MaJ. Woody

My Feedback: (28)

That's me
I have watched too many Blue Angels videos over the years. People who fly with me know two things:
1. I can't stand still
2. I really get into my flying and have been known to narrate my own performances

All in good fun!!

ZivBit

Well thats a refreshing point of view in flying rc Dom...
Well done.

Zivo

RCISFUN

My Feedback: (44)

If Dom's not narrating while he is flying "I get nervous"

MaJ. Woody

My Feedback: (28)

Trailer is loaded and the weather is still a go for Sunday. I am anxious to test my gear door mod. I will report the results tomorrow night.

ZivBit

Hi Dom

What mods did you do to the gear doors?

Zivo

Kevin Greene

My Feedback: (85)

I hope that Dom doesn't mind me chiming in to give you a quick answer...Dom replaced the gear door air cylinders as the stock units weren't up to the job..

Kevin

RCISFUN

My Feedback: (44)

Dom is at Titusville as I write, I'm sure he will give a full report of his gear door mods tomorrow...its a 4 hour drive one way for him[X(] so he won't get home until late tonight.

ZivBit

Thanks Kevin,

I did have one flight when the doors opened at high speed and I had the feeling that they are strong enough for the job.
It did not happen since then but still this is a new plane.
I will see what Dom did and maybe copy it.
Which cylinders did he use?

Thanks,
Zivo

smooth sailing

My Feedback: (2)

Zivo

I had the same problem where my gear doors opened at high speeds. I posted some pics of my mods in post #344 of this thread. Dom has pics of his mods in post #353. Hope this helps.

rcjets_63

My Feedback: (4)

Zivo,

Dom replaced the stock cylinders with BVM cylinders.

MaJ. Woody

My Feedback: (28)

I had a very bad day at the Airport yesterday. The day started out beautiful. Plenty of sunshine, temps in the 60’s (great this time of year) and little to no wind. I was excited to fly the F-5E and also test fly the new F-4J. I logged two perfect flights on the F-5E and could not wipe the smile off my face. The new gear door cylinders did their job keeping the doors closed (the will creep open a bit and the long nose gear might not close at 120 psi but 130 psi everything is locked tight) and I continued to explore the F-5E flight envelope. Knife edge passes were very pretty as were the usual jet style maneuvers. I had a lot of fun flying by at ½ power about 2 feet off the runway and holding it the entire length before pulling up. I decided to log a third flight on the F-5E before maidening the Phantom and I went through my usual preflight checks that I do before EVERY flight. Here is a copy of the pre flight checklist in my jets. They do vary slightly from jet to jet depending on special circumstances but all the basics are standard:

F-5E Preflight Checklist

• Control Surfaces Secure
• Air/Elec Lines Clear of Turbine
• Filters Clean (Ck 10 Flts)
• RX Battery Check
• ECU Battery Check
• Fuel On Board
• Test Gear
• Gear Doors Secure
• Air/Elec lines Clear of LG
• Gear / Brakes Pumped
• Control Surfaces Free And Correct
• Model Into Wind
• Fire Extinguisher Ready

Take off was normal and I flew the pattern setting up for my first maneuver…a high speed pass down the runway. I was on centerline, 20 feet above the runway and straight as can be . My flying buddy looked up from where he was working on his Mig and thought…nice pass (he told me this later). Aprox 200 feet after the jet passed me to the right there was a slight right aileron (maybe) input and a violent full down elevator input. The jet impacted the edge of the runway and into the grass an exploded just like David Shulman’s jet did. The resulting fire destroyed everything I had worked so hard on. The turbine was recovered about 400 feet farther forward of the impact and was is bad shape. That was a bran new P-160SX with 8 flights on it. Now possible junk. In an instant I was out about 8K. The engine did not flame out and my failsafe is set to hold so we quickly assumed something failed on the airframe and we suspected the tork tubes in the left stab. This was a mistake.

After cleaning the debris from the airport (a huge undertaking) I was a bit dull emotionally but not broken spirited. I placed my Futaba 12FGA on charge to top it off before flying the Phantom. All the ususall pre flight checks were done to the F-4 as well a long list of other things that I do before a maiden including a very extensive range test with the turbine running. Every thing was 100% perfect. The big F-4J was prepared for flight and taxied out to the center line. This thing taxis better than any jet I have ever had thanks to that huge wheel base. The take off roll was straight as an arrow and I needed some right aileron trim to maintain wings level. A bit of up was need too. Upon my second lap I completed my turn now aligned with the runway straight and level and exactly abeam but farther West of the F-5E crash site when the nose of the Phantom pitched down 15-20 degrees and my elevator stick went dead. The jet was positioned about 200 feet in the air and continued on the gentle decent all the way into the ground!! The phantom and all components were completely destroyed. The fate of the turbine…another bran new P-160SX is questionable. I am now out over 15K!! Complete inspections of the F-4 / F-5 stabs, linkages, servos revealed that they were all intact. There was no structural failure or mechanical failure. Some thing must be wrong with the transmitter. I never would have committed my beautiful pride and joy to the skies if I had suspected there was a radio problem. The transmitter is a Futaba 12FGA FASST with the 6014 receivers in each jet. I purchased this new last year and logged over 175 jet flights without incident. I am left with a lot of unanswered questions and absolutely have no confidence in the equipment at this point. If I would have found some concrete evidence of what caused these crashes I would feel a lot better. But instead I have no answers and will always wonder when this may happen gain. The feeling of being totally out of control is sickening. The transmitter is the only common denominator between the two incidents and both failures were with a down elevator input. If the radio failsafed, all controls would have held their last position and the engines would have flamed out. This did not happen in either case. Either the radio Failed (bad gimble or something) or I was somehow shot down and the 2.4 is not infallible. I tested the elevator gimble by selecting servo monitor and the bar graph looked fine. So again I am left with unanswered questions that really make me question my future options.

MaJ. Woody

My Feedback: (28)

Before and After...

Kevin Greene

My Feedback: (85)

Man....I hate to hear of your bad misfortunes...Bad day at Blackrock to say the least...(Blackrock is a ficticious name that I came up with to describe a VERY bad place in my mind)...Let us know if you find the culprit...Again, sorry for your losses...

Kevin

ZivBit

Wow dom I am in pain here for you buddy...
This is realy bad news, and I am sorry for your loss.

This is truly an incident that must be seriously inspected:
2 independant plane systems, with 1 thing in common - the TX, probably the same electronics inside.
This needs to go way up further for investigation by Futaba experts, probably in the factory.

For better days, friend

Zivo

MaJ. Woody

My Feedback: (28)

Thanks guys[&o]

General Jake

Dom,
did anyone get video of the crash? Just wondering how close the deflections were for the 2 jets?
Chris

thumbnstick

My Feedback: (169)

No Video,
Dom and I were the only two there at the time. I am going to do futher research on the posible causes. The post accident investigation showed only confirmation that nothing mechanical failed on either jet. Both stabalizers had sufficient remains to conclude firmly that nothing failed in linkage or structure. The accidents were similar in nature but different in the way they went in, I will right my opinions and further descriptions later tonight.
Jack Graham
The Major is in recovery, but I am glad to say He will still tear up the summer skies of 2009 and beyond.

smooth sailing

My Feedback: (2)

Man Dom, I too have suffered similar losses so I feel your pain.

invertmast

My Feedback: (23)

I feel your pain Dom! I lost my euro-sport yesterday as well. yesterday was not the day for jets on the east coast it seems!

MaJ. Woody

My Feedback: (28)

Wow. Thank you to all my friends who have shown such support during this difficult time.
It is really you guys that make the difference in this sport and I am lucky to have you all as friends!!

RCISFUN

My Feedback: (44)

Dom I hope you are feeling better ....

Eddie P

My Feedback: (4)

Dom I've followed your builds and flight adventures on these aircraft, I am very sorry to hear of this [] It makes me sick! And the FAAST system has been more than successful up to this point - and I have the same system based on a "wait and see" approach to flesh out what I thought to be a more conservative approach to my 2.4 switchover. We ALL want to know what happened here, I am certain.

smiller

Very sorry to hear of the losses Dom, I hope you find the problem to prevent it from happening again, like you said, even if they found a transmitter problem I would not trust it again. It is odd however that both happened in the same positions on the field. Look forward to flying the Mig {after it's rebuild} again with you and the guy's this year!

Chin up!!
Scott

RCISFUN

My Feedback: (44)

Scott,
Did your Mig go in due to lock out?

mr_matt

My Feedback: (10)

Hi Dom,

Boy that was a murderous day. About all you can do is try to chill out until the "rawness" dissipates a bit. Really, I am very sorry. I agree 110% it is the "not knowing" the cause that kills you.

Same as you, I would look at the TX as the most likely culprit. Here is a bit of an "out of the box" idea.

IMHO, there are 3 (and only 3) possible responses you will get from Futaba after they look at the TX:

1.) No failure found
2.) They find/fix something, some refurb or general fix that does not directly pertain to the loss of control/crash. In other words it might or might not have caused the crash.
3.) They find/fix a latent failure that directly (and incontrovertibly) caused the crash.

My suspicion is that you will not use this TX again, no matter what.

So if I were you I would take the TX apart myself and look for something obvious. I would focus on looking for frayed or pinched wiring around the right gimbal (I think JR had a similar issue recently, maybe look at their instructions). I would then put it back together and send it in. Costs you a day but maybe you find something (and get back your peace of mind of knowing what happened)? Maybe you find nothing but you are no worse off, you will still get the feedback from Futaba.

Anyway, I am very sorry for your losses.

Respectfully,