sort of gliding into the top of a kind of scrawny 50 foot tree. Or somewhere in the tree since I couldn’t spot it. I flew two other rockets and packed up, then went to investigate the tree. I had a good video of it disappearing behind the tree top and heard it hit and the ground was clear so I knew it was in there. I walked back and forth peering in the branches thinking if I could spot it that I could check back once in a while. The wind was picking up a little and it was now almost an hour since it went in the tree and still I could not spot a thing. Suddenly I hear whack whack whack and caught a flash of it tumbling down through the branches, hitting one right above me, but I thought it was caught again. I circled around the tree and it was on the ground before me, phew! Glad I stuck around, it was up there for 54 minutes.

Good thing you didn't put a fancy finish on it. If you had, it would have stayed up there much longer. The amount of time you put into it is exponentially proportional to the time it stays hung in a tree.

+1 to what tbzep just said.
Quality of finish is inversely propotional to time spent stuck in a tree.

I think you are right, If I hadn’t papered the fins it would have missed the tree entirely. It flies all over the place so I’m reluctant to put anything more into it, it’s been built for 10 years so no rush.

GH, I think you meant directly proportional..........