Survivor!
Ike Dahlen holds his algae-camouflaged T-28 Trojan.
The ParkZone T-28 Trojan is notable for its brightly bold color scheme: red and white, with some strokes of black.
So it was a surprise to see Ike Dahlen’s Trojan Wednesday when he brought it out to a picnic table.
It was positively scruffy: the bold colors were muted by an overlay of brown and green, an unlikely camouflage scheme.
Was this a paint job, or severe weathering? It looked like brown and green algae.
It is brown and green algae.
It’s quite weathered, but the plane still flies.
It turns out that this plane was a survivor. It crashed in the wetlands weeks ago, eluding Ike’s best efforts to find it.
Ike gave up on recovering the plane.
“But then I got a call from a marine biologist in Alviso,” Ike tells me. “He had the plane.”
A marine biologist? Is this a joke? Ike assures me that he’s serious.
I momentarily imagine that the biologist found the plane while diving in a kelp forest, but more probably the scientist was investigating the wetlands.
The battery was shot and the plane looks like a seasoned aquarium decoration, but it still flies.
Apart from the battery, the only casualty is the motor, which makes a grating sound as it turns, though it’s strong enough to power the T-28.
Photos by Lloyd Frisbee. Thanks, Lloyd!
That was a good reminder to put contact info on our planes.
I went hunting with Carlos, Mark and Ike on the day in went down. My guess is it landed in water and floated north to distant shores. But as can happen with our very own Bermuda Triangle of marshlands, I could be completely mistaken…
You get out there and it’s a maze on a grand scale.
I’m glad it was recovered
Gary