TedMo

Today I witnessed a crash that makes me feel sick each time I think of it. This happened to a beautifully built fully scaled B-24. Cause was pilot error, such a shame. Initially the plane was checked out in great detail and I believe was to be flown by one if not the best pilot in our club. For reason unknown to me the builder decided to fly it himself. Take off was fine circled field about a dozen times at decent altitude but was evident to me flyer was not that good a pilot. He made only counter clockwise circles made only left turns banked too steeply every time and lost quite a bit of altitude with each turn.decided to land. First approach was too high and fast so went around again. Went further out this time, reduced throttle banked too much and with reduced speed stalled went into spiral dive and didn't recover. What a shame for such a beautiful plane. He went in way back in among many large high bushes. I couldn't remain to see the final result but know it couldn't be at all good.I believe it would not have happened were he a better pilot.

mboland

That's how you become a better pilot, the pain will always educate where common sense hasn't.

Robotech

My Feedback: (9)

Experience is a hard teacher. First the test then the lesson.

Korps

It's never nice to see a beautiful plane go down. I do however think that one cannot blame or point fingers towards the pilot. Yes perhaps he was not that good of a pilot, but you can't get better if you don't fly and put yourself out there. As long as he learned something that day, he can walk away without seeing it as a huge failure.

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

Gotta agree....it is a shame to see such a beautiful aircraft go down. But remember this:

When YOU build it, and YOU detail it...it carries with it a piece of your soul. And as strong as the temptation may be to have a more experienced "better" pilot fly it, at least SOME part of you says:

"By God if it's going to go in, it's going to be on MY watch."

hate to see an airplane lost, but I don't blame the builder for the decision to fly it.

aerowoof

what size b-24? the turning left only problem may not have been the lack of skill of the pilot but the plane itself.there have been a few instances where some large multis with large engines and props would not make right turns.or needed the use of rudder to make a coordinated turn.on scale models I fly them first then do the detailing.

TedMo

I can agree with that. I don't build highly scaled aircraft chief reason being I would have too much of a problem if it crashed. I have built and flown perhaps a hundred or more planes over past 60 years of RC. All of them I always made maiden flight. Kinda felt if it crashes I have only myself to blame. Of course I NEVER crash so no problem HE HAAA!!!

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

I am of the opinion that being an excellent builder does not qualify you as a competent pilot in all types. Especially with a complex model like a multi engine.

I have witnessed in person and watched many crash videos, even from TOP GUN, and notice many times a simple rudder input would have prevented the crash. Many builders at Top Gun have skilled pilots fly their creations. No shame in that at all. At least to get her trimmed and flying well, perhaps.

We have a guy in our club that built a giant scale Corsair. He hasn't soloed yet. He knows it is beyond his level, but he likes the Corsair. He hauls it to the field on the roof of his SUV, and I am the only one that flys it. His wife videos it and he enjoys watching it perform. He takes it home each time BECAUSE he knows his limitations. If you attempt to fly beyond your knowledge and skill level, bad things usually happen.

I would say, study the characteristics of the type you want to fly, read about encounters by other pilots with the same type, know the limits of the airplane and don't exceed them, and with an expensive scale warbird, have a good warbird pilot, or at least someone with high wing loading experience, get it trimmed and checked out.

War birds don't fly like aerobatic planes. They generally have large wings, small tails, and higher wing loading. Care needs to be taken to respect these characteristics and limitations. You generally have to be very careful not to get either wing too slow, and not to attempt to float them in like a Yak. Low time War Bird pilots make these mistakes. I did.

jib

It's unfortunate to see a beautiful plane go down due to pilot inexperience.

We have some nice balsa planes, but I still fly my SPAD coroplast Debonair. I'm just not consistent enought to feel good about putting a somewhat fragile plane up in the air yet. The SPAD is exceptionally tough and has withstood crashes that would have totalled a balsa plane. My son is finally good enough that he is about to transition back to balsa planes, but the SPADs have saved us a lot of rebuild time and replacement plane money.

I'm always sorry to see a nice plane go down hard.

Jack

foodstick

Yeah sometimes obvious pilot error is in fact something else. My Friends that have worked with the INFAMOUS three engine Italian bomber have taught me that ! I think sometimes only the pilot knows what happened, and many times things happen so fast I am not sure even the pilot does know !

losing a real nice built plane is tough, We had a guy locally lose a plan built ,large Ziroli DC-3 a year or so back. It was pretty hard on him ...

Nathan King

Scale builders that can't fly well have always driven me nuts. I simply can't understand the mentality of spending all that time and money on an airplane and then flying it before even brushing up on a trainer.

foodstick

I would say many of the scale flyers you mention are so much more into building than they are flying, They are ready to move on to the next project reguardless of how the test flight goes ! I must admit, I absolutely obsess over a current project, and once its up there ..I start thinking about the next kit in line.. When I used to be addicted to building I would sit at home all summer in perfect weather building airplanes, DREAMING of seeing it in the air...while airplanes with only two flights on them sit in the corners gathering dust. Heck I have stripped the entire radio out of airplanes that had only been to the field twice, and were finally fully trimmed..just to move it into another plane I would only fly twice....its a bad disease when you got it !

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Problem is, trainers don't prepare one for flying a scale war bird. They are usually unforgiving because they are heavy with high wing loading, have scale airfoils, and scale proportions in control surfaces. Many of the full scale counterparts were a handful. It takes skill to build them, but it also takes flying skills to handle them in the air, which is often taken for granted.

DreamingTree1027

My Feedback: (5)

It is pretty common for an extremely talented builder to not be a good pilot. A detailed giant scale warbird(let alone a multi engine) takes so much time to build and that is what they enjoy doing. I like building but would rather fly. They like building and fly just to see how they did on the build, then build more. Trainers aren't meant to prepare you for warbirds. Imagine if you had a beautiful giant warbird sitting in the corner of the room but you couldn't fly it. that would drive me nuts. People enjoy different parts of the hobby. I will probably try to build a big corsair someday but no time soon. I like aerobatics for now anyways.

Another problem is the guys that say "I have been flying for 40 years, I know what I am doing" but they only fly once a month 4-5 months a year. I can fly as many times as they have in 40 years in 2.

foodstick you nailed it. you like to build and thats fine build. I can't do it so someone needs to. lol I will fly for you!