Greetings,
This is one of those crashes that could so easily have been avoided
My student doesn't have his own frequency key yet, so we've been using mine. I would put the key in the board for my flight, then we'd change it over to his frequency on the board for his flight. Been working fine, until today
I put the key in the board for my flight with my new Ultimate Bipe, went out and flew and came back to the pits. My student approached me and asked if we were going up and I said 'Yep, get her ready.' When I got done with my plane, I went over to his area and saw he had his radio on and was about to start the plane. I looked at the frequency board (from where I was standing) and there was a key in the board in my student's frequency, so I thought 'Right, he's swapped it over so off we go.' What I didn't realise is that someone *else* had put their *own* key in the board at that frequency and was messing about in the pits with their radio. I took off and lost control after about 5 seconds. The plane (a standard trike U/C, high wing trainer) went in almost vertically at full noise from maybe 50 feet. Buried the engine up to the muffler and smashed pretty much the whole front off the plane back to the leading edge of the wing
As soon as it happened, I looked over to the pits and yelled out 'Is anyone on 050?', to which the other fellow yelled 'Yeah'. I asked my student if he checked the key in the board before we started, to which he replied 'No'.
DOH! My fault really, for not having walked the short distance to the frequency board and 'double checked' the key (or even asked my student if *he* checked it!!). The plane is repairable, but I still feel bad
I honestly have no idea why I just assumed that the key in the board was ours! It's not something that I would normally do in a million years!
I should have stayed in bed this morning.......
MrBonk (who's about to start the repairs on his student's plane....)