red head

Today at the flying field one of the guys ask me to test fly his New ARF. He is fairly new and said he didn't really want to try the first flight, OK, it's a trainer ~~ No big deal.

To start this out right the plane was an AZURRO from Proctor models, with an OS 46 up front. I checked it over and found that he had the ailerons backwards, flip a switch and all's right again. As I finished looking it over I saw that it is covered with that contact type covering, I should have backed out right there but you know how that goes.

Started the engine and did a litlle tweeking and out to the runway we go. Off we go in a very scale type take off and climb out to about 40 feet, OH Crap !!! the engine quit. A slow glide back to the field and a smooth landing so all's well.

Take it back to the pits and do a bit more tweeking and it's really purring now so back to the runway for takeoff. Again a very scale take off to about 6 or 8 feet and all of a sudden it was as if someone put a bomb in the plane. You wouldn't believe it unless you saw it, it just exploded and dropped to the ground. In all the years I've been around models ( and it's a lot ) I have never seen anything like that, it just blew apart !!!

After we picked up all the parts and started investigating we found that one side of the firewall hadn't been properly glued, in fact there was little to NO glue on one side and the other side just had a small spot of glue in the middle of the firewall. I still can't figure out why it didn't show up when we were starting the engine.

I mainly wrote this as a warning about really checking these ARF's over real good, I didn't inspect as much as I probably should have but the owner has been around the block a couple times and I didn't feel a need to. MISTAKE !!!

If by chance you get one of these planes I suggest that you really check it out. Sometimes cheap is good but most of the time if it's that good a deal it's not a deal !!!
ENJOY !!! RED

Oregon Craig

An "Azurro" from where? Are you sure it was Proctor?[>:]

Is there a new company calling itself Proctor? The actual Proctor doesn't sell junk.

red head

I agree about Proctor being good kits etc. ( some a little out dated ). I could only go by what the owner said but I do know it was an AZURRO. I also think he said it was built in Belgum ( ??? ) ENJOY !!! RED

Oregon Craig

No problems. I would bet that it wasn't. That is a cool story though! It must have been cool to watch!

Clay Walters

How'd the new guy take it?

IL2windhawk

Oh man...
Just be thankful it didn't happen while you held the starter to the spinner. Yeouch

red head

Clay:
Actually the new guy took it quite well, in fact after we showed him the problem and tried to explain what probably happened, he agreed. He then ended up back at a shop and they helped him out of a bad situation when he showed them the plane.


N7OR:
It was really cool to watch but it was so quick that you didn't really get to enjoy it. That's the kind of thing you would like on video so you could play back to see what really happened.
It was kind of funny at the field today as 2 people saw it as a dumb thumbs thing on my part, that didn't last long as the rest of the guys suggested they get their eyes checked, they thought the way it blew apart in the air was neat.

IL2 windhawk
I am very thankfull it didn't happen when applying the starter. I still can't figure out why it wasn't apparent at that time, " STUFF HAPPENS " and I do carry TP in the car!!!
ENJOY !!! RED