joco1

i maidened my super stick tonight and had a great first flight for about 10 minutes landed great filled up with fuel and took off and it fluttered and died at about 40 feet i dead sticked it pretty good but broke the prop when i got home and took the wing off much to my dismay it was full of fuel inside turns out i forgot to tighten my tank plunger!! what a dumb mistake but i betcha it never happens again! i got all the foam out and also the receiver im gonna leave a fan on it tonight to dry it out should i do anything else?

Charlie P.

Live and learn.

I was doing touch-and-goes with my Contender 60 this evening. She has an apron flap that REALLY adds lift (it drops 1-1/2"). I thought I was raising the flap but instead dumb fingered the throttle kill AND the flap. All of the sudden no lift and no engine at low speed. Stalled and dropped two feet onto the ground like it had been slapped with a fly-swatter. Lucked out that nothing was hurt but my pride (three witnesses).

It's always gonna be something.

Anytime you can learn something and reuse the airplane you're ahead of the curve!

MetallicaJunkie

another rookie mistake ive made is.... have crossed fuel lines in a tight fitting cowl, where you have no choice but to take it to a work stand........ also putting on the canopy hatch befor putting on wing bolts

Tissan

My dumbest mistake was to put too few rubber bands on a trainer, the wing came off in the air and it dove nose into concrete shredding to pieces brand new Os 46 AX and three servos, i recovered only the receiver...

well i guess we learn only from mistakes, really smart people learn from other people mistakes too but thats rare, for most of us it got to be painful in order to learn from it...

Roo Man

My Feedback: (1)

Joco,

I once thought I was the only one that made dumb mistakes but as you see here it appears to be a universal problem. Learning for me has always been "The Hard Way".

Good luck on the next flights.

Gary

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Joko, a fan isn't going to help much. Fuel has a lot of oil in it - oil won't dry.

Get a box of cornstarch and pile it on the entire area. Then let it sit for a few day to draw out any oil.

That said, avoid the next mistake - tightening the plug too much. If you over-tighten the plug, over the course of time it can split the neck of the tank and you'll be in the same boat.

suneer

Biggest mistake – Forget to fly against wind direction and wind took my first plane. Where is my plane no one knows?

Campgems

If the receiver has been soaked, it would wise to send it in for a cleanand checkup. The oil will migrate into the PC board and may start it delaminating. Also, the nitro eats some plastics. It would cheap insurance.

As MinnFLyer said, use catuion in tightening, especially if it is and ARF tank. If it is and ARF tank, I would suggest you put in a replacement Dubro or Sullivan tank. They are cheap and they are less likely to crack or to have the bung loosen up. Just better quality all around.

Your description sure brings back memorys. Same thing happen while I was still on the buddy box. I pulled the wing at the field and WHAT THe .. There's a lake in my plane. In my case, it was the ARF thank that split. It wasn't overly tightened either, I was thinking about tightening it more as the tubes were slipping. Just loussy quality.

Don

flyingJ

Use cornstarch to soak up the fuel for a couple of days, then clean that all out. Use a heatgun or hair dryer and get the balsa really warm and apply more corn starch. That will open the pores in the wood allowing any oil to wick to the surface more easily.

riadh

What about exposing the glue joints in the effected area to heat? wouldn’t that deteriorate the glued joints and weaken them?Cheers

Rodney

Moderate heat will not harm the epoxy. You can also use kitty litter to absorb the oil residue coupled with gentle heat applications. There is also a commercial product available in some stores (K2R if I remember the name correctly) that you spray on the contaminated area, let dry then vacuuming off.

bruce88123

A question arises. What is a "tank plunger"?

Also please invest in a keyboard that "prints" periods and capital letters. Very confusing text.

vegas mossie

use cat litter, or oil dry from the parts store. i did the second mistake, split the tank right at the stopper. after i got it cleaned out, i mixed epoxy and alcohol and painted the compartment with it. i do this to all my planes now, just in case...

joco1

bruce, its the rubber end of the gas tank the only piece of rubber on the tank and it looks like a plunger sorry to confuse you in so many ways !!!!!!

Dorsal

My Feedback: (17)

K2R Spot remover will draw all that oil out, no kitty litter or heat gun required. http://www.acehardwaresuperstore.com...34.html?ref=42

joco1

i put corstarch in it for about 24 hours and then got it out i then put it all back together and hope to fly tonight being that thats all i did to it is that enough if not whats the worst that could happen?

Deathbunny_SG

My Feedback: (6)

Not the same but this reminds me of the time I took my brand new audi to a sterio shop for some install work. Everything was fine untill the first rain storm and it was a big long storm, when I opened my door to get in I was blasted with a rush of water and a lake in my nice new car [:@] seems the installer was also into learning the hard way lol. He removed a big plug and ran the power wire where the plug used to be, well it worked out that all the water from the roof and windshield ran right to the spot the plug USED to be and right into my car. He got fired and thier insurance payed for my repairs and a rental for almost 2 months while they were waiting for parts and doing the repairs, it was not a little bill lol. The irony is I had always done my own installs without any major problems before this car but since it was new and expensive I wanted to make sure it was done right and nothing got hurt so I forked out the money for what I thought was a profesional install. []


Gl with your flight make sure you range check it to make sure all the electronics are dried out good and not glitching.