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do you save clevases, control horns, bolts from wrecked planes?

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View Poll Results: Do you salvage all hardware from wrecked planes including nylon parts
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do you save clevases, control horns, bolts from wrecked planes?

Old 05-20-2015, 06:54 AM
  #1  
rccrazedman
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Default do you save clevases, control horns, bolts from wrecked planes?

Ive been flying for a 15 years with a lot of on and off through the years as I get time to fly. When I started flying and tough all about this hobby one of the things my mentor tough me was to salvage everything off of a wrecked plane! he told me to save ever wheel, wheel collar, nut , bolt, clevis, control horn, pushrods if not bent, motor mounts, servos, etc. you get the picture everything. I've been doing it that all along and of course i will inspect all hardware carefully. I of course toss out any bolts that are bent stripped threads, clevis that are wrecked or wont stay closed, cracked, horns that dont look good or broke or anything that looks bad to me. of course I know the electric end of the deal check the servos closely, pop the tops of the servos and make sure it had no stripped gears. I always pull on the servo arms with my hand and run the servos to see if it has stripped gears or wont work under load with pretty good success. I have recently had one servo slip by me that i didn't notice it was not working properly and I put back in a wing to a plane. The plane almost made it in the air when I was at the flying field when I discovered that it wasn't working right. This made me ponder if I was really risking the safety of my Planes and people around me. I've been starting to wonder if this is good practice for saving especially nylon hardware like clevis and control horns. I want to know what your thoughts, ideas, concerns, issues with this practice. and I want to know how many do or don't do the same thing. I have searched this forum and did not come up with any results for this topic. So I figured it would be something to talk about, and guys please lets try and not fight about it . thanks in advanced.
Old 05-20-2015, 07:34 AM
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KW_Counter
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I save everything, I'm Scottish!
Electronics is the dark area of this.
However, even a brand new electronic item can be bad or go bad in flight.
It's a crap shoot and there are a lot of arguments both ways (and I'm sure you'll hear them here).
You need to decide what makes the most sense to you and your wallet.
Good Luck,
KW_Counter
Old 05-20-2015, 08:19 AM
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scale only 4 me
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I save anything that is usable,, I pick up pennies off the ground too
Old 05-20-2015, 08:28 AM
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dasintex
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YUP...save and reuse it if it's still good!

I have a question to ask....When you wreck a plane and it is totaled, do you tear it apart and salvage anything useable at the Field or take it home and tear it apart?

Last edited by dasintex; 05-20-2015 at 08:32 AM.
Old 05-20-2015, 09:01 AM
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scale only 4 me
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I take it all home,,, I hate seeing others mess with my broken plane.
Old 05-20-2015, 10:28 AM
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I pick up the pieces and chunk it in the back of the truck. Once I get it home I'll perform the autopsy and either commence with the repairs or note the time of death. After that I'll strip off the hardware, wipe away the tears and send it to that big hanger in the sky.



carl
Old 05-20-2015, 11:17 AM
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rccrazedman
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I pick it all up all splinters and all throw them in a garbage bag toss it in the back of the truck and strip the plane at home after the day of flying is over. my field doesn't have a trash bin so its not like I can get rid of the wasted wood at the field. Its a good practice to keep all pieces of wood in case you decide to fix the plane later, because you can generally piece it together on the bench to get a rough idea of the shape you need to cut new parts. This is a good practice when fixing arf planes because we all know arf's don't come with a set of plans.
Old 05-20-2015, 11:44 AM
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Take it home and set it aside ( all the parts ) and go have a brew (?) . A few days later you will probably look it over and decide it can be fixed, if not you can strip it in peace and put the spare parts away where they belong . ( our dumps are to full as it is ) ENJOY !!! RED
Old 05-20-2015, 11:53 AM
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I strip them and put them in a bag and label the plane it came off and then if I decide to build another one I have everything I need.
Old 05-20-2015, 02:32 PM
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FLAPHappy
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Originally Posted by rccrazedman
Ive been flying for a 15 years with a lot of on and off through the years as I get time to fly. When I started flying and tough all about this hobby one of the things my mentor tough me was to salvage everything off of a wrecked plane! he told me to save ever wheel, wheel collar, nut , bolt, clevis, control horn, pushrods if not bent, motor mounts, servos, etc. you get the picture everything. I've been doing it that all along and of course i will inspect all hardware carefully. I of course toss out any bolts that are bent stripped threads, clevis that are wrecked or wont stay closed, cracked, horns that dont look good or broke or anything that looks bad to me. of course I know the electric end of the deal check the servos closely, pop the tops of the servos and make sure it had no stripped gears. I always pull on the servo arms with my hand and run the servos to see if it has stripped gears or wont work under load with pretty good success. I have recently had one servo slip by me that i didn't notice it was not working properly and I put back in a wing to a plane. The plane almost made it in the air when I was at the flying field when I discovered that it wasn't working right. This made me ponder if I was really risking the safety of my Planes and people around me. I've been starting to wonder if this is good practice for saving especially nylon hardware like clevis and control horns. I want to know what your thoughts, ideas, concerns, issues with this practice. and I want to know how many do or don't do the same thing. I have searched this forum and did not come up with any results for this topic. So I figured it would be something to talk about, and guys please lets try and not fight about it . thanks in advanced.
If it crashed, that depends on how extensive the damage is. For me, I do not trust fractured linkage, clevis, horns or bolts that could fail. I toss em. Why risk another new aircraft for a $2 or 3 dollar part. Doesn't make sense to me. When you have a $2500.00 aircraft, would you risk it for a possibly broken or cracked control horn or clevis? Not me. Just replace them.
Old 05-20-2015, 04:45 PM
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dalolyn
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Originally Posted by FLAPHappy
If it crashed, that depends on how extensive the damage is. For me, I do not trust fractured linkage, clevis, horns or bolts that could fail. I toss em. Why risk another new aircraft for a $2 or 3 dollar part. Doesn't make sense to me. When you have a $2500.00 aircraft, would you risk it for a possibly broken or cracked control horn or clevis? Not me. Just replace them.
I agree why chance it when the Hardware is inexpensive but needs to be reliable.
Old 05-20-2015, 05:03 PM
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Most people flying $2500 airplanes are not going to save stuff. They will sell what they can. The under $500 per plane crowd will save it all. Neither crowd round cans good parts.
Old 05-20-2015, 05:22 PM
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I don't save anything from a "Crash". I, as mentioned by others, am on the more expense side and all my planes cost enough to warrant new don't have to worry about it stuff.
Old 05-20-2015, 08:58 PM
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Strip it and burn it! Anything bent, cracked, broken, goes in the fire. Any servo that has been hit or has bent rods or broken/bent clevis, gets trashed, no questions asked. Control horns that have the thin nylon backing that the four screws go into, gets trashed damaged or not. Once unscrewed, using it again might be deadly, the screws can strip out very easily. Nothing wrong nor embarrassing about salvage. just say'n……….anyone have a source for hysol less than ten bucks for the 50ml tube? I need 5 boxes.
Old 05-20-2015, 09:41 PM
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Back when I was a young man, I flew at a field that seems like most of the members were millionaires. They would crash a plane and just drop it into the 55 gallon drum trash can. I salvaged many a plane and lots of parts from those planes. Being a college kid on a very limited budget, that trash can was a life saver.

Today, I save all my parts if they are repairable and not broken. I am now in my sixties and have more airplanes than I can fly,I am still building airplane and I still use the saved parts.

Frank
Old 05-21-2015, 04:45 AM
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corch
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No....new planes, kits, arfs whatever get new hardware. If something has been crashed-no I don't save any hardware, control horns, clevis, links, etc. Not going to risk a model due to an undiscovered defect in a used part. Obviously if I can fix an "oopsie" I will fix it, but only after making the repair, and thoroughly checking the entire model will I put it in the air again.
Old 05-21-2015, 06:02 AM
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Originally Posted by scale only 4 me
I save anything that is usable,, I pick up pennies off the ground too
+1
Old 05-21-2015, 07:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Tluu
+1
+2
Old 05-21-2015, 09:57 AM
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Originally Posted by dasintex
YUP...save and reuse it if it's still good!
I have a question to ask....When you wreck a plane and it is totaled, do you tear it apart and salvage anything useable at the Field or take it home and tear it apart?
Thankfully I don't have to do it often, but when so.. prefer at home, where I have the tools and can also look more carefully at the parts.
Old 05-21-2015, 01:53 PM
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I have been saving salvaged parts my entire 60 year modeling "career". I got that work ethic from my Dad who reused or "re-purposed" everything. He would pick up a piece of wire from the side of the road, salvage lead from a dead car battery to make fishing sinkers and any scrap of aluminum was added to "stock". I'm pretty much the same way. I have pieces of models with chips of the original paint on them and when I run across them in my "stock" I remember flying it. I justify all my salvage as my version of saving the planet as I never add any usable model part to the city dump. I don't save anything that is not usable or might be unsafe to use again but something like a servo might get a sticker that defines what is wrong with it so I might salvage other usable parts from it later. It's mostly a matter of economics but I just can't throw it (what ever it is) away if it might be useful sometime later. Thanks Dad...
Old 05-21-2015, 04:18 PM
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Well, I save a few parts, too. It depends on the crash - a low speed impact may not be too bad, with higher speeds your rx, servos, batteries may have internal damages you just can't see and they likely will fail later.
Old 05-21-2015, 05:01 PM
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Reuse, recycle. That's me. And not just with planes either.
Old 05-21-2015, 05:31 PM
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Originally Posted by carlgrover
I pick up the pieces and chunk it in the back of the truck. Once I get it home I'll perform the autopsy and either commence with the repairs or note the time of death. After that I'll strip off the hardware, wipe away the tears and send it to that big hanger in the sky.



carl
Carl describes the most valuable remains of any crash, the autopsy.

I do pick usable parts from the carcass, but only after careful inspection. Seriously, the most valuable thing you can recover from a crash is the knowledge of what happened. In order to gain that value, don't start stripping things as soon as the plane hits the ground. Don't be tempted to use the trash can at the field. Pick up every piece you can find in the field so it looks like you are just interested in maintaining a clean field. Then go home and analyze the ever living daylights out of every piece you've got. With enough analysis, you will usually realize what went wrong. And that piece of knowledge is worth more than all the pieces of detritus recovered from a crash, if it helps prevent the next crash.

Yes, I recover parts when they stand up to inspection. But I work hardest to recover the most expensive part of any crash, the why.

Dave
Old 05-21-2015, 05:43 PM
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YES I clean it ,inspect it, test it ,bag it and tag it for future use.
Old 05-21-2015, 06:04 PM
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I save everything and will reuse it in most cases.

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