As many of you know, I do aircraft accident investigation for a living, so due to my since of humor, here is a summary of what happened tonight. Wink

On July 20, 2005, approximately 2000 central daylight time, a Hobbico Avistar Trainer single-engine remote control airplane, was destroyed upon impact terrain and a structure following an loss of control (radio hit) while maneuvering and subsequent an in-flight breakup near Fort Worth, Texas. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a flight plan was not filed for the personal flight. The local flight originated from Greater Southwest Aero Modelers airstrip, near Fort Worth, Texas, approximately three minutes prior to the accident.

The pilot (myself of course) stated that the airplane had been experiencing some sort of "radio hit" on channel 28 earlier in the evening. After some trouble shooting with Mark, they conducted two test flights after the initial radio hit. The first “test” flight after checking the airplane over and adjusting the receiver configuration (moving it around), the airplane experienced two separate radio hits while on downwind at an altitude of about 75 feet above ground level (agl). During the second test flight while on downwind, in a straight and level attitude, the airplane suddenly pitched down in an aggressive manner to an almost vertical attitude, started to roll to the right, and then appeared like it started to attempt an outside loop of sorts. Subsequently, the wing section of the Avistar separated from the fuselage turned into a lovely lawn dart. The pilot stated that prior to each flight and wing removals, eight “fresh/new” rubber bands (4 per side) with 2 bands crisscrossed over the wing were used each time.

Examination of the airplane by everyone revealed that the fuselage of the airplane was completely destroyed. The engine was separated from the firewall at the mount, and was cracked. However, the servos and receiver remained intact. The pilot will venture out tomorrow to recover the wing portion of the airplane.

I will be shipping the receiver to Hi-Tech to have them bench test it. Hopefully I'll know more soon. On the bright side, I shall have my twist up and in flying condition sometime tomorrow night.

Some pictures of the layout examination..