Beware.......This will make you sick!!!!!
The guys at the field will tell you how well I was doing with my Viper. 25 flights before today despite the problems that I encountered wich could have been catastrophic .......I seemed to weather through them. Flaps getting stuck due to gap seals catching the trailing edge of the wing(first flight), Rudder desintegrating with the fin at 5th flight and a bit of smaller other issues.Even the strange flight charactheristic this plane seemed to have in slight to heavy wind conditions such as its called "wing walking" , where the plane seems to shift from side to side like your adding slight back and forth rudder even though your not. But nothing could have prepared me for what was to happen today........
At first flight during a high speed pass building up speed at about 150 or more the rudder fluttered wich it had never done before. You heard it. it was loud. My friend Mark heard it. And as I thought highly advised me to land and I did. Under inspection we found nothing really wrong. I pondered over another flight and chose to do so very carefully after his flight. Asking he stand by my side in case he would detect a problem before I do I thought was a good idea.
As I took off the plane seemed to dance a little more than usual but it had always done that somewhat in slight to moderate wind so I proceeded.
As you will see in the video wich I will add was the first video other than the maiden flight, and lucky to find out that a friend had shot it after we got back from the wreckage, I proceeded into my first loop doin two rolls to the top........now.......WATCHCLOSELY!!! That roll at the top was not me as you can hear myself mutter to Mark "I did'nt do that". He said I stalled it and the wind probably blew it over. OK.........But all in all......I felt strange.....like I did'nt have it for a sec.
Moving on through the flight being a bit more concerened I flew even more cautiously and flew a few circuits as you will see and decided to loop it again......
That was the turning point for the plane. At 3:30 minutes into the flight I went into the loop and did not rool at all but as it climbed to the top and overed the loop something happened at that point to initiate an unrecoverable stall. As I realized I did not have control into the spiralI eased slight inputs into the elevator to make sure not to pull full and worsen the stall but to no avail. Even trying to correct with some aileron but nothing helped it.
SIckening at that moment........ it was.....more so of what went wrong. Could'nt tell at the time but it was actually about 1/2 mile away. We trecked up and down ravine's , fell into a mud marsh up to my waste (and nearly sank to my death like quicksand) just to get to the plane while all along its burning away.
As I got to it (still on fire)used my brand new just got Co2 fire ex... on it and still could'nt get it out. Basically we burried it in dirt and then realized it was in fact......A total loss. I only grabbed the turbine to prove that I had a jet to myself.
It even melted the case of the EVO 160.
Perhaps I had stalled it like Mark concluded.............but I can't help but think I have slowed this plane down to much slower speeds and I had not even come near a loss of control like that.
What a gorgeous plane it was. What I pile of ashes it is now.......... Sadened. But I told myself this was inevitable getting into jets. It was only my experience and desire to push through it and the Viper was the plane that caught my eye.
Not sure if others had the same flight characteristics as mine but as I have heard.......they do. I never seen one fly other than my own and youtube.
My friend Nick has one and had his potentiometers go bad on him in flight with his 14MZ.....bad pots........You can take a guess what Iwas using........yes.....a 14mz....but it never faulted before today. I could'nt even tell you if it has the white bad pot in it or not. I just don't know , and I only used for the Viper.
I plan on sending it to Futaba as I don't plan on loosing another like poor major Woody did as I've heard about. Two .........one after another.. If mines a shame,
Thats a crime.
I am uploading the video wich is taking considerable time. So check back in a few to see and give me your thoughts. I would like to hear from ALI and all you guys since you have experience. Unfortunately we will never know for sure what happened. Only me as the pilot knows what it felt like on the sticks, but it helps to conclude some type of majority opinion, Ithink.
What I lost
1 Viper airframe
1 set of viper retracts
1 EVo 160 Booster
1 Powerbox Royal
2 4000 mah Powerbox batteries
1 EV5U pro air unit
7 Futaba BLS155's on all surfaces
1 Futaba BLS352 nose wheel
2 futaba 14 Ch. 2.4 HS recievers
All hangar 9 titanium links
all Dreamworks ball ends
oh yea,
my pilot.
and many other add ons.
15,000$ Give or take.
Heres the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOCzGjDSz7c</p>