ONERCBOATER

Yesterday I crashed my 25% Extra 260, fuse trashed, wings repairable, tail surfaces intact. Cost of crash approx $250.00 (I got off cheap, no one hurt and a good lesson learned)

What happened, well to put it simply I wished to move the batteries further back to change the center of gravity. To accomplish this I made a new battery tray and a box to hold the batteries. After one mellow flight to get accustomed to the way she felt and liking it very much I decided to push her to the limit at altitude. After a few flat spins, waterfalls, and blenders I did a simple snap roll and off she flew, no further control. We have roughly determined that the battery box had failed and released the battery during the snap roll.

I got the worst experience of my radio control hobby, watching and expensive and now dangerous toy flying without control for approx 8 minutes until it ran out of gas glided back to earth and crashed. For eight horrifying minutes I watched as my plane became a smaller and more distant speck spiraling up to heaven, by our best guess it was at close to 4000' vertical prior to running out of fuel. We had a sleight breeze 2-5mph and the plane drifted well over a mile during this time. All I could do was watch with a set of binoculars and hope that it wouldn't damage anything else or worse yet hurt someone. Thank God I live in the Desert and we fly miles away from any populated area.

So aside from securing the batteries better, I am intending on running at least two battery packs from now on and using Y harnesses to plug them into at least 2 ports on my receiver, and putting a second receiver on a different channel and battery on the choke so that if the situation ever occurs again (fried receiver, fire, who knows) I can kill the engine and let it crash within the flight area.

You are welcome to learn from this, welcome to make suggestions, don't bother telling me I'm stupid, told myself that enough today....frankly it scared the *&$^ out of me. [X(]

bjor

I have seen this happen and it's the worst feeling I think a responsible flyer can get. Not knowing where abouts your plane will finish up or what damage it may cause when it finally comes back down to earth is a gut wrenching feeling. I watched a 26cc Sea Fury fly out of control once. It just went off the air, rolled on it's back and flat spun for about 3 minutes (I kid you not) before finally crashing into a clearing. The total feeling of not being able to do anything, while giving you time to think about what it can do, is really scary.
I'm glad you have shared this story, and even more glad nobody got hurt.

planebuilder66

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Extra 260 huh, ACE manufactureing? Or someone else make one too? I repaired one of the ACE 260's for a friend a long time ago, it still flies to this day, all 96" of that wingspan.