Morat

I'm wondering if Ihave the record.....

Ibought one of THESE and one fumbled hand launch later it was lying with a snapped fuselage. Eeeek. It worked out at about £50 per foot of "flight"!!!

Let's hear your horror stories so Ican feel better!

Miles

foodstick

Unfortunately I built a 25 size old timer race plane once, from plans..it was a major pain..But it looked great. It barely took off lost altitude in the corner, and I couldn't haul the nose up, I think I was just to nose heavy without enough elevator to even stop the decent.It kinda plowed in like you see a comet hit the earth in scifi movies..its a dang shame..that plane was pretty cool to.

I am not sure about the name, I keep wanting to say a RED RACER...but I think that was an old duration design.. this plane was a low wing monoplane, and it had a really weird hood on it...came to a fairly sharp point down the top. It had soldered up piano wire for gear. I have always regretted breaking it, maybe build a bigger one some day and get it right.

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

One of my flying buddies tells the story about bringing home some sheets of ply. Set one up along the wall in the garage, went back for another, and the first one was blown over - on to his new plane. I think it was a Razor or some such. I believe he still has the wing.

I had a GP G202, first flight went well, brought it in & checked the linkages, all's well. Second flight, started rolling right at lift-off, would alternately respond and then not respond. Brought it around to land, almost made it back to runway... nosed in hard, destroyed the FPE engine and most of the plane. Didn't bother to keep THAT rx & crystal!

Good luck,
Dave Olson

Morat

OK, I do feel better after hearing that one. At least mine is just an ARF I'd be gutted if it was a plan built labour of love piling in...

I've glued and taped it up now and had another go - but I'm not getting any range on the radios so it goes nuts over about 5m away. Glad I'm learning on a foamie!

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

You got me beat. Built a .25 Taco profile from plans here. Absolutely funnest plane I had for about 2 flights. A spin would put it in a blur. On the second flight it broke the elevator control horn and spun it right into the ground. I really should build another, was a blast.
Edwin

MetallicaJunkie

crashed on maiden about 3 minutes into the flight..... i was doing low knife edge snaps, and i dumb thumbed it..... it was an escapade, and luckily i was alone

JPGale

Recently I crashed on my first flight of a second hand model on take off.

AllTheGoodNamesAreTaken

My Feedback: (180)

I built a Goldberg Tiger (from a kit) back in 1985 and set my newly assembled creation in the back of a friends truck to head to the flying field. Someone cut him off and my flight box (un-secured) slid forward and smashed the plane to bits.

MajorTomski

I had an original Jensen Ugly stick.. Installed my "classic" Kraft 8 channel radio with Kraft "mini" servos on each wing one for each aileron. Took off into the wind climbed at 60 degrees, did a hammer head for a high speed zoom back down the runway. In the middle of the dive the ailerons fluttered stripped the servos and it crashed at that same 60 degree angle at the end of the runwy. Total time 20 seconds tops.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

I had a .15 sized corsair that I built from a kit, can't remember the brand. Spent close to 100 hours putting it together, it looked great.

1st flight a little squirrly, but everything went fine, adjusted the throws down and crashed it about 5 minutes into the 2nd flight.

Coming level across the field at full throttle and it decides to dive straight down like full elevator was added and destroyed itself. Looked like the clevis came disconnected from the elevator horn, despite having a fuel line keeper on there.

Tommygun

My Feedback: (2)

Wow, that's a terrible way to lose a plane. I hope you at least got to flip the other driver off. Anyway, my shortest lived plane was a Flitecraft Solo 1 trainer with a Kraft radio system. Took off okay, but once I made that 180 to come back, I lost orientation and the plane went straight in. Total flight time 10-15 seconds. First flight, no instructor.

beepee

Hmmm ...

+ Citabria 40 built from Nosen kit. (a Nosen kit was a box with airplane plans and a map to a balsa forest in it).
+ Maiden flight.
+ Murphy got ahold of my transmitter before the flight and reversed the ailerons.
+ Darn thing wanted to role left on TO and just kept ... BANG!
+ Pretty much totaled, but what was not damaged was finished by my flight box when it rolled over on the remains when pulling out of the field.

What fun!

Bedford

TooLow

My Feedback: (5)

May not count as funny but I still get a chuckle out of it from time to time. I had some contest balsa left over from a project and couldnt see tossing it. Found some plans in a mag for an indoor free flight. Spent what seemd like hours cutting wing ribs. Total wingspan was about 10 inches. Glued all the parts together, covered it with condenser paper, and got it ready to fly. Wound the little bugger up and launched it off the workbench for its glorious tour around the workshop. The prop turned so slow that you could count the revs! I counted 16 revs, when out of nowhere came my cat, making a 6' leap and took it out of the air! One swat and the wounded bird fell to the floor unwinding! He then grabbed it and stomped out of the shop with his trophy firmly in his mouth. Guess it looked like dinner to him. Moments like that are what makes living with pets worth it!

foodstick

A friend has a story similar to above..he had taken his airplane with him in his work truck so he could go to the field after clocking out. He had a 50-60 size propjet... He made a corner and a nearly hundred pound tool box fell on the plane and smashed it..it scared him so bad he slammed on the brakes and the tool box did even MORE (WORK) on the now deceased bird !!


Did I mention the time I bungy launched a buddies glider before we turned it on? he took it better than I did !

KW_Counter

Great Planes Dazzler lasted 30 seconds of first flight.
I didn't like the plane while I was building it.
Stupidly designed and poorly executed.
It is repairable and I may someday.
Sure left a bad taste in my mouth for GP products.
Good Luck,
KW_Counter

Don Pruitt

My Feedback: (1)

My shortest lived experience was combined with the worst day in my modeling experience. The time period was back in the middle 70’s, before ARFs, when it took three months to build a kit and it was the first time that I had three 60 sized models all geared up and ready to fly. I decided to maiden my latest creation first and after a successful launch I tried a few aerobatics and then did a high speed snap and held the controls in and it transitioned into a spin. After a couple of turns I released the controls and expected it to recover but that didn’t happen. I gave it opposite rudder, no throttle, full throttle and nothing worked it spun all the way to the ground.

I picked up the remains and put them back in the station wagon and got out the second model. Took off and flew for about a minute and inadvertently let the model get in the sun. I was temporally blinded and by the time I recovered I had already lost orientation and didn’t realize that the plane was inverted. It was headed for the ground and I pulled up. Scratch the second plane.

I should have stopped there but no, that was not going to happen. I was determined to get in a successful flight. I got out the third and last plane and launched. Ten seconds into the flight I lost radio contact and my last plane plowed into the ground.

I went home and unloaded all the remains in the corner of the basement and didn’t touch it again for 20 years. When I finally decided to see what I could recover I ended up throwing everything in the trash engines, radios, everything except for one Enya 60 engine, which I still have.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

A House Of Balsa Me 109...did a real nice job of painting it in African desert "Trop" camo.
Had an O.S. MAX .10 (no muffler ) with a bored out throttle barrel (locked in WOT position ) and a Cox/Sanwa 2 channel radio.
Built w/o landing gear...ailerons and elevator...hand launch and was supposed to belly land in the grass...

1st flight went great until the engine quit, and so did the elevator servo...must have had a cold solder joint or something, (at least that's what our local radio guru said ) because as soon as the vibration from the engine stopped, the E. servo quit working.
Total flying time about 3 or 4 minutes...then into the concrete runway.[:@]

Dr1Driver

A Quickie 500 I'd built for a club pylon race. I didn't know it, but my aileron extension connector loosened with the engine vibration. On the maiden flight, I took off normally. At full throttle and about 15 feet up, I discovered I had no aileron control and they were locked in a left turn position. Needless to say, it spiraled in before I could even cut the throttle. The wing, being balsa-sheeted foam, was almost undamaged, but the fuselage was toast. Since I had no interest in pylon except for the club events, I black-bagged it.

Prairie Mike

Letsee. Summer of 1960.
I had flown UC and decided to try RC. Nobody around to tell me what to do or help. I used an Enya .15 from a Top Flite Flite Streak JR. Unthrottled.
A DeBolt Live Wire trainer with a Babcock gas tube super regen reciever hanging inside on rubber bands.

Test glided the airplane and got it all trimmed out.
Found out that you should use more than ONE rubber band to hold the wing on.
1st (& only) launch, aircraft climbing nicely, ready for 1st control input for a turn (rudder only, by the way)and watched the wing blow off. LAWN DART. flight lasted oblut 15-20 seconds, but can't beat Foodstick's crash in the truck for minium time.

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

OK I can't believe nobody has posted what is probably the number one maiden killer.... reversed ailerons! Four Star Forty from a kit took off and rolled, when I corrected it just kept rolling and inverted nosed into the runway. I've seen it happen many times.

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

A couple of incidents that I recall seeing as a teen, when I was just getting into R/C, from the mid 70's.

Similar to foodstick...
I saw a buddy launch his Upstart (TD .049 screaming away ) without turning on the radio...very short flight...not much left of that one.

I'm trying to remember now if that was the same guy who hand launched his transmitter...?
He stood there staring at the airplane in his hand...engine screaming away...strangest expression on his face...(like, what the *&%#$@ did I just do!? )
IIRC it was an Ace High powered glider with a power pod...I think it was the same guy.

foodstick

Our no power glider launch was on a bungee launcher..it sure picked up speed on that left handed arc to devastation !

Tommygun

My Feedback: (2)

I had that once, but actually got it back in one piece! I was helping set up a friend's trainer a long time ago, and stupid us didn't realize that basic mistake. As soon as I got it airborne I figured out was went wrong, so I just left the right stick alone and landed it with rudder only. Lesson learned!

Red B.

My shortest lived model was a Baby Ringmaster C/L model many years ago. It took off, immediately entered a beautiful wingover which ended in the asphalt. The distance flown was approx. 100 ft and the flying time a couple of seconds.

TFF

A buddy and I skipped class in high school to go test fly my .40 Royal Spitfire. Gail force winds and a sloppy aileron linkage had me flip-flopping for 30-45 seconds. When the plane hit, every glue joint popped in the fuselage.