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Old 02-28-2005 | 09:36 PM
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Bosch232
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From: Lincoln, NE
Default Close Call, and the lesson learned

Flying on Saturday, pretty strong winds 10-15, but right down the runway.
After much fooling around and many touch and goes, I had a gentle stall on final at the end of the runway.
So the plane nosed over some and boinked into the grass.

After a 5 minute going-over, the only thing I could see wrong was the busted propeller. So I gathered my thoughts, and refueled the plane. It started up with no drama, and I took my time checking control surfaces and what not. So I wheel it out to the center of the grass strip. I'm standing there with it between my feet, doing one final run up and checking control surfaces.

That's when the elevator went into a full-down position, and stopped responding altogether. Umm, BAD.. I killed the engine, drained the tank, and decided to call it a day. It was still windy anyway. Upon removing the wing, I spotted the problem right away: The servo wire had worked loose from the reciever. The stall was probably a contributing factor.

So the lesson I learned is that even with a MINOR mishap, check everything inside the plane as well as out. Don't be lazy and refuse to take the wing off and peek inside. I was about 5 seconds from sending this plane back into the air when the wire came out. I'm sure there are people that will say, "No kidding, you ding-dong."

But if this post saves someone an airplane, it's worth it to post it.
Have fun.