tommy s

My Feedback: (55)

A couple of years ago I was asked to teach a new comer to fly. He had purchased an already built Ugly Stick
with a Magnum .61 which had never been flown. It looked good but was kinda overbuilt . Everything had
extra bracing. I took it home and installed his radio and no matter how I positioned everything I found it
necessary to add a substantial amount of lead under the fuel tank to make it balance. The next weekend we
flew it and it actually flew very well. My student got in a fair amount of stick time and was learning fast. He
took his plane home and we agreed to meet the following Sunday. When we got to the flying field the following
week we fueled it up and prepared to fly. I had taxied it to the end of the runway and was just about to push
the throttle forward when he said "It'll probably fly better this week. I found a big ol' chunk of lead under the
tank and threw it out. !!!!!!!

tommy s

"TRUE STORY"

BaronSchwab

Should stuck the chunk on his head.

gran pa

I don't have a funey storie as my NexStar is still in the box, but you see some of the dumb stuff I do on the simulator. Thats why the plane is still in the box, I could'nt afford to buy that many planes.

3D-kid330

My Feedback: (1)

Wow! Funny!

jongurley

My Feedback: (29)

try teaching someone to fly, when you get the plane in the air I told him that it is his,I hit the trainer button and the plane went sort of stupid, I yelled I have it and he said that he didn't know what happened, so I let him get calm down and then we tried again, same result, in the mean time one of the guys flying with yelled "wouldn't it help if you plugged the trainer cord into his(the students) controller...[sm=sleeping.gif] and their I am INSTRUCTOR OF THE MILLENIUM>

CP140

Before I got my wings, I was up with an instructor on the buddy box. Landed and was taxing back to the pits when the airplane went to full throttle, did an immediate turn and headed straight for the pits... the instructor is looking at me yelling "What the #$%$ are you doing?"...I'm yelling"I don't have it!" while frantically pulling the throttle down, trying to turn and kill the motor. Turns out his finger had slipped off the trainer switch and he hadn't pulled his throttle down to idle after I'd landed, but had left it in the full throttle "get student's airplane out of trouble position".... thank goodness for safety fences! Should've heard the abuse from the peanut gallery that day!

FHHuber

I have this habit of inspecting the newbie's plane, tugging on the ailerons...

BaronSchwab

Get the student INTO trouble throttle position.

SDR-Hammer

Tommy that’s a good one.

Can I have permission to print that in our club newsletter?

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

I have also seen that happen. Last year a good friend of mine had a simular problem. His student got in trouble at about 200 ft of ALT. He fought the plane all the way to the ground with no success. Once it hit he looked down and realized he had not let go of the trainer switch. He took a little razzing that day about it. i don't have the heart to tease him about it now. The plane belonged to a third party. My friend of course replaced the plane.

David

Isaiah 40:31

Wow, bet that took a while for you to draw up, FHHUber. Good job./

Kwigen

Too many years ago. Pre-buddy cords, and the only arfs were all foam. I was teaching our local constable to fly a Sure Flite Cardinal RG. He had it set up with rudder, elevator and throttle. I had mentioned that it might be a good idea to cut a spar into the foam wing but he had packing tape on the under side per instructions and it had held together through several flights. He was a great student, quick learner with good reflexes and we had progressed to the point where he was doing everything but landing the plane.
Well, he tried one to many loops with that wing and it snapped in half as the plane reached nose up vertical. He hands me the transmitter!

I closed the throttle as the plane reaches it's apex at about 500 ft. I hand the transmitter back to him and tell him that he gets to land this time. He looks at me and says,"What do I do?" I say "Anything you want. But you better be quick."

He made a beautiful three point landing.

Fuselage first then the right wing and finally the left.

I helped cut a spar into his next RG.

F4U Killer

I had something like this happen to me. I had flown for awhile 17 yrs ago, then I quit because of the wife and kids, so when I started back up again I asked for help.

After being on the buddy box for awhile and flying pretty good the instructor landed. We refueled and he said would you like to Taxi a few laps first. I said sure. The Instructor Taxied out and said ok it's yours where immediately my plane went to full power and was shooting across the runway. It was about to run out into the Sage Brush (Nevada) when I thought I better do something. I pulled up and missed the brush , missed the T fence post and was flying around. The Instructor said Hey that was a pretty good takeoff. I was still in to much shock to say much.

All I could hear was my wifes words as this plane was shooting across the runway. (You better not Crash this thing in the First week)

After I flew around for a bit and calmed down I scooted next to him and said I thought we was going to just Taxi a bit. His reply was. You had control what where you doing?

What had happened was that they would put my Box on half to 3/4 throttle and let me fly and then when it come time to Land they would say we have it.
So the Buddy Box Throttle was never messed with.

Combat Addict

When I was teaching my dad to fly, I messed up on the trims on my computer radio. He never let me forget that. Now he is always a little scared of it I think.

rg1911

My Feedback: (1)

While I was still at the trainer cord stage, Harry -- my instructor -- had me set up for a landing. I'll always remember his calm instructions.

"Let it sink."
"Let it sink."
"Let it sink."
"Let it ... Oops."

Fortunately(?), my umpteenth-hand trainer was accustomed to abuse and I was able to cobble it back together (once I found the engine which had wandered away from the firewall).

Isaiah 40:31

rg1911, how euphemistic!O∞

satariq

Very Very Funny, Have been laughing for a while...

Cummins

lol, well, you managed to uncover a two year old thread... very, very funny one though.

davej78

I was helping a guy get ready for his "A" test, one of the required procedures is a simulated dead stick landing, from a normal flying height into wind with throttle at idle, so you have to make a steepish decending turn onto the strip. Any way this gauy (sorry Mike) is getting pretty good and hes coming in low and fast towards boundary fence, "I'm too low, going to abort" he cries
"Nah that'll be fine" says I......
Whammo he hits fence post, I'll never live that one down!

Cummins

lol!

tatolazo

Hi.
Since I was at school and almost near to my last year at the University I got my money building and teaching R/C. stuff.

Once, I built a .40 trainer to a guy from plans. During the week I brought the plane to him with the radio and chargers so he had to charge everything.

Next sunday I had to test it and show him the plane can fly. He took the plane to the field, I fueled it up and went into the air.

3 or four minutes later the planes becomes very very slow for the movements so I approached to land, and went out of radio signal just when was 4 inches over the strip and engine at idle, so it landed very well by its own!!!

When I told him that the plane did not answered, as if the receiver pack was discharged, he said
Ohhhh, the plane has a battery pack too??!!!!!

Tato Lazo

Cummins

Ha Ha! Guys like that shouldn't be allowed to fly until they pass a "Basic Knoledge Test"!

Fletch124

My Feedback: (7)

all very funny stories. I especially like the first one about the lead weights.

rcfury

My Feedback: (5)

Not quite teaching a pilot. Im a manager at a hobby shop where i live. We had a customer come in with a GP J3 cub that he put together (total newbie), he was crying that he wont start and he wanted a refund. I fuel it up and turn the prop around and it immeadly hydro locks. I took the cowl off and look at this. Theres a carb cover on the carb. I showed the customer it and he told me that he thought it was on the motor for a reason.
After that happening i wonder how many times he tryed to start the motor with his electric starter.. I sense a bent rod in his future....

go-kartowner

I'm a student pilot and i have a nextar that i train with. I was flying one day and the plane suddenly went to full throttle and dove straight down[X(] ! I did everything and it would not come back out of the dive . Now all of you know that after diving awhile in any trainer if you give full up elevator itll rip the wings off. i was getting close to the point in which even if i did get control of the plane the wing would rip off. this has been goin on for maybe 5 secs and during this my instructer says "wat r u doin" and i said "the plane stopped responding!!!!!" and he says whoops and pulls out at the last second[sm=idea.gif][sm=bananahead.gif]. he had let his fingar slip off the switch and he also had his throttle at full "save airplane" and he thought i was just diving for the heck of it!!!!!! last time he makes that mistake espescially on a 12 year olds airplane as i dont have the money to buy a new one. that is the closest ive been to losing one