UkerDuker

My Feedback: (3)

Here are some pictures I finally found. It was an DuraPlane Aerobat 40 Kit. These were taken the Fall of 2001 on a disposable camera that I lost, and recently found. Aircraft verses water tower, water tower is areah by one point. Take note of the non-rebuildable engine. It was an OS 46FX.

Mike

LeeHop

Mike -

I have an Aerobat that has been through several crashes and continues to survive (with a few patches here and there). Your post inspired me to look up the word "virtually" - it means "almost"
Cheers -
Grasshopper

meaden

If you hit something hard enough to do that to the engine...I think you went past "virtually."

UkerDuker

My Feedback: (3)

I would have to agree with that meaden. It was pretty spectactular when it hit. It looked like I was throwing myself a "ticker-tape" parade. Parts and pieces went everywhere.

The sad story behind it....

This was my second plane(maiden flight). I had just took off and I knew I had a problem. After alot of practice on the simulator, I recognized my engine was running too rich. I remained calm, I had practiced this many times on my G2 Sim. I started a shallow left turn for the downwind leg. As I was ready to turn base, this huge red/white water tower jumped out and hit my plane with its guide wires. My son (roughly 2 at the time) gave the best response, "UH OH!!!"

I practiced everything except how to avoid the obvious. When I was walking to the remains, I kept thinking, "this is a virtually indestructible plane, this rebuild should be a snap, if there is any damage at all." It took nearly 20 mins to find all the big pieces.

I hope someone can learn a lesson from this. Watch out for the things that seems like a "non-issue". I never thought I would hit that tower.

Mike

Jburry

Ya know, lookin' at the photos, alot of the plane looks rebuildable..... For all the damage that engine took (that's the worst I ever saw, actually), the fuse and wing didn't fair so badly!

I've sure seen alot of more conventional models look alot less repairable after an encounter with much softer obstacles!

Nice job, tho, all the same. Takes quite a hit to shear the entire cylinder from the crank case!

Poor little engine.

J

UkerDuker

My Feedback: (3)

Well, being as new to the hobby as I was, I didnt have the skills to rebuild. Now years later, I see exactly what you are saying. I probably could have replace the PVC fuselage and mounted a new eng. Oh well, I'm glad I got to preserve this memory of my early flying skills. I thought I had lost these pictures.

Now I look back and laugh.

Mike

Jon.

J-B WELD!!!

RCBruski65

My Feedback: (44)

That's a virtually unrepairable engine for sure. Had a couple of the durabats they actually flew pretty good.

UkerDuker

My Feedback: (3)

Now, the one thing I did leave out...... This is a great plane. I was just very in-experienced when I destroyed this one. In any crash, you have to evaluate what happened. I recognized the problem and tried to take the correct action. I was doing everything right except watching where I was going. I simply took too wide of a turn.

I would still recommend this plane to beginner pilots.

Mike

victorzamora

As long as they fly far away from jumping water towers, right? Too many times have I had (or seen) a tree jump, a wall move, a line swerve, or the ground catch my plane. In tennis, I'm sure that the ball would've been in if the line wouldn't have moved. The wall moved, causing my brother to wreck the car. A tree grew instantaneously behind the same car just so I could wreck it. Plenty of times has that attempt at a nice, low harrier been thwarted by my arch-nemesis (and best friend): the ground!

I'll tell ya, those things jump. It's all part of a conspiracy though, the balsa gods are out to get us and no one wants us knowing[:-]

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Yes... and mother wind has helped destroy a couple of mine. That and the lack of experience when I first started combined to make my Skylark 56 a pile of balsa. The wind was down the center line.. good.. so I came in for a landing and retarted the throttle to idle. Bad move. The strong wind just flipped that thing over and actually made it climb, inverted, to about 100 feet and head in the opposite direction. I was to inexperienced to realize that all I really needed to do was hit the throttle, right it, turn it around, and come back in, this time with more thorttle. But.. noooo... I never even added throttle. I just watched this thing going away from me and tried to fly it without adding throttle.. [:@] next thing I knew, it headed straight down in a fast spiral and I heard it hit from about 300 yards away. Pain!!!!

Same thing happened later, about three years later.. after I gained all that experience.. to my Venus 40. Taking off, the crosswind caught it, vaned it to turn right into the flight line.. no good, so I reacted with left rudder.. right? Well, that's what was supposed to happen. In my case, a tad bit of dislexia hit and I used the right hand instead.. you guessed it. Aileron roll to inverted while climbing out on take off at full throttle with an OS 50 FX. Instantly upside down and smack.. right into the ground. The wing popped off and was just fine. Upon first observation, I thought I was ok.. it looked intact.. but when I picked it up, all the balsa and ply in the fuselage was broken. The only thing holding it together was the covering.

CGr

SFMMcoasters

My Feedback: (1)

My durabat 40 has been a gift from god in all my experience. I crashed that plane into telephone wires, had the wing and body separate and each freefall down about 70 feet straight onto concrete. Flew the plane about 10 minutes later after adding some new rubber bands, and fixing the hinges on the rudder.

UkerDuker

My Feedback: (3)

I agree, this is a great little plane. My piloting skills just got the better of me on the maiden flight. I would still recommend this plane to new and upcoming pilots.

Mike

smithth

For all those who would like to see the tower that Mike hit, here it is. Just so happens that I hit that same tower and this was all that was left of my plane. Mike I think you were there when I had my incident. I never found the radio or battery and only found 2 servos. One of which was ruined. Engine actually survived. Makes for a funny story.

UkerDuker

My Feedback: (3)

Those were the good old days!!!

Jim_Purcha

My Feedback: (8)

Nice photo. What's that green and brown stuff on the ground. Oh yeah, .... grass. I forgot it's not covered in "SNOW and ICE!!!

Jim
49th Parallel

Thumprding

For a normal crash they are, but for tangling with a water tower, hmmm I thinks the tower is going to win.