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What "dumb" things have you done in relation to R.C.?

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What "dumb" things have you done in relation to R.C.?

Old 04-04-2013, 09:27 PM
  #26  
FNG RIDER
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I used work at a local hobbyshop and let my ego get the better of me. I thought I could drive, race, and fly anything rc. Being mostly into racing rc cars I thought I could easily conquer rc flight; )



I bought a nitro heli 40 and assembled it. The throttle linkage was hidden by the fuselage framing so when I set up the throttle, it was either full off or full wide open. Thinking I set up the throttle servo correctly in the closed position I attempted to start the engine to break it in and maybe even attempt hover. After a quick spin with the starter motor, it fired quick enough. It was also set in the wide open position, the motor race and rotors spun and it started to take off. The noise of the engine and rotors at full throttle scared the crap out of me. I panicked and grabbed it the rotor hub, and held on for dear life. Luckily this killed the motor. I immediately switched off the heli and drained the tank. I put it back into the shipping box and it now sits in the garage. It has been over 5 years and I never attempted to start it again. Too scared of it for that; )



After that fiasco I bought a beginner rtf fixed wing airplane. It was a small electric plane. first attempt was in the afternoon, the wind usually blows on shore at about 15 knots. I had been warned not to attempted to fly this plane into the wind, because of the large wings and low power. I flew it; ) It immediately climbed almost out of sight, I was trying to turn into the wind and had it at full throttle and full left rudder. It just kept flying up and away, so finally I gave it full right rudder, it turn right and went into a death spiral, it would not respond to the controls. It crashed about a mile away. I found it, it looked unscratched and in perfect condition. LIttle did I know that the nose first impact pushed the weight on the battery and CG forward. It would never fly again, it only crashed.



I no longer fly and no longer think I can drive or fly everything. heh heh. I may try a powered 2 meter glider next. I am such a jerk; )



Old 04-05-2013, 03:33 AM
  #27  
3DPILOT_NUTZ
 
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Early in my top 5 #1 was when i built a Carl Goldburgh extra 3oo many many flights ago built two left wing panels! DOH[:'(]
Old 04-05-2013, 04:43 AM
  #28  
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Reached through the rotor on my electric heli to hit the motor eneable switch with the throttle hold on.  Electric motors have one heckuva starting torque and a rotor blade swing even just a half an revolution is quite painful.
Old 04-05-2013, 05:57 AM
  #29  
erik valdez
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Did not tell my wife about that last purchase on the credit card. The couch is very uncomfortable!
Old 04-05-2013, 06:06 AM
  #30  
Foxy
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Had a child.
Old 04-05-2013, 07:44 AM
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flycatch
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Purchased something I already had and could not find. Naturally the missing item surfaced after the replacement purchase.
Old 04-05-2013, 08:51 AM
  #32  
pcarluvr
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Since all the bloopers I had in the "air" category of rc, I tried the "water" category. I bought a Prather 42" tunnel hull with a K&B .45 outboard. Get it all assembled and did some on shore testing like left ,right, throttle, seemed ok. I was using one of my many at that time Futaba Magnum jr's all of which had broken battery doors that were electrical taped on (hint). Fire it up, plop it in the water, and start drivin around. Man, I'm all excited rippin this thing around, turns on a dime, 4' rooster tails flying up Awesome. I bring it in to check and top off the fuel, re start and back in the water. I'm coming across the water wide open and something hits my foot. I look down real quick then back up. After not being able to control this missile coming at me I realized the battery pack had fallen out. That's what hit my foot. Um, not too much time to make a decision to either pick it up and install it in the radio or just get the heck out of the way? The most amazing part was standing there watching the inevitable crash, it either hit something in the water or hit a wake, but that thing pointed straight up, came out of the water about as high as the rooster tail and flipped upside down before it hit the bank! I remember saying "It's SAVED" and the wife sayin, "But you gotta go for a swim"!
Old 04-05-2013, 09:37 AM
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ORIGINAL: flycatch

Purchased something I already had and could not find. Naturally the missing item surfaced after the replacement purchase.
that always happens
hell happened to me like 2 weeks ago misplaced a chem for my SW tank (other hobby) looked for it tearing the place apart for almost 2 weeks, went out got another bottle, broke the seal looked down and saw the bottle I was looking for...

parts for my wheely king same thing misplaced the one piece that locks the rear so it can't turn, got a new parts tree took the part off 3 mins later found the one I spent weeks looking for...
I can go on and on for a long time with various things that happened to me with
Old 04-05-2013, 11:51 AM
  #34  
nitrosteve22
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Plugged a battery pack in to the reciever backwards,nice little smoke show.... Other day was trying to start up my truck for one of my nephews and couldnt figure out why it wouldnt start! Then realized the gas line had slipped off the tank... Ya I cant go to long without doing something dumb lol.
Old 04-05-2013, 12:38 PM
  #35  
turok007
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plugged a lipo straight into my power supply. it has happened a couple of time now with no ill effect.
Old 04-05-2013, 01:14 PM
  #36  
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ORIGINAL: Foxy

Had a child.
Had 2.....[]
Old 04-05-2013, 01:33 PM
  #37  
collector1231
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Battery. Shorted. ESC fried. Red to negative, Black to positive, right?
Forgot to plug in battery and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it for 10 minutes.......
Didn't plug in a throttle servo and it tore down my driveway into a drain.
Didn't turn on receiver, and again, it tore down my driveway into a drain.  
I was trying to do a full speed run, when I heard a VROOM! POP! louder VROOM! Dead. I walk up there to see the pipe, and all of the fuel lines disconnected. Oops, I didn't put them on correctly.
Old 04-05-2013, 02:03 PM
  #38  
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ORIGINAL: collector1231

Battery. Shorted. ESC fried. Red to negative, Black to positive, right?
Forgot to plug in battery and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it for 10 minutes.......
Didn't plug in a throttle servo and it tore down my driveway into a drain.
Didn't turn on receiver, and again, it tore down my driveway into a drain.
I was trying to do a full speed run, when I heard a VROOM! POP! louder VROOM! Dead. I walk up there to see the pipe, and all of the fuel lines disconnected. Oops, I didn't put them on correctly.
lol I've had a pipe fall off my MT2 on multiple occasions I swear that thing was so loud it wasn't funny wood chippers were quiet in comparison, The one time the RC was well over 300 feet away and I was like WHOA DAMN IS THAT LOUD will say it made everyone around look
Old 04-05-2013, 04:51 PM
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rwek
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Plugged in the battery black to red, red to black.. Wondered why it was hard to plug in until a puff of smoke came from the esc of the Blade SR helicopter. Tried to unplug the wires which were getting hotter by the second. Yanked them loose but too late for the toasted esc and the battery was a goner too.

Got into RC cars at Christmas. Wife bought me a HPI Sprint 2 Sport 69 Camaro Z 28. I realized that other bodies were available. Bought a clear body of a 65 Mustang GT 350. After about an hour of trimming it I took it out to the garage and proceeded to paint it. Ity wasn't until I was about to spray the second coat that I realized that I failed to place the window decals on to keep the paint off the windows and keep them clear. Oh well. I finished painting it, and it turned out awsome except the windows were now painted white. Fixed it with some black monokote. Used the window decals to cut out the monocote for exactly the size of the windows and put them on the outside of the body.

Now I take my time with new bodies before I paint them lesson learned.
Old 04-05-2013, 06:20 PM
  #40  
ER-95
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Painted a body with plastic paint, not polycarbonate.
Old 04-05-2013, 10:15 PM
  #41  
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Building my first balsa glider when I was 12, and my Dad bought me a new hobby knife with safety cover. I grabbed the cover with my thumb and forefinger and pulled the knife down, slicing my little finger to the bone. Got my first stitches too.
Old 04-06-2013, 02:43 AM
  #42  
Rob2160
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After spending all night building a 450 Helicopter (from 7pm until 4am) It was my 4th 450 Build and with a bit of experience under my belt it was going to be my masterpiece... the best one yet....





After meticulously setting it up, balancing main and tail rotors, tracking was perfect. zero vibration... I was 100% completely satisfied with my nights work..





4.10 am.. after a perfect test hover under the front streetlight, I was ready for bed... decided to give all bearings and gears one final lube before retiring to bed...



After applying ample lubricant to all moving parts I put the heli down and had a shower.... one last look at the heli before bed... and guess what..



It wasn't lubricant.. I had applied CA GLUE.. the whole HELI was glued SOLID and nothing would move...





That is by FAR the dumbest thing I did..



Followed closely by two crashes in the same month by selecting the incorrect model before flight (no model memory protection with Futaba)





These incidents were all in 2010.. I learned my lesson since...





Old 04-06-2013, 04:26 AM
  #43  
supertib
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accidentally confusing my "Parts"toothbrush for my regular toothbrush............ about 30 seconds into brushing my teeth and I realize I had made a grave mistake !
Old 04-06-2013, 07:13 AM
  #44  
collector1231
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ORIGINAL: supertib

accidentally confusing my "Parts"toothbrush for my regular toothbrush............ about 30 seconds into brushing my teeth and I realize I had made a grave mistake !
I've done that multiple times! I clean my Slash with a toothbrush in a bathtub and put the cleaning toothbrush on the counter. This time, I had my nitro rc car's chassis I was scrubbing. I couldn't get the taste of nitro fuel out of my mouth for days.
Old 04-06-2013, 12:19 PM
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big JC
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ORIGINAL: Rob2160



After spending all night building a 450 Helicopter (from 7pm until 4am) It was my 4th 450 Build and with a bit of experience under my belt it was going to be my masterpiece... the best one yet....





After meticulously setting it up, balancing main and tail rotors, tracking was perfect. zero vibration... I was 100% completely satisfied with my nights work..





4.10 am.. after a perfect test hover under the front streetlight, I was ready for bed... decided to give all bearings and gears one final lube before retiring to bed...



After applying ample lubricant to all moving parts I put the heli down and had a shower.... one last look at the heli before bed... and guess what..



It wasn't lubricant.. I had applied CA GLUE.. the whole HELI was glued SOLID and nothing would move...





That is by FAR the dumbest thing I did..



Followed closely by two crashes in the same month by selecting the incorrect model before flight (no model memory protection with Futaba)





These incidents were all in 2010.. I learned my lesson since...





Oh my god! Sorry but that made me laugh. This one has got to be at the top of list.
Old 04-08-2013, 04:25 PM
  #46  
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I've had a few dumb moves with r/c but here are a few of the winners that I remember the most..
1. showing my wife my fast r/c car and end up hitting her with it. Knocked her off her feet and bruised foot, but she still lets me play...
2. Hitting my son with my Tmaxx when he decided to step in front of me while doing a high speed pass. He won't do that again..
3. Hitting myself with my HPI Baja trying to stop a run away after the receiver battery failed.. 30 lbs going 40mph is not a good combination.
4. Blade strike to the chest and hands from a 450 helicopter that to this day started up for no known reason. several stitches later I still fly it.
5. Letting my wife fly on of my planes and after putting it into a death spiral at 50 feet watching her hand me the controller and say oops...

I have so many memorable and not so memorable moments that I wish I could remember more of them, but these few are some of the funnier ones...
Old 04-08-2013, 07:14 PM
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My most recent one... [:-] was binding my boats "new" 2.4 , found that the throttle servo was "reversed". corrected that, but failed to rebind the "failsafe".......... [:@] would'nt you know it, lost signal, FULL throttle boogie across the pond, gps read 61.9 after it hit the bank, launched 30 feet in the air, travelled another 100 feet, soooo gracefully she flew, and landed with but a few gel coat chips......... whew, what a day..
Old 04-09-2013, 07:39 AM
  #48  
turok007
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spent over a hour going through my TX model memory's trying to get my car started. in the end i took the receiver out of the water tight box to rebind it. only to find out it was a different make receiver from the TX i was trying to use. owning around 30 cars can be a pain.
Old 04-09-2013, 09:57 AM
  #49  
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ORIGINAL: turok007

spent over a hour going through my TX model memory's trying to get my car started. in the end i took the receiver out of the water tight box to rebind it. only to find out it was a different make receiver from the TX i was trying to use. owning around 30 cars can be a pain.
ya...
been there done that my issue is I own multimodel radios by the same manufacturer and the RX's are the same exact one for them
Old 04-09-2013, 04:00 PM
  #50  
aa2dd
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how does this rate!

sticking index and middle finger into prop turning 10k. bones/joints exposed, tendons exposed, 30 stitches to close. index finger half stiff forever, not to mention trying to learn to be left handed! how stupid/careless can a person be????? 50+ years experience flying and a big Duuhhhhhhhhh!!!!! must be getting old and foolish!!!!!!


aa2dd

Bruce

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