hsanchez

My Feedback: (46)

Last Thursday evening, July 28, I crashed my Cermark Graduate during its fourth flight. The plane began spiraling out of control right after takeoff, crashing into a strawberry farm about 1/4 mile from my club's field. This was the third plane I have crashed since resuming the hobby early last year. Both the fuselage and the wing of the Graduate were shredded thoroughly, beyond repair. I think the radio survived its third crash, although I had to replace most of the servo horns. The engine has caked-in dirt, so I will need to disassemble and clean it before seeing if it will run again.
An alert club member who saw the spiraling had grabbed the transmitter from me and tried to bring it under control, to no avail. After the crash, he noted that the rudder and aileron trim tabs were at their far left stops, rather than the center. He explained that this accounted for the uncontrollable spirals. Later, at home, I ran my Flight Simulator, using a similar aerobatic plane, with the same trim settings as I had on the Graduate for its ill-fated flight, and sure enough, the plane "crashed" right after takeoff.
LESSON LEARNED: Verify that your trim tabs are in their proper positions before takeoff, no matter what plane you are flying.

P.S. Sorry, no photos.

Miloh

Well if your plane was set up correctly and ready to fly. You should have noticed the controll surfaces were off that much....If you looked at them before you took off. The last thing you should always do before take off is check you control surfaces for proper direction when you move the sticks. at this point you should see if the trims have the surfaces deflected far enough to cause a problem. Just remember to "LOOK"
Good luck with the rebuild.

Miloh.

Safety Hawk

My Feedback: (6)

You may want to invest in a computer radio so that the trim tabs do not get knocked out of position.