Razor44

Ok all, in light of some comments made on the Biplane Blooper/video thread lets have a laugh and tell about some of our own stupid mistakes. I guess since it is my idea I'll go first.

It's 1984 and my first year flying. I live in a small town and am the only one who flys RC.
I had been teaching myself on a Sig Kadet and had it pretty banged up but could handle it ok. So I bought a low wing sport plane. It was a Northeast Aerodynamics SportAir 40. Great little plane. So this one day I was out at my flying site which was a dirt landing strip. There was a 72kv power line that ran parallel to the strip about 1/4 mile to the west. I'm getting kinda bored with just stooling around the sky so I says to myself "hey, I think I'll fly under that there power line. Oughta be a hoot." So I head on out west till I know I'm on the other side of the line and get er down nice and low and turn back towards myself. Concentrate, concentrate,
concentrate, don't stick er in the weeds says I. Doing good, doing REAL good. OK, I'm past, pull up. Only thing is I wasn't past, I was right under the power line. The plane hit and shorted across two phases of the line. I wish I knew how to spell the sound it made cause it was very impressive. Something like BOOSH. The flash was rather mind boggling as well. All that was left of the plane was the engine, wheels and the battery survived too. Never had to charge it again cause it was supercharged! ha ha
Anyone else?
Randy

jameschen0702

Must've been heck of a show

CrashPro

My Feedback: (1)

hehe......ah yes.....the ol' 'depth perception' death...I slammed the side of a rock hill one time because I thought the plane was a good couple hundred feet THIS side of the hill.

mstroh3961

My Feedback: (4)

We had a 4 strand barbed wire fence at the west end of the runway! And at sunset (shouldent have taken that last flight) I hooked the tail wheel of my loveingly kit built (first build, and second plane) and cowled 4 star 60!

Ripped the whole tail off in one piece! the rest carwheeled to utter distruction! My flying buddy was no help all he could say is "you should see the look on your face"[sm=disappointed.gif]

about a week latter one of the PATTERN FLYERS strained one of his YS 140 powered pattern birds through the fence and it was lowered to 2 strand toot sweet!

randall1959

My Feedback: (11)

I was flying at a friend's house on the north edge of town. I did a low pass under the powerlines leading to his house and guess what? My plane struck one and flipped it over the other and the entire north end of town was without lights for like two hours........Needless to say I was long gone by the time the cops got there.........

jameschen0702

my airplane flew outa control and missed a BMW 726i by about 2 inches
and I eventually managed to land it..talk about skill!!!

WCB

I switched out some servos in a plane once and didn't fly it for a couple weeks. I forgot to check the throws. Then I took off and had almost no aileron or elevator throw. I couldn't control it and it smacked the ground hard. I couldn't figure out what happened until my brother said "hey that's the one you put the new servos in too." Then it hit me. DOH!

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Just yesterday I was out flying my new Ripmax Rapier. This was my first time flying it, it had been flown by the club 'pro' several flights before I got up enough courage to put it in the air myself. If you are not aware, this is a hand launched glo powered delta shaped flying wing with no landing gear, has skids on the bottom. More on that shortly. Nice and smooth flyer I was told but very fast. It has a brand new OS 50 turning an 11-5 prop. Very fast and pulls like the devil on launch. Well, before flying, I had some problems getting the engine to run right, to lean then to rich, you know the drill. I finally got it to respond properly to throttle so up she went. Well, I was absolutely thrilled just to be able to fly the thing. Yes, it was very fast. Well, I ran out of fuel at about the fourth orbit so I did a greaser dead-stick landing and was very happy with that... the point here is that I did not have to 'kill' the engine to land cuz it was already 'dead'.

I fueled it up and got it ready to fly, did the usual throttle response tests, and got my friend to hand launch for me. Up she went. Well, I did several maneuvers, mostly at about half throttle, did some full throttle stuff but not much. After about 10 minuts flying, I thought it was time to get it on the ground, not wanting to do a dead stick landing again (even thought by default, a landing this routinely is a dead stick landing). So, I did a long approach just to make sure I had "enought time" to coordinate pushing the engine kill button on my transmitter, which by the way, is on the right side of the transmitter. So, I did my approach, looking good, went to min throttle and tried to find the stupid kill switch with my left hand cuz I was flying the thing with my right hand!!! Next thing I saw that it was in the grass and stopped. Lucky the only damage was a broken prop and some long grass in the skids. It was my last 11-5 prop so that ended my flying the Rapier that day. Off to the hobby shop for more 11-5 props, but flying the Rapier was a real kick!! Man, does that thing move through the air... something for a guy that, up to that point, has been flying a trainer then a Tiger 60, both much slower than this Rapier.

TOPGUNNER

I was flying my F-22 Stryker at my Club, Me and 2 other guys were there. I was the only one flying at the time.
The other guys were under are clubs pavilion about 30 feet away from were i was standing.
I was making my way around to do a low pass when all of the sudden....
I was in the middle of a turn heading for the Pilots area when in Mid turn with the Stryker pointing down at the pavilion just lost all controlls and the Motor quit on me.

with the plane at High Speeds and now a silent missile and everything Happening so fast that saying something to the Guys on the picknick table like "Watch out!!!!!!" would of done nothing....... (you know how fast them 60-70 year old guys would of ran out of the away with those lighting fast reflex's).......
seeing that the plane is gonna miss them but be real close to disaster i still was soo scared for what was about to happen....
but not only did the plane MISS the light pole 10 feet from the pavilion , then Fly in between the two pillars holding the roof to the pavilion , then Underneath it and above the guys siting at the table ,"As these Guys are just having a Conversation and watching the plane Wiiizzz right by them......", Then just over a huge ford F-150 and my own car, And then finally a nice soft landing in the parking lot..............

i went over to those guys and was like, "HEY IAM REAL SORRY ABOUT THAT!!!!" and they looked at me like "sorry for what????"
i said "I had No control of the plane..... i didn't mean to do all of that.......i about took all of you out!!!!!.."
The guys were saying that it looked so Perfect that he thought thats how i was supposed to land that plane cause they never seen the Stryker Before.......LOL true Story........
Scared the Piss Out of me, but ill tell you what it was Freaking awsome looking........

p.s. had a battery problem... plane is fine

us020140

My Feedback: (28)

I was flying my Dave Patrick Extra one night when my pager went off. I came around to land and decided the idle was too high. I made another approach and pulled back the throttle trim. Except it wasn't the throttle trim, it was the on / off switch. The failsafe worked great as the plane descended straight and level...then disintegrated in the corn. Parts were still flying just as I realized what I'd done.

StallN

I did the "I'm in front of that tree" then "OH CRAP" [X(]thing with my Tower Trainer 40 earlier this summer. I flew thru an open area in the top of a pine tree.[:@] Caught the right wing tip then the left horizontal stab tip as it came thru. Minor damage until I cut throttle. It tip stalled, rolled over and dove into the ground. The fuse was toast. Wing broke in 2 at the joiner. Some leading edge damage from the rubber bands. Keeping the wing to repair for use on something else. Radio and engine fine.

Knighthawk2100

I took my Venus 40 Patter Plane up last week. Took off flew around for about a minute before the engine started acting funny. Started making an approach when the engine dies. Luckily I had a perfect dead stick landing. I was pissed though since the engine had been running great, and I am so sick of stupid stuff going wrong. (My tank came apart the week before[:@]) Well I took a 5min break and went to work on the engine. I pulled the Fuel line of the muffler and guess what happen. Splat I got shot in the face with fuel. I had reversed the feed and exhaust lines. Boy did I feel stupid. The fact the fuel got all over me when I pulled the line off was just hilarious.

Deadeye

I got two, both happened this year:

1) UCD 60. Was playing around with spoileron, and doing slow approaches. With a bit of a head wind (3-5 MPH), I could ride the tail wheel 30-50 feet without the mains touching. Well, on one approach, about halfway across the grass runway, the mains touch. No problem, I think, and throttle up. Problem is, it doesn't want to rotate. With that long tail moment, it just won't do it with spoileron. By the time I realize I'm not leaving the ground, I'm already at the end of the runway and heading for the irrigation ditch. It hits the ditch, cartwheels, and rests upside down. Thankfully, the hot glue they used on the firewall broke free with very little wood damage. It chipped the cowl a bit, but was up in the air again with about 2 hours of work. Lesson 1 learned.

2) This just happened earlier this week. Our landowner where our field is, runs sheep in the same pasture in the fall. Now, sheep in and of themselves, don't really hurt the field, but the poop tends to flip up and reek havok with open bays on under sides of monokoted wings. So we decide this year to string an electric fence 50-60 feet away from the perimeter of the field. We joke as we finish the fence, "I wonder how many planes this will eat?" Well, I go out that night with my Lanier Dart, a very fast plane with a TT 61. 5 minutes into the flight, engine dies (too lean), and I have to deadstick. I should've went out farther, cause I was coming in hell bent for election. Touch down at the halfway mark going about mach 2.8 run off the end of the field, and the vertical stab snags the bottom wire. Flips the plane around, dust, and everything. Looked cool as heck. I figure I probably sheared the rudder off. I get to the plane and there is no damage except a small crack in the tail. Fence wire stretched 4 inches or more. A piece of packing tape later, and I'm in the air again. Lesson 2 learned.

Primodus

My Feedback: (56)

My first plane last year was a Super Sportster 60. I bought it prebuilt, minus radio and engine. It had some hard years in storage, but seemed to be in solid shape all around. I got it completed, had a local experienced RC'er check it out, and take it up for maiden. (This was on a Friday afternoon.) Everything seemed to go flawlessly. What a plane! And then....Saturday morning rolls around and I gather with the other handful of local fliers for a beautiful day of flying. First flight of the day I take off and get her up high for some practice maneuvers. Some rolls and a loop and all looks good. Then I handed the controls to my "instructor", told him to do a loop , he goes over the top and the plane fails to pull out before altitude reaches zero. SMACK!!!![X(] Pancake right on the belly, as if it was dropped straight down form a thousand feet. Blew the entire plane apart, with the exception of the radio gear and engine. (Cause was a warped, and fatigued elevator nylon pushrod)

Most of you by now are wondering when the stupid part comes in. Well........My "instructor" felt bad that the previous plane died while the Tx was in his hands, so he bought me another SS60 kit to replace it. (Awesome guy[8D]) I built it stright and true, and for my first full covering job it looked great. I did lots of research on RCU for the build. Got the radio and engine mounted and had it checked out and range tested as well. Took it out to the field (about a month has passed since the first S60 demise), and range tested again before flight, motor on and off. Full tank of fuel and a smooth takeoff looks very promising and I start a turn around the circuit to go downwind. Here's where I realize how stupid I am. Just as i turn crosswind to head back toward myself/the field, the plane decides not to respond to the controls. She simply stopped listening. So, at full throttle it proceeds to go into a slow, crosswind loop and ends up hitting the ground at easily over 100Mph half a mile away in a soybean field. Complete loss except for the motor (soft, muddy field). How is that so stupid you say? In my rush to get the new plane built, I didn't think about the crystal being damaged in the previous crash. Using a crystal from a plane that has been severely destroyed is a bad idea. One that caused me a second plane within a month. Simple, yet stupid.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

A hell of a bad way to check battery performance is to use it over and over until it fails. That's happened at our club once with a transmitter and once with a receiver. The person in question had been flying all morning. He had (HAD) two planes, one a trainer and the other a very nice low wing intermediate. He had the low wing intermediate for about two weeks. Anyway, he was alternating the trainer then the low wing intermediate, and back again all morning. I was in my charge session because I had one transmitter and two planes also but would charge the TX battery after the second flight just to be cautious. My friend, though, did not have field charger and his model was different from mine. Anyway, his last flight of the day was with the new low wing intermediate, doing orbits. We were sort of offhand talking about battery life just before he went up. About 5 minutes into his flight I heard him say something with four letters that I cannot print here. I looked up just in time to see that beautiful blue and white bird nose over and dive right straight into the ground. Pieces of that plane actually bounced up about 10 feet. I found his engine mount about an hour later about 20 feet from where he crashed. His comment was "Well, I looked up, the plane was supposed to be turning right not diving. I looked down at the transmitter and the battery condition light was red then it blinked out. I knew I was in trouble".

I learn a lot from others.

Our club president was flying his beautiful scale Cesna. He made an approach, aborted it because he was over the tall grass on the opposite end, and instead of doing a climb out, he added throttle and immediately tried to make a quick right hand 270 turn to get back toward the runway centerline. It immediately stalled and nosed in from about 20 feet. It WAS a very nice scale Cesna, now a pile of scrap wood.