Falcon Jet

Here's a new question. How many of you have taken off, only to see your plane continue on merrily out of sight despite your inputs? If so, did you ever find it, and how long did it take to find it? Did you find it or did someone else. How far away from the field was it?

A friend of mine years ago lost his plane exactly the same way, he never did find it, lost a lot of money that day!

Please share your stories!
Chris.

Frankenthumb

My Feedback: (2)

Not me personally, but I was at the field for a "fly-away" incident.

The situation was lke this: There was a newly solo'd pilot up at the same time as an instructor/student pair. The new guy dead-sticked and properly called it out. As per proceedure he turned back toward the field, which meant that he was coming in directly at the pilot stations. He was doing fine, but he never turned to land on the runway. He just kept getting closer and closer to the pilot stations, all while the instructor was yelling at him to "Turn RIGHT . . . turn RIGHT", which meant that the instructor was paying more attention to the dead stick than to the plane he was instructing on. Naturally his student wasn't watching his own plane either, because the instructor had control. Anyway, the dead stick turned at the last second (bounced off the barrier fence) and the instructor turned his attention back to the student plane. He went from yelling "TURN RIGHT", to yelling "WHERE"S MY PLANE!" Everybody scanned the sky but we never saw it again.

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Chris:

One of my rc airplanes holds the world's record for unrefueled time between take off and returning to the ground. This is with a maximum engine run time of about 90 seconds.

I was flying my "Littlest Stick" with a Cox 02 reedy, upwind over the woods at Fentress ALF in Virginia Beach, Va. When the engine quit, so did the wind. Into the trees it went. The take off was 2:30 on a nice Sunday afternoon.

I was flying there regularly at the time, so after searching for about an hour I decided I'd look again next week. And then the week after that.

Finally, in the fourth searching session, I saw the wing on the ground. The rubber bands had failed, the wing came fluttering out of the tree. Then, with that clue, some careful scanning of the trees surrounding, I finally spotted the rest of the plane about 25 feet up.

Whipping out the old Kabar I converted a small tree into a pole, and fished the plane down. At 4:13 PM.

Thus leading to my world's record. Three weeks one hour and forty-three minutes from take off to landing, airplane powered by a single engine of less than 0.05 cubic inches piston displacement.

Had to make a small covering patch and replace the battery. And I've never gotten all the rust off the landing gear. Otherwise it survived nicely.

I've had some OOS free flights too, but we're talking about r/c, right?

Bill.

Falcon Jet

Yep, RC is what I'm asking!

Chris.

RichD

during a recent funfly, we were doing a high altitude compition.

One of the guys flew his $1500 Cub into a cloud, to never see it again

Flightfreak777

that sux.... lol

~Matt

impulse

1, cheap fighterbird foam plane.

Falcon Jet

I almost had the same thing happen to me. There was some commotion going on around me while I was flying that momentarily took my eyes of my plane, when I looked back to where I thought it should be, it wasn't there! Seemed like an eternity (maybe 3 seconds) when I spotted it a lot further down the pattern than I thought it would be! Gotta learn to devote yourself completely to your plane while flying, but sometimes it's hard.

Chris.

H. Wayne S

My Feedback: (18)

First R/C I had, a Thunder Tiger Trainer, Red & White. Purchased it already assembled and ready to fly, Tx and all, Ran 3 tanks of fuel through it on the ground. Had an instructor help me take off and land. Third flight we lost control, it went into a large ascending circle. never to be seen again. []
Someone ask me if I had a good charge on the Rx battery.
My response: "You pulling my leg because I'm new ain't you. there ain't no battery, thats a glow engine you BIG DUMMY "[sm=bananahead.gif]

wi99y

I have lost a few planes over 18 years.
Best one was a Hi-Boy trainer that flew off and was seen to splash down in the River Thames by some dog walkers.

I also lost a Cox free flight heli that flew away...only to be found 6 months later in an adjacent field, we started it up and flew it again...only to loose if for good now!!

Falcon Jet

Is there a "third times a charm", or is that out of the question?

Chris.

Soar_dude

Ok I have a good one. I have been flying for about 4 years no NEVER lost a plane! Well one of my students went to wally world bought the Estes ducted fan job with the galloping ghost single channel rudder only. he knocked it around a few times me making changes to it to get more control out of the rudder he asked me to take it up for him. We charged it up i wiggled the rudder to make sure it was working pushed the button and away it went I doing the pulsing thing on the stick doing figure 8's higher and higher up then it stops responding to my inputs I figure I was out of range now it is drifting in circles going down wind. I take off running after it hoping it will come down into range again. Being that I am 36 in the military I was keeping up till I hit the fences and blackberry bushes lost sight of it. After I ran around to find a opening I could safely get through it is gone never to seen again we searched for it for about a week with no sign of it. My buddy takes great joy in telling our other flying buddies how "I" lost his plane that he labored so hard on and flew so will that I lost it. NEVER again will I flew those Estes planes "I now DETEST the Galloping Ghost control system". although as a side note it makes me worried that some kid gets on for a present and lose control of it and puts into a window or heaven forbid hit someone with it.

Soar Dude

Capn America

My Feedback: (3)

Dad wanted to learn to fly last summer. Bought an avistar trainer and learned to do basic flight and landings. He was flying down the field from me when he calmly asked for some help. I walked down and said , where is it? It was so far out that it looked about an inch across. two guys jumped in a truck and took off down the road to try and sot it and radio back instructions. It just kept going untill we could no longer see it. It would respond to elevator input but once you made a loop and tried to bring it back it started acting funny again. I think there were not enough rubber bands on the wing that caused the initial handling problem.

We went out in a friends heli and could not spot it. Its been MIA about 10 months now. Would have thought a local farmer would have found it by now.

hell sucks less

If you crash you suck. All fake pilot's in this forum. you guys suck

Skeletor

I almost lost my .40 Mustang once. After a re-build due to a tangle with a jumping fence, I took her up and was trying to set the trims. There were several other planes up at the time so I flew it up and away from the field. While flying directly away from me, I got the ailerons set then while trying to trim the elevator, I looked down to find the trim pot. But when I looked up, the plane was nowhere to be seen. I asked if anyone could see my plane but it was gone. Being my first plane and not knowing any better when I chose the color scheme, I had covered it in olive drab and invasion stripes just as it was on the kit box. (Hard to see, even when flying the pattern). Well, thinking "what have I got to loose" I pulled back on the elevator while looking in the direction that I had last saw it and seen a glint of sunlight off the wings. I then focused on the tiny dot. The previous two seasons, the plane flew like a dream, I even got compliments from veteran pilots who had flown her while teaching me to fly. I flew her back, wrestling with the plane the whole time thinking something was wrong. I guess that in all the excitment I didn't notice that she was inverted the whole flight back. But when she got close enough, to see clearly, I rolled her over and took her around into the pattern and set her down. It was a while before I could take her up again and during the break I was dubbed one of the luckiest piolets there.

Volture

My Feedback: (1)

At our field, a Robin Hood 80 lost its battery and flew at about 30% throttle in big, graceful climbing turns. We watched it head for the horizon for 20+ minutes. It crossed a lake, and landed about 15 miles away, totally unhurt, in a farmer's field. The farmer held it hostage. The owner sent a fellow R/C pilot/farmer in as a hostage negotiator, and he got the plane back without having to pay off the abductor.

Love1/4Scale

My Feedback: (26)

About 10 years ago one of our club members had a spring picnic at his home. His back yard adjoined an open field and beyond that was an Army Depot with a perimeter fence. There was no smooth areas in the field so everyone was handlaunching whatever they brought. Another clubmember was at the controls of his Duraplane and watched as it was handlaunched with the launchers thumb coming back across the switch and turning the Rx off. We all stood and watched that Duraplane climb in a perfect circle at full throttle until it went into the clouds. Heard the engine quit but never picked it up coming out of the clouds. We figure it is somewhere in the 100's of acres of that Army Depot but it was never found.

RVman

My dad crashed his avistar into a river during the high spring flood times. It was stuck on the shore untill it let loose just before he got to it. The water was really fast and really cold so he didn't swim in after it. So it floated nicely right down the middle of the river and over a waterfall. My dad threw ropes at it trying to catch it but it didn't work. We canoed the river later and no trace of the plane so it probably ended up in lake erie somewhere.

Falcon Jet

Well thats a new one! Loosing one over the falls! [sm=drowning.gif] Did you ever consider installing floats? Just kidding. Thats one way of literally losing an airplane. Sorry for your lose.

Chris.

originaldeadstick

Lost a COX foam wing plastic fuse glider..........049 assisted....Took off........landed to re-tune engine.......got engine running great ,,,,fueled her up good and chuck it........OOPS forgot to turn on reciever........The Black widow ran out the whole tank in big lazy circles then weathervaned at shutdown and flew deep into the countryside funny how they fly better without the "pilot" beating them back down..........looked some....never found.....Lost glider...049 rx and 2 hs80's from hitec ....around $150 mistake.....

MHall

My Feedback: (7)

Our club was given a new Alpha for our training program. I agreed to put it together and test fly it. I took it out for its maiden flight, all was great. I got all the control centered up and good to go. A few days later one of our instructors took it out with a student. After a ugly landing and a flop on its back it was checked out and sent back up, during the next flight the student asked how high they can go so the instructor kept climbing until...... ya, it was out of sight! We saw flashs of sun light off the covering for about 20+ minutes as it flew in climbing circles till it was never seen again. A local Ultralite club did a grid search of the surrounding fields and neighborhoods for us over the next weeks but it was never found. We think it might still be flying!! [X(]

GliderSoar

Back about 7 years ago, after taking the suggestions of the other club members to outfit my Olympic glider with a receiver switch, I got the Cox 049, mounted atop the wing on a power pod, up to speed. As I positioned the plane for launch, my hand bumped the propeller. As my hand jerked away from the spinning prop, I must have hit the switch, but didn't know it. It flew great big slow, climbing circles, up above the tree line, drifting toward the highway, completely uncontrolled. Embarrassed by what had I had done, 30 seconds went by, but I finally confessed. The other pilots shouted "Go chase it!" Being a bright yellow glider with a 6 foot wing span, I was sure i'd find it. No such luck. Maybe it did make it to the highway, but after hours spent looking, on more than a few searches, it never turned up....... I did find a dead cat though. I wasn't impressed at all with it's flight characteristics. [sm=angry.gif]

Falcon Jet

Sorry about the cat [&o], suggest you put him on an overnight trickle charge, should be good to go with a full battery!

Chris.

Sport_Pilot

If anybody found a yellow Jensen Ugly Stick with a Blue Head Supertiger G60. lost near the Atlanta flying club field about Sept 1977, let me know! Darn thing flew straight and level till OOS, I figure it was a battery failure or it would have at least twitched to my control commands. Years later when I got back into R/C I was told that I should not start back with Ugly Stick varients because they were not stable enough to fly on their own.[&:] I learned to fly on one!

Avi8r

Yeah I have lost a plane before well.... not really it was one of those cheap little 2ch R/C blimps you can buy at Wal-Mart or somewhere, anyways it was a great plane to fly around inside my house or at local gyms and other wide open indoor places, so out of a random thought of stupidity I decided I would take it and fly it in my backyard. So I went out side and right after I let go of the thing it rockets off into the wind climbing at around 20fps in a strong updraft. Well first I tried to use its weak little motors to pull it down, but of course that did'nt work. Then I hop in my convertible (With the top already down) and go off following it. As I sped up the road i realized how fast this little blimp must be going because my speedo said I wasgoing 32mph and yet the blimp was still just hovering to the right of the road right underneath the cloud layers. I take one second to turn onto a different street and when I look back up where the blimp was when I had last spoted it, had dissapered. I looked around in the fields nearby but dont find anything... I think that it went up in the clouds and either poped, or kept on traveling and reached the Atlantic Ocean .