Even with a careful preflight - things don't always work out

[Wolfala]

No matter what yr flying, make sure your wings aren't going to fly off. I was doing some pretty hard 3D and when I went to put in a replacement battery, the wing was holding on by a prayer.




In a strange twist of irony from this morning, apparently I have developed the skill sets to rip the wings off a P-51 while doing 3D aerobatics. Was out with my brother and his wife just zipping along, when at about 50 feet up there was a loud bang. The wings separated at the leading edge gap at the fuselage and floated down
Into a tree line - which happened to be a swamp.

The fuselage was now full tail boogie straight down and buried itself 2 inched into the wet earth. The recovery effort consisted of sticks. 10" bricks, frisbees, soccer balls, but finally the wind felt pity and set it loose. Happy Saturday to everyone.

Caution to those who are not familiar with the way New Yorkers speak, with certain words used as commas.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFgM68fyv0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjdXi8C-Wzg

[mtnman]

Ahh...  Been in similar situations, particularly with my son's rockets (getting stuck high up in trees).

The best tool I've found for retrieving items like those is my 12ga, fitted with a turkey choke.  The .22LR with a handful of ammo is my second choice.  The .22 is more "sporting", but the 12ga gets the job done quickly.  I think of it as tree-trimming from a distance.

When you're gonna crash RC planes, you may as well make sure it's impressive.  My best (to date) was also with a P51.  Radio interference led to $10,000 damage to a third floor doctors office in Missoula, MT.  I got to work it off on the owners' llama ranch...

[Wolfala]

10,000!? This you gotta tell us

[eagl]

Someone ran a club plane into the chapel at the USAF academy...  I don't think anything but the plane was damaged but that pretty much ensured we couldn't fly RC up on the Terrazzo anymore.

The scariest accident I saw almost hit me.  A guy didn't bother to charge his RX/TX batteries after the plane sat for a week, but of course I did.  I was standing on the "runway" (a small road running around the perimeter of the academy parade ground) when he decided to make a pass down the road from behind me.  I was holding my plane with it's tail between my ankles as I warmed up the engine and did my last pre-flight checks, as he flew right over my head around 30 ft up.  My transmitter antenna was horizontal, and as soon as he flew through the heart of my TX emission cone, which is of course perpendicular to the antenna, his plane suffered a "hit" and dove full power straight into the road about 10 ft in front of me.

He had the nerve to be pissed at me, until I showed him the calibration certification from just a couple of months earlier.  I was in the habit of sending the TX/RX to be calibrated every 2 years, so I could prove my TX wasn't bleeding onto his freq.  We compared sidebands and there was no severe overlap on frequencies either, so my conclusion (that he never quite admitted to) was that his RX battery was weak from not being charged, and his TX battery was also probably a bit weak from not being charged, so my signal totally blasted out his since his TX signal was weak and his RX was probably undervolted.

The sad thing was that he was using a club-owned engine and it was completely destroyed, shattered into about 6 pieces from the impact.  At least we had some funding from the association of graduates and could purchase a replacement the next year.

[Wolfala]

This was my failure mode...this little piece of toejam pulled loose from the wing, and remained firmly attached to the fuselage. Better to reinforce this area with CA and epoxy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svOdOtRXBC8

[mtnman]

10,000!? This you gotta tell us

I'd posted on this a few months back-

Trees and powerlines?  You got off easy!

Try radio-interference, leading to a loss of control and a high speed impact (P51 Mustang) with a third story doctor's office condo window in Missoula, Montana (1993?).  Over $10,000 damage- to the window, ceiling (a plant hanging from the ceiling was hit, and the plant ended up upside down in the ceiling), computers, door on the other side of the office, glass 15 feet down the adjoining hallway, etc.  What a mess.  The office had closed and emptied of people about 1/2 hour before I hit it...  Imagine turning a 6x8 ft window, several panes thick, into the consistency of sand/flour (sharp, though) and distributing it across three keyboards, into the vents on the top of the computer monitors, etc...  Glass shards were impaled in the hardwood door across the office.

Fortunately, when the doctor/owner of the building found out I was making $4.75/hour (after two raises and a promotion) at the local Burger King, he let me work off the deductibles at his llama ranch for $10/hour.  Nice guy!  I got off lucky!

Don't fly by "stuff" you can't afford to hit!

So...  I hit the building...  I go into the hospital and ask for a maintenance person to help me get in.  He sees the problem, calls the owner, says" We need you to come back in, someone crashed a small airplane into your building...".

So, the doctor gets there...  Says "Ah! I was expecting a bigger "small plane" (airport is nearby...).  See's the wreckage of my plane as we walk into the office.  Is pretty fascinated...  Wants to know if I can salvage it (No!). 

As he's perusing the scene, and examining my plane carefully, he says "Is your name/ID on this plane?" I say "No sir".  He thinks about it and says, "Had you left, and not come looking for someone to help you get into the building, how would I have ever figured out who was at fault?"  "I'm not sure, sir...  You probably wouldn't have...".  It turns out that MtnMan is an Eagle Scout, and doesn't walk away from his responsibilities, even if it sucks at times.

Honesty...  He says "Let me reward your honesty, with some help.  I'll have this taken care of, you just pay off the deductible by helping out on my ranch, for $10/hr credit".  When I was done with the deductible, he offered to keep me on for the same wages.

I no longer fly near populated areas.  Period.  Bad things can happen very quickly. 

As my plane headed toward the hospital, it passed directly over a soccer field full of kids at about 20-30 feet altitude.  Somehow it stayed level, but was not in my control.  It then flew past the hospital, just missing the parking lot full of cars, so low that I thought it had gone down.  Once past the hospital, it turned around, climbed, and hit the top level of this building.  A ten pound plane flying fast, with a big ol' prop on the front.  I shudder to think of what could have happened.  I've had interference before, and it's always ended with a quick, sudden crash.  Never with sustained, long distance flight.  Except for this one time...

[2ADoc]

I was doing some Light 3D in my B-400, when the tail rotor belt let go. 

Canopy gone
1x3 cell 2300 MHA batt gone
CF rotors gone
CF tail rotors Where did they go
Tail boom looked like a boyscout had been practicing with it
Main shaft, well it was bent about 30 degrees
Main gear was missing enough teeth it could have been from West virginia
Servos all three were post toasties
Tail gear housing I never did find that
The whole rotor head was destroyed

All of this because I didnt replace a 1.50 part, when I knew I had almost 100 flights on the tail drive belt.

[CAP1]

No matter what yr flying, make sure your wings aren't going to fly off. I was doing some pretty hard 3D and when I went to put in a replacement battery, the wing was holding on by a prayer.

(Image removed from quote.)
(Image removed from quote.)

In a strange twist of irony from this morning, apparently I have developed the skill sets to rip the wings off a P-51 while doing 3D aerobatics. Was out with my brother and his wife just zipping along, when at about 50 feet up there was a loud bang. The wings separated at the leading edge gap at the fuselage and floated down
Into a tree line - which happened to be a swamp.

The fuselage was now full tail boogie straight down and buried itself 2 inched into the wet earth. The recovery effort consisted of sticks. 10" bricks, frisbees, soccer balls, but finally the wind felt pity and set it loose. Happy Saturday to everyone.

Caution to those who are not familiar with the way New Yorkers speak, with certain words used as commas.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFgM68fyv0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjdXi8C-Wzg

which model is that?

i just bought the alpha models p-51 to replace my alpha models corsair.

i was flying a "stick" a couple of years ago. all was going well, till i initiated a snap-roll at full throttle.

 the wings folded, yanked the battery connector out of the rx, and she went in at full throttle. that has to be one of the funniest crashes i've ever had.

 we were out to the plane before the wing got to the ground.

[CAP1]

This was my failure mode...this little piece of snot pulled loose from the wing, and remained firmly attached to the fuselage. Better to reinforce this area with CA and epoxy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svOdOtRXBC8

you should specify......foam safe ca. ca eats through foam.

[CAP1]

I was doing some Light 3D in my B-400, when the tail rotor belt let go. 

Canopy gone
1x3 cell 2300 MHA batt gone
CF rotors gone
CF tail rotors Where did they go
Tail boom looked like a boyscout had been practicing with it
Main shaft, well it was bent about 30 degrees
Main gear was missing enough teeth it could have been from West virginia
Servos all three were post toasties
Tail gear housing I never did find that
The whole rotor head was destroyed

All of this because I didnt replace a 1.50 part, when I knew I had almost 100 flights on the tail drive belt.

i haven't touched any of my rc stuff in years...just flew my raptor today

[2ADoc]

I really wanted a Twinn Rexx, but the wife said no.  So I got another Chinook, and it flys great.  What do you think of the Raptor?  Does it compare to the Trex fairly well?  I have flown the Trex 450 and it was alright, but I went with the B-400 it was cheaper at the time, and it came with the DX-6i radio which has been great for me so far.

[CAP1]

I really wanted a Twinn Rexx, but the wife said no.  So I got another Chinook, and it flys great.  What do you think of the Raptor?  Does it compare to the Trex fairly well?  I have flown the Trex 450 and it was alright, but I went with the B-400 it was cheaper at the time, and it came with the DX-6i radio which has been great for me so far.

my raptor is a .50 size. i've got carbon fiber rotor blades on it, and all metal upgrades in the swashplate area, a high speed tail servo, and the os 50 sxh.

this chopper is capable well beyond my capabilities.

 i had a friend fly it, and it does pretty much any 3d maneuver you could want. when i fly it, i'm relegated to doing the normal loop here and there, and practicing auto rotations.

funny thing about practicing them......i do them well......just hit the throttle hold, and bring her down, and land.
 well.....the pickup tube inside the tank split, causing it to suck air, and cut off. the ONE time i REALLY needed to auto rotate, and i screwed the pooch with my timing. i brought the collective up just a little too soon, and the rotor speed fell off too much, so just as she set down in the weeds, not quite level, she didn't have enough rotor speed left for me to keep her upright. i think thwapthwapthwap was the noise i heard. 
 parts(not too many were messed up) were relatively inexpensive, and easy to get, and the repair work was easy.

 i like my raptor better than my hirobo shuttle too.

[VonMessa]

Comma's   

[2ADoc]

My burn in happened so fast I couldnt get to the throttle hold.  It hit full power on the head, what a mess.

[CAP1]

My burn in happened so fast I couldnt get to the throttle hold.  It hit full power on the head, what a mess.

i've seen that.

one of our club members has a gas powered huey. for whatever reason, the tail rotor failed, and it turned into an expensive crash.


had another member who was notorious for missing simple things. simple, like battery condition. that cost him a raptor 90 size mess.

my radio is a jr 8103 heli radio. it has a switch specifically for the throttle hold right by my right index finger. talent and skill had nothing to do with me hitting that switch.
 excellent design on jr's part had everything to do with it.