manks

The flying season has not been very good to me. I have not been able to get out nearly as much as I want, mostly due to family commitments ect. On the few days that I have managed to clear the decks enough to get out the weather has not cooperated, it has been the rainiest summer in my memory up here.

Today was not an exception, the weather was mixed all day thundershowers earlier, then some rain and wind, with some sunny breaks. I finally decided to try my luck, I got the my club, and was the only one there, got set up, charged and then the rain arrived. I hid for 20 min to let the rain pass, I decided to give it a go. This would be my first flight since Friday June 13 (I actually lost a plane due to a failure of some sort - plane has not yet turned up so I cannot say what happened). I got my little PT-40 ready to roll, started her down the runway, I am out of practise and I rotated it early, the cross wind picked up the left wing, the plane stalled and hit the right wing tip, then nose, left wing and flipped on its back.

It is not too bad a crash, the firewall came loose and started to delaminate a bit, the fuse came a part a bit on one of the seams, no biggie there either. It can all be fixed pretty quick.

What concerns me is that I am a pretty good pilot, in my second year and am ready to advance to bigger faster planes and for some reason my last two attempts to fly have been complete busts! I will get the plane fixed and will try again next week, but my confidence has taken a real beating, especially today, it was clearly pilot error, at least the other one was a failure (unfortunatly I was also the builder of the plane so it comes back to me any way). I have a series of planes built and readly to go:

4* 60 with OS 91 FS - ready to cover
GP .40 Corsair - ready to fly
GP .40 Cub - ready to fly
Dynaflite Chipmunk 31 cc Gasser - ready to fly

and I am really questioning my ability to get any of these in the air any time soon - it has been a frustraiting season so far - just not working out for me at all right now!

Next week all this can change. Off to epoxy a firewall!

Manks

beachyboy429

its ok, me and my uncle went flying my strykers and i flew great with the B and C and a week after he leaves, i total both of them

haha it looked cool when all that foam went flyin everywhere. the B's battery fell out when i was inverted in the wind and the C got hit by radio interference and she hit nose down at about 3/4 throttle... (once it interfered, the throttle stuck and the elevators pushed her straight down)

my dad flipped out and ran over to it and i just stood there laughing because i know i can fix it and have it flying 2 hours and $20 later.

Villa

hI manks When I screw up that way I make sure my eyes have not changed too much. I then go back to basics and slowly polish my skills.

outdoorhunting

Last year was like that for me. 4 planes in the dirt, yeah, 4. Then # 5, I started out this spring,1st flite,you got, it toothpick city!!!!!!!!! I found out I had a problem w/my TX on two of them. That leaves 3 unexplained crashes. I got so I didn't even want to fly & said , ah, I'd rather build than fly anyway. Yah, right. I finally figured it out, every, yes, every crash that had nothing to do with the radio glitch was nothing but lack of concentration. That's right, concentration. I'll almost bet that 75% of all crashes are caused by it, (momentary noise behind you, thinking about what you're going to do when you get home,looking away for "just a second, etc. OK, everybody, own up, ya gotta tell the truth. Think about it & then tell us ""WHAT REALLY caused your last couple of crashes.

manks

There is nothing to explane on yesterday's crash, I made a rookie mistake, tried to get in the air too fast, too much elevator, combined with a bit of a cross wind flipped the plane, nothing to do with concentration, just bad airmanship.

The other crash is tougher because I have not found the wreckage. The plane was flying well, trimmed out, and then it seemed like something came off of the plane and it stopped responding to control inputs, there was nothing I could do to save it.

Villa

Hi manks
I suggest you try this, it worked for me. Every now and then I would rotate a little to early and perhapse climb too steep. Result? A stall at take off and a bad crash. Since we do not have an air speed indicator or any other instrument to help us fly, I kept looking for an answer. Commanding down elevator when you are about 10 feet off the ground is on the verg of suicedal and takes a lot of guts. BUT THAT is what is needed to save the plane. I have been working on that and have actually safed my planes on more than a few occasions. You have to realize that sometimes the exact orientation of the plane to you at the point of rotation may not be the same as "usual". You will thus occasionally pull up too early or rise too quicky. Think about it before hand and have a plan. Practice it, a few mistakes high at first. The same thing can happen during a landing in gusty winds. Quick throttle and elevator responce may safe the plane.

outdoorhunting

That's my point,- you wasn't concentrating !! One of the first things we learn is to always, always, give your plane & surroundings your full attention, ( crosswinds, know where the trees are , etc.) As we get to be better pilots, we tend to take " shortcuts" maybe don't range check, double check our RX battery, on the "just one more flight" check & make sure the wind hasn't picked up. Not trying to cut on anybody, because I've done every one of these, more than once.

manks

No I did all my checks, I knew where the wind was, I was focused - just made a bad decision that's all. There was nothing to distract me, I was too early on the sticks that's all. That said, I apperciate your comments.

The plane is pretty much fixed now, have to fix a bit of covering, but that is like 5 min, then put the motor back on the plane, so 30 min till she is flight ready again. I will let you know how it goes when I get back in the air.

jship

My Feedback: (4)

I was having a very similar problem. After crashing several planes I finely figured it out. I was getting comfortable with a plane and would set the control throws up beyond what they were supposed to be. Especially the elevator. My crashes were all taking place on turns. I thought I was having radio problems, even sent the radio in for repair. They could find nothing wrong with the transmitter or the receiver… On day we were racing, to get around the corners faster I increased the elevator. I didn’t make it two laps, stalled on the corner.

That was the last time I exceeded the high rates on the elevator. The crashes stopped!!!! I was blaming My crashes on every thing under the sun.

Just a thought?
john

manks

I found out what the problem with my plane was. I must have moved the elevator and did not put it in the right place so the settings were all off and I could not control the plane well. The first crash is still unsolved as the plane was lost, but I have about 10 successful flights since I reset the elevator to the correct place and am not having any trouble now.

Seems like I am over the problem.

TedMo

It's refreshing to find that you and several others are man enough to admit your mistakes. I believe far too often we try to blame the equipment, wind etc. I have been flying RC for over 50 yrs and have done the same thing more than once HAAA. With todays equipment the reliability is so good that we tend to overlook some of the necessary preflight and maintence checks which then leads to what we call equipment failure. Stall and snap on take off are perhaps the most common cause of crashes. Why does this happen? several reasons come to mind. Does plane have enough power to get sufficeint air speed,( especially on a grass field). Are you attemping to get airborne too soon and giving full up elevator to horse it off? Do you have too much up elevator (often an immediate snap to left).Are all your linkages free moving and supported where necassry, batteries charged and foam wrapped, rx wrapped loosely in foam and snuggly held in place, all throws checked and set as shown in plans, CG checked and in correct location, TX trims etc proper, Etc. Of course new flyers might easily overlook things even the oldtimers also do but this is a hobby that provides much pleasure and rewards us for successful flight after flight as long as we are diligent. Sorry to say this but I often see indications of lack of diligence on the part of some that place their post. Bad habit. HAPPY FLYING.

Spacemonkey71

I was at the field again today and I can tell you 1st hand what caused 5 "near catastrophes" > they got VERY lucky and managed to either pull out and go around for another shot at landing or get it oriented at nearly the last second.

TedMo has alot of good points about crashes -perosnal responsibility and taking responsibility for your OWN mistakes (didn't look at this, forgot to check that, etc...), and manks with equipment "misadjustment" for the situation or rookie mistakes, outdoorhunting's mention of "concentration"

But the ones I saw today ALL had the same thing in common: Getting Cocky !!!!!!! I think this causes MORE crashes than equipement failure, adverse conditions, rookie inexperience, incorrect setups, etc... put together!

I think we all like to "show off" a little, otherwise we'd fly in the most remote places ever and we'd always fly alone Let's face it: It's nice to have someone say "That was COOL!" or "Great move !", or just generally compliment your flying. This is an individual achievement in terms of being a pilot, but a "group" event where we have "clubs" "events" and love helping eachother out. And since men got into airplanes, "cockyness" has been a part of the equation I haven't seen a documentary about pilots YET where some aspect of this wasn't mentioned.

I think the simple fact is that we should ALL remember that NOBODY is immune to "the ground goblins" that reach up and snatch out planes as soon as we start to THINK we're better than we ARE. That's when mistakes are made.... "pushing the envelope" just a wee too far.... It's one thing to be GOOD and KNOW you're GOOD, just remember to keep it in check and don't push your luck harder than you have to to stay sharp and learn more. There's a fine line between testing your own abilities and just showing off and hotdogging for the crew

busted2props

My Feedback: (9)

Spacemonkey71 is correct, for the most part. I too have been plaqued with the "Cocky" attitude. Results? 1 Staudacer totaled- 1 Extra 300 fuse broken behind the wing (trees ate it)-1 Cap 232 landing gear sheared off. These 3 mishaps were the result of doing things I am capable of doing, just pushing the envelope. HMMM? Samething as sayingshowing off.

Staudacerflat spin into the groundjust 2 more turns.
Extra 300snap-roll, flat spin 2 turns-lower the nose, two spins-pull up wings level, level flight(so I thought!). Still in a slight nose down attitude. Hello trees.
Cap 232 27%high speed low approaches, too low on the last one.

These type things have made me get my 60 size super sportster back out and go practice at controlling my attitude and attentiveness.
Monte