Dapped

I was up flying my OMP Edge 540, beside me was my friend Sling flying his Fledgling, I heard a whoomp! I knew he was down. Our field is close to the Pacific Ocean and about 15' above the High Tide mark. We could not see the plane. I landed and shut down and we both ran to the edge of the field so we could see the plane.. It had just missed a rock out in the middle of a bay.

We raced back into town and got a canoe, got back out to the field 25 minutes later. The plane was nowhere to be seen.. We rowed out and thought it might have sank. Then at a far distance I seen it.. Sling was excited as he didn't want to loose his engine. We got to the plane..See Pictures.. The plane drifted away 700' onto this rock. If it didn't catch the rock and went out on either side then the main winds and current would have got it and we probably wouldn't have got it back. The Engine was held onto the plane only by the FUEL TUBING.. WOW was he lucky. To add more luck to it, the tubing was ripped 1/2 way though at the nipple on the engine..He was so lucky to get it back but still still a sad day for him.

Here's some Pics
Sling...Make that Cherrie a Double!
Cheers
Don

3D-kid330

My Feedback: (1)

Ouch! Is it repairable?



3D-kid330

Dapped

Forgot to add that this just happened today..

Hopefully it is repairable. Sling(in picture) is going to try. Main damage is to the firewall and bulkhead behind the servo's. Big Job is to dry it out without warping. Also Sling used white glue so that itself may be a challange.

Good Luck to Sling on this one!!

Cheers
Don

Dapped

Cause of Crash Determined....


The cause of this crash was Radio Set-Up. Sling had moved his airplane channel on the radio and used the channel from a past Glider. Sling is very particular and had everything written down on paper. He set the new channel with the same settings as his old one's but.......now going through his set-up for this plane his FLPR used to be at -85%...now his radio say's +70%. He missed one setting and unfortunately it was a bad one. Sling wasn't ready for the plane to act the way it did when he hit the Flaperons..instead he got airbrakes..

I have airbrakes set up on 3 of my planes and everyone had to be mixed with elevator either up or down. When I was doing my set-up for these my planes did pitch a bit until I had the settings correct. I was expecting my planes to act wierd..Sling was not!

Regards
Don

McGuiver

The Fledgling @ a happier time..

Bruce , nice canoe I'll have to get one just like it.

Pilotsmoe

I hope he dropped that engine in some kind of oil, because if he didn't, the salt water will destory it. The plane itself dosent look TOO bad, I wouldn't use any of the electronics agan though[]

Sling

Its back, same everything - engine & radio gear. Flew perfect, I was a bit shaky though.
Washed the radio in fresh water then put them into a food dehydrator for 2 days. Same with the engine, lots of fresh water then lots of oil. Runs fine.

Dapped

I had the privilege to do the test flight for Sling. His nerves were kinda shot for the 1st one after the crash. Sling did an excellent job of getting it back together and it's nice to see a 30 year old airplane fly once again. Congratulations Sling!!
Double Cheers
Don