Goinstraightup

My Feedback: (26)

Last night I had a student on the box. Fortunately, the student was doing quite well and I was able to keep an eye on a Cap 232. All of a sudden I noticed it coming straight down at us, and the pilot was screaming "Look out, Look out!!!". Trying to not make the student panic, I grabbed his arm and said, "step back, step back". It went in no more than 10 feet from us, right on the line separating the pits and the field. It came about 5 inches from drilling a hole in my PBF. I told the student right after it went in that I now had our plane. I did a few slow circles to regain my composure. I let the student finish the flight later and all went fine. In 14 years of flying RC, this is my closest call. I had a glider crash land 15 feet from me 8 or so years ago, but those are the only close calls. It pays to keep alert.

Jeff A

nedyob

My Feedback: (67)

Hello GOINSTRAIGHTUP,
I was at our club meeting this month. Just before the meeting began, one of our new student was with his instructor and took his trainer off at full throttle and the trainer went into a knife edge about 5 foot off the ground. I was walking from the pits to the picnic tables. I had my back to the flying field . The trainer still in knife edge viered accross the pits toward the meeting area where club members were seated. The trainer passed right infront of me about two feet away. Everyone scrambled from the picnic tables and the trainer still in knife edge passed over the picnic tables and into a corn field.
The student handed the TX to the instructor right as it passed infront of me, but by then it was too late.
I almost go a shave and didnt need one.
Anyway the instructor put the student on the buddy box after the meeting. The only thing broken on the trainer was the wing dowels.
NEDYOB

Montague

A couple of years ago, a guy at my field, a "soloed" pilot who had been flying for a while, yanked his plane off the ground too soon and did a classic stall and arc to the side. It went right over my head about 15ft above me and hit right in the middle of the hood of a car. Left a huge dent, broke the windshield, and generally made a mess. Not much left of the plane either.

As a result, I usually watch landings and always watch takeoffs. I also try to avoid parking or pitting near the ends of the runway, I figure the center is safer.

BigSTIK40flier

we had a guy at are school flying field take off right at the school, needless to say it lost radio and was flying level 15 ft straight at us at 90 mph full bore slamed right into the brick wall. no surpirse either plane and all was like dust, and the brick wasnt so good either it had about a 10 inch 5 inch deep chunk in it too. just think if it would have hit a person O_O

nav8tor

I had a similar thing happen yesterday. A guy lost control of his plane and crashed in the pits behind me while I was flying. I dove to the ground to avoid getting hit and lost my 4-star 60. Here's the result.

Goinstraightup

My Feedback: (26)

Great stories. I'm glad everyone's OK.

ssboucher

Did you find out why the Cap crashed?
At our field, a guy had an H9 cap and in mid-flight, one stab "snapped off". He got on the phone to H9 and complained and they sent him a new fuse free of charge. About 3-4 days of flying with the new fuse guess what? one side of the stab snaps off in mid flight again!! Both times he was able to get it back on the ground with some VERY fancy aileron and throttle control and minimal damage to the plane.

Moral......If you see an H9 cap in the air, don't take your eyes off of it.

ps. He did complain to H9 again and they're sending him a new and different plane.

Goinstraightup

My Feedback: (26)

The guys says it was "radio problem", but he's had a lot of "radio problems" (crashes) lately. I think he flys planes that are a little beyond what he can handle.

Interesting note about the stabs coming off.

visioneer_one

My Feedback: (506)

Interesting. Which size Cap was this?

One of the fellows here has the .40-sized one. On its second flight the h-stab fluttered and the right half snapped off. He landed, retrieved the broken stab half and packed it away.

Returned the next weekend. Same plane, newly-repaired stab half. He also added bracing wires to the bottom of the stab.

During flight #5 the canopy blew off, followed almost instantaneously by the left stab half snapping off. He landed safely - the only other damage was a broken prop.

I wonder what will blow off next?

Sincraft

If someone is talking to me, and I can't hear or see someones plane. I tell them to excuse me I have to listen to that plane. Or I step from under the pavilion (open on all sides) so that I can watch the plane. I always come close to MYSELF on landing hehe. But when someone is standing near the runway and I am landing I will abort and tell them not very politely to move. USually it is a spectator. I got hit on the ankle once from a plane that was slowly almost to a stop and it hurt for a week. YOu can't imagine how bad it would hurt to get hit with the plane in the air. I neither wish to experience nor wish to inflict the experience of getting hurt during this hobby. If I ever start getting complacient while at the airfield, that is when I need to rethink things.

S

3D-kid330

My Feedback: (1)

One time I was flying at the field, torkrolling low when a WM T-34 coming down the runway in an out of control low pass. Almost midaired me, an then veered towards me and came sooo close to my face that I could feel the wind![X(] I blasted out of the torkroll when it seemed as though all the planes in the field at once went out of control because their pilots were ducking! As a result two planes at once passed low over the pits. Everybody landed safely. CAUSE OF CHAOS was a piece of covering on right wing came up like a spoiler.


3D-kid330

bdtsr

My Feedback: (5)

Well here's 2 more for the books. About 3 years ago a newer pilot was flying his SIG CAP 231EX (second flight), after slamming it on the deck at takeoff he proceeded to fly it around instead of landing and doing a checkover. The rest of us moved over by the cheapest car (mine!) at the feild because you know it will hit the most expensive one there! After a couple of minutes of wild flight and near misses the plane came apart. Thank goodness it was on the other side of the feild. The pilot's previous plane..............a trainer! Number 2 happened a couple weeks ago. I was getting my Seniorita ready for a student, my friend had landed his Tiger 60 and turned towards the pits. He pulled the throttle trim down to kill the engine and she went to full throttle! The plane flew right over my back and into, now get this, my WIFE'S Pathfinder! Hey honey, you know you really have a lot of parking lot dings on your truck! Only 3 small dents in the truck and the plane is repairable. A post mortum did not reveal any problems. The TX throttle trim pot may have been dirty but were waiting for the results of that one.

A10-warthog

This 1 is rather close also :
[link=http://users.pandora.be/warthie/Close%201.mov]dangerous[/link]

Has got nothing to do with me, just found it somewhere on the net.

I started with this hobby only recently so I dont have any stories about such tricky moments, but I've heard many stories. I hope my first big trainer and following planes wont form a threat to the environment and the people surrounding me, hehe. It has always scared me, a prop at high speed can do a lot of damage. Thats why I started with electro planes...but then again they arent that much safer I guess, they just sound more friendly.
I hope to move on to a trainer with fuel soon. Its the start of the way to my dream : a big noisy warbird!

PBConnolly

My Feedback: (1)

This plane suffered a battery failure at 300 feet, come crashing into the pavilion sending the unsuspecting scattering as the engine tried to bore a hole into the concrete
floor!

[img][/img]

Abraxxas

I was flying at a funfly this last summer, wringing out my Funtana and while I was deep in concentration doing slow rolling figure eights among the people running up their engines in the pits 10 ft from me I was unable to hear the 1/4 scale Cub that was on takeoff roll from my left. Apparently after nearly ground looping it on takeoff it was headed right for me, somebody shouted but I didnt hear them because of another plane being tuned right next to me, all I remember was seeing the bottom of a cub trying to pull out to avoid hitting me from about "10 oclock". It came off the ground about 20ft from me and proceeded to drop a wing as it approached me, missing my face by about 5 ft wide open. He got it pointed up again, over the pitts and successfully flew it to safety. I landed my plane and everybody was very quiet when I began looking around to see who was flying the plane, although there were a couple fingers pointing at the pilot down the flightline. No appology, not a word said, finished his flight and left. Thats about the closest call I've had to getting hit [:-] When I was starting flying 10 years ago I did the same thing with my OS .91 equipped CG Cub, but when it headed for the pitts and another pilot after 90 degrees of a ground loop, I nosed it over with down elevator to stop the prop and stop it from hitting someone. I would rather completely destroy my aircraft avoiding somebody than put that person in danger trying to save my pride and joy. Planes are replaceable, people are not... too bad everybody doesnt feel that way [&o]

Brian

JimRoss

Everyone of these posts should be forwarded to the AMA. They are pissing and moaning about touching tails to the ground in 3-D planes but no one says Jack about all these guys trying to hammer each other with rotating knives.

Somewhere there is a miscommunication in reality.


JMO

JimRoss

Spaceclam

i was at the infamous sepulveda basin once and when i was flying, a guy managed to crashland a small sero right between my legs, motor running. it had something like a 15 la in it, but the wings hit my shins and dear god it hurt. i landed my cap and proceeded to scream at the pilot. he said "i try to come in for landing but no good) he smniled a wide grin, started his plane back up and flew again. if that's the kind of pilot he is, the least he could have done was wreck the plane! it is completely unfainr that he gets to hit my shins, get away with it, and go up and fly right infront of other pilot's faces again. there was another time at the same field when a guy in an ultrastick had aileron failure and had to land in the pitts. he just barely missed some of the other planes and managed to smack the engine break-in stands.

Rotcivv17

Hey Jim, nice to see you back, how's your hand? Are you flying yet?

JimRoss

Know how to tell when a Texan is lying? He starts off with "You ain't gonna believe this!"

Well, you ain't gonna believe this one.
My right hand is fine, been flying for a while now. Shoot, I've even crashed a couple of times already and rebuilt the wrecks.

Here comes the part you ain't gonna believe. I cut the other thumb.
OS 160 running in back yard to break it in on engine stand. Pulled throttle back to kill engine.
Reached in just a wee bit too soon. Whack! Split tip of Left thumb wide open. Only took 8 stitches to close this one up. BTW, it's healed up now too.

Alright already, I know, I'm running outa thumbs real fast.

Later,
Keep it up and watch your thumbs.

JimRoss

bdtsr

My Feedback: (5)

Sounds like you keep the hospitals and doctors in business down there (read your other post on your hand)! Glad you healed quick. Keep those digits away from those props ok!

cappio777

My Feedback: (2)

There is someone like that in every club. There was one guy in my club that has been flying an astrohog forever. If anyone remembers Mr Magoo, thats him exactly. Everyone at the club lands and moves away when he is in the air. One time as I was coming in his bird made a 90 deg turn when landed and took off again just to be stopped by the fence or it would have hit my car head on. Seems that in every club those that fly together know each other well.....but when that "special" pilot gets in the air everyone looks for cover.

planebuilder66

My Feedback: (8)

Yup!, we all have them at our fields. The worst one we have here in CT is a flight instructor that likes to prematurely take off before the plane gets going anywhere. Lets just put it this way, I saw the guy crash three planes in that manner and he blame it on radio failure, Duh!, it's called stalling, Two of the planes met their fate in the same day and about 20 minutes apart, I think if he had more giant 3-d planes with him he would have kept going. Pretty bad for an instructor to be doing that, in fact I really don't know who in the club gave him the badge!? or maybe he just found it and likes to wear it for the superficial respect.[:-] On the other hand I've almost been taken out by some guy's and their bad judgment, I remember one Brit with his diesel trainer plane trying to tune it in just got done with the fiddling end of the engine and decided to have a go for it. When he took off the torque was so great it veered to the pits and I had to hit the deck to avoid getting a hair cut, I jumped up and screamed some obscenities but he couldn't hear me, he had some funky earmuffs on that he uses while tuning his motor. The worst thing I did was crash into myself! I had a spirit glider when they first came out and I'd been flying it for about 4 months and was getting really good by now. Well, I said to my friend that I could even catch the thing if I wanted to! He just said " prove it! " , I sure did catch it, right in the head with the wing. I felt like a deer in headlights, I couldn't move and it all happened in slow motion! Man I'm Dumb!!![:-]

bdtsr

My Feedback: (5)

planebuilder66, hope that's not anywhere near the Salem Propbusters field! I fly with them when I'm up there on business (ok, pleasure too).

adoman

This is kinda off the whole airplane crash subject. But I ran into my big toe with my little 1/10 scale electric car at 30 mph. Ripped my toe nail right up. Anyway, back to planes.

Balsa

Talking about things falling off CAP's remindss me of our club chairman, Geoff Strachan, and one day of desasterous luck , this day he was filling up his 1.20 sized CAP , yet couldn't work out why a , normally, reliable engine would not idle. He finally realised, after abou 30 minutes, that he had mistaken green diesel (for his car) for glow fuel, after this, he drained the tank and filled her up with 10% , after about 5 minutes i heard this terrible blender-like noise, and noticed a yellow cloud fly past his aircraft. Some how his cowl had become detatched and been sucked into the back of his prop, turning its self into confetti. Just after this, the engine pitch and volume changed instantaniously, the silencer had fallen off as he started his landing pattern, and had (and, i belive still is) into a field of barly.