speedair

Hi i suppose every one has had a crash some time and a few might be a bit embarassing. Can we hear your stories?

Ill give you one of mine.

I was watching one of our club members flying a new extra 300's. After about 5 mins into the flight the wing just came off and the plane just came down hard to the ground.

Another ocasion was when i had a new trainer and i musnt have glued the wing properly because the plane went in to the air and after one circle of the field the wing just came appart in mid air.

outdoorhunting

OK. I was flying a 80"WSP Robbin Hood. I had just gave up my trainer & didn't have the cash to buy another planes to practice doing manuevers. I was trying to do a "snap-roll" & the resident "Guru" pilot of our club was there. He said, " you know that plane wasn't designed to do that kind of stuff,don't you?" I said "ya,but I've been doing them about all day today". He said," have you ever heard of wing stress?" Well, I kept on flying. I tried it again, ( I was up high, about 4 mistakes high !) I yelled, " something just came off my plane !!" He said, (very calmly) "it's your wing, you dumba_ _" That was 3 yrs ago. We still get a laugh out of it.

lejongleur

My Feedback: (10)

I had several mishaps trying to learn to fly a Parkflyers GeeBee (small foamy 3D plane.) After a while it became apparent that the 'airframe' was beyond repair so I purchased a new fuse, and paintakingly disassembled and reassembled the plane, using a new motor, and carefully setting everything up to fly nice and straight. This time I used a 3S instead of the stock 2S for extra power!

At the field in front of everyone, I hand launched the GeeBee, and, while holding the transmitter in one hand at full throtte, my finger slipped off the right stick, allowing the GeeBee to instantly roll over and go straight in at full throttle. A trifle embarassing, and a lot of pieces of foam!!

Since then I repeated the rebuild, and the little airplane has had 15 or so succesful flights. But only just.

mboland

I was lucky enough to get my best (worst) crash on video

[link=http://www.rcuvideos.com/item/PM9B8PHX2V7QTWT5]http://www.rcuvideos.com/item/PM9B8PHX2V7QTWT5[/link]

lejongleur

My Feedback: (10)

OUCH! Tha was a beautiful airplane. Was it the receiver battery that overheated/failed, or what?

mboland

Yep,
Receiver bat No.2
After months of testing, charging, field runs, it chose the night before maiden to melt down and melt through the zip ties holding both batteries in place.
Stall turn, battery packs fall to end of fuse and unplug themselves, all over.
Murphy's Law of Aviation I guess.

I have No.2 Black Widow waiting to build but can't seem to get hold of a Zollner cockpit for it. Have been waiting 6 months so far.
Might have to start without it.

Sandmann_AU

Ouch! Bet that hurt when it hit.

Mine was an VQ ME109E (what is it with these VQ ARF's crashing?). Had recently come off the trainer and really wasn't ready for a warbird but my GF had bought it for me and I couldn't resist. I had probably a dozen flights on it, had ripped out the mechanical retracts twice and replaced them with fixed gear, and had just set up flaperons (I've never been one to resist a challenge).

Had the plane at about 100' and was tootling along just above stall speed playing with flaperons when two things happened at once - the plane got between me and the sun throwing it into silhouette, and a gust rolled it to about 45 degrees. Of course I wasn't able to tell which way it'd rolled so I took a guess and guessed wrong, leaving the plane inverted. This wasn't a problem in itself - simply power on and push the stick forward to bring the plane into an outside loop, however I'd forgotten I had the flaperons down. The moment I pushed on the power the obvious thing happened and it tried to climb which due to its inverted state left it climbing ground-wards. Instead of killing the flaperons I kept leaning on the elevators expecting it to loop out which had the overall effect of keeping the plane level but driving the cockpit into the ground at full noise - a beautifully executed inverted landing, just a pity Messerschmidt never installed landing gear on the top of the plane! The vertical stab snapped off, then one wingtip which set the whole thing cartwheeling and spraying shrapnel in all directions. It's the only time I've seen a model crash where it resembled a war movie crash.

Matt

dhal22

i was given an OLD ultrasport 40 in the mid 90's by my uncle. it was, on the 1st flight, the fastest plane i had ever flown. after getting used to the speed i decided to open it up a bit. a high stress maneuver pulled the wing away from the fuse, (turned out to be dry rot on the wing bolt blocks) i thought at 1st it was a muffler falling away. i've had that happen before but this time a flying buddy said "that was your wing"! well, we were flying near a construction site and my fuse buried itself into the back of the general contractor owner's car.

after the crash a large group of construction workers had gathered around to watch a policeman fill out the accident report. the policeman was already having a hard time keeping a straight face dealing with the car owner, a bewildered and angry japanese individual. his secretary said in a loud voice that she had seen the plane coming down and that it had looked just like a torpedo. about 2 seconds elapsed before one of the construction workers in the back of the crown hollered "that will teach him for pearl harbor!!" the whole crowd burst out laughing and the policeman was forced to walk away he was laughing so hard. of course my ama insurance didn't pay because i had homeowner's insurance. i'm sure that was an odd claim for my insurance agent.

hugh m

My Feedback: (1)

Hi All
About 1990 I was flying my second or third session with my own sport design "the Spor-Tee" T-tail.
I had an engine in it that a friend had asked me to break in for him and it was -15 C in Feb as well.
Things were going good and I was trimming it out due to having earlier repaired an aileron I lost to flutter.
I needed about 2 clicks of up trim so, throttle wide open, I reached my left thumb over to adjust the elev trim and unbenounced to me I promptly turned off my transmitter.

After having adjusted the trim I watched for a few secs and tried to input up and left to counter the the slight roll.
There was about 4 sec of holly %*&^ etc and then the horrible sound of airplane meeting frozen ground. nose first wide open.
My friends engine a new 46 sf, (now mine, which I still use) suffered a bent crank, broken carb and muffler. The firewall that was 1/4 ply was mostly bits. I still have the wing however and plan to use it in another home design sometime.

The transmitter was a vangaurd 6 and for years has had no cap on the on/off sw.
And my buddy got a new engine (actually I did). :-)
Hugh

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I parked a LT-40 in the canopy of a 50 ft pine tree when the engine died turning on base. The airplane was totally undamaged in the tree. The only problem was we ended up breaking the tail feathers off and punturing the wings and fuselage getting her out and back on the ground. Still all and all I count myself lucky she is still flying otday.

planebuilder66

My Feedback: (8)

Alright, I have one heart-breaking incident to share......... Years ago, when topflight introduced the P-47 .60 sized kit I bought it and assembled it. I bought it when I lived in steamboat springs, CO. I finished it when I lived there and it took about 6 or 7 months to finish, she had retracts, bomb drop, flaps and retractable tail wheel too. I never flew it in colorado, I moved to california and still never flew it, moved back to connecticut and one day I decided to put her in the air. Of course, over the years, I took most of the servos out of her to fly other planes, so I went to the LHS and bought a gaggle of S-148's ( remember those?) and threw it all together. Brought her to the field, setup the controls throws and tuned the motor, taxied to the end of the strip and slowly advanced the throttle, straight as an arrow tracking and the daylight shined beneath the wheels, the sight was awsome as she took flight for the first time in over 4 years of waiting, as the bird climbed she rooled to the right slightly. Now most of us just give a little left to even it out, well...... I pushed left and it kept rolling right so I pushed more, but by then it was too late. My girl had plowed in the ground at full throttle exactly inverted, after the post flight mortum, it was evident that in my haste, or stupidity, I forgot to check the alerion servo direction, yup, I forced it inverted and into the ground without even knowing what was going on. So the moral of the story is, check twice, it could save a plane, or in my case,.....a heart ach.
BTW- FF 1 week later, I rebuilt it and flew her all season till the gear failed after landing, now she's being rebuilt 1 last time and getting a RCV 1.20 with a scale prop.

rambler53

My Feedback: (494)

My most unusual crash was never making it to the field. Some 16 year old was learning to drive his dad's SUV on the road to our field, and he swerved right into my lane without any warning, forcing me to hit the brakes hard. I could hear my flight box 'crunch' my plane up against the back seat, there wasn't much left to work with for repairs.

Now I put the flight box in first.

rcflyer4fun

I will say your plane looked trimmed out real well. Your downline was straight with no roll coupling! Must have been a very well built plane. Too bad you lost it.

planebuilder66

My Feedback: (8)

She's a tank, I crushed the nose all the way back to the leading edge, rebuilt it and it still flew as if it was on rails, gotta give the fully sheeted wing some credit for strength. I've learned my lesson though, if you spend more than 1 month building it, make the covering/finishing durable. If it's suppose to look like fabric, use sig coverall and dope, if it's suppose to look like metal skin, glass it. Hangar rash has no mercy and repairs look ugly. currently it's sitting on the rack waiting for a epoxyglass coat, if it goes in one more time she's going to get a viking funeral.

mboland

It went in like a lawn dart.

I think the F3D guys are battling to do down likes like that

I'm hoping the next one flies just as well (but not in the same direction )

Villa

Since I have been flying since 1972 I have hundreds of crashes. The one that stands out the most is:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_29...tm.htm#2968564
Wish I had a photo of it sticking into the ground.

planebuilder66

My Feedback: (8)

I've seen alot of weird stuff at the field, there's a group of 3D guys that go through planes like underwear, they can somehow manage to hover and do harriers but for some reason, they just can't land. The funny thing is they get ticked off when the plane snaps in two after a controlled crash to the deck, which is what they call a landing. I've seen extras, giles,funtana's, ultimates,.... you name it, piled into the ground wheels first with a shocked look from the pilots as to why the poor thing folded up into a mono or ultracote garbage bag.

kid chuckles

Just started about 3yrs. ago and my first plane was a Super Cub. Then got a big trainer plane that the wings held on by Rubber Bands. This i was used to, flying the Super Cub. I got one of the inst. to help me go thru stuff and then taxied out and took off. About 100ft. up the wing came off the fuse as far and the bands would stretch and then it went crazy wild. I also had to keep myself from laughing so hard my sides hurt when it impaled itself in roof of the guys car that was helping me. He even laughed. My HO paid for it as it did 1800.00 worth of damage. Come to find out you need more Rubber on a 60 sized wing with a 60 sized glow motor than the Super Cub uses but was new and did not realise it at the time. The inst. just shook his head and said i knew and just did not say anything was going to but just slipped my mind. He rememberd pretty quick as we saw the wing come so far off the fuse as it went up. Yeah i could have throttled back and maybe saved it but was new and could not get my fingres past my jaw as i watched it going wild.

sir crashallot

well my story is of my first dabble with helis after i learnt to fly fixed wing.
i had just bought off a friend a mfa helicopter with fixed pitch. after spending all weekend working on it geting it ready for its first flight not to mention the painful bit as what controls are for what what i got it finished. i put the transmitter on charge and the glow stick and the flight pack bare in mind it was an old pack i used to use for testing and seting airframes up. i put a sticky note on the canopy of the heli saying change battery pack before use. and off i went to work. came home from work and my dad told me a weird story about our cat running out of our front door with a piece of paper stuck to its side and my dad couldnt catch it as he was elderly and i though ok very weird and thought nothing else. so off i went and grabbed the heli and my gear and off to the field i went to catch a few hours at the field before it got dark.
cuting it short i got it started and went out onto the field with her with my friend who was a very experianced heli flyer to do the first flight. i passed him the transmitter and he did the checks and proceeded to throttle up, after getting it to full revs the heli would just not take off (stupid fixed pitch thing) then a stroing gust of wind came from no where and it shot up into the air by this time he had no control over anything no throttle tail rotors or anything by this point i turned and ran as it was making a be line for me and my friend we were literaly being chased by an out of control heli with its own mind. then all of a suden it came into my mind i hadnt changed the battery pack and it was the reminder that was stuck to the cat that my dad had seen. back to the chase for some unknown reason the heli just cut back to throttle and had a heavey bounce on the floor and it survived it. after geting the heli back on to the pits we took the canopy off and discoverd the test pack sat there in all its cellotaped up glory. with it being a test pack i celotaped up a wire that became damaged during a test fit in a plane i was building and accidently glued the wire to the plane with cyno.
end of heli experiance for me back to somthing that dosnt try killing you for your mistakes or your cats curiosity for a paper note.
the lesson i learned was never leave a cat in a room near your models

kiosk

My Feedback: (14)

was talking about field safety at the field with safety officer...shortly after I nailed the throttle on my electric eflite extra 260 on takeoff, the battery slid back making it tail heavy...it took off straight up and tip stalled violently out of control into the pits area and smacked right inside the bed of a pickup truck in parking lot smashing to pieces......perfect timing to re-start that safety talk I was having

Sandmann_AU

At least you could have just picked out the useful bits, and asked the owner of the pickup to drop the rest off at the tip for you. Would have saved wandering around collecting bits to bin.

Matt

planebuilder66

My Feedback: (8)

It would be ironic if it was his pickup, just say to everybody, " I think I'm done for the day, my plane clearly wants to go home now"

foodstick

I heard of a guy totally losing a helicopter before and it went sliding hard to one side into a parking lot full of cars, It somehow managed to come right down between two vehicles . Amazingly it beat itself apart under a buddies pickup, and somehow didn't touch any car except underneath the floor of the truck...

Also years and years ago my friend had an old school heli, one that hovering on was considered an expert trick !! hahaha The throttle servo came off, it went straight up in the sky, and just sat there hovering on its own at about 100 feet, It just sat there in a rock solid hover (no wind) My friend says he never had it fly so stable, Just as he thought "Hey, this might not be so bad" It started sliding off in a ever steepening dive...and blew itself to pieces...

qldviking

the most fitting end to a heli crash I saw was with a 3d nut that flew where he pleased, including right outside the pits area. He piled it in between himself and the pits and bits flew everywhere, 4 got hit by debris including himself and her got the worst of it, A big gash on his head and another on one of his legs, the others were minor cuts. The fool went and picked up his remains and then jumped in his car and bolted, didnt even check to see if anyone else was hurt or anything. that resulted in a meeting being called and the result was any heli pilot not flying in the heli area will be banned from the field. The fool didnt even show up at the meeting, and when he showed up the following weekend and started to fly where he wanted, he was told to go to heli area, whereby he said he will fly when and where he wants, and he was told to leave to field never to return. some fools never learn

outdoorhunting

Good for you. All of our "toys" are potentialy dangeous. However, I feel that heli's are an accident waiting to happen. (I'm sure that statement will start a war.) That's my own personal opinion. I wish our club had room to have the heli's own area. Everytime one goes up, I walk the other way. I've seen "one loose it" & it went about 10 rows into the corn , detasselling it as it went.