ORIGINAL: CGRetired
A proper pre-flight should have caught the incorrect CG on that plane and it should have been fixed before attempting to fly it. Basic RC safety precaution here. Not rocket science.
If precautions were followed and a proper pre-flight followed by a fix, the plane may.. MAY have flown.
DS.
Exactly, but the students were to anxious to get their plane airborne.
The Club Pilot wanted to see how it handled on the ground first before adjusting the C.G.
The design was so unusual ( and ungainly ) that he did not have a reference point at first for adjustting the C.G. via typical quick tests...
He took it onto the runway, and you guessed it, a sudden gust of wind on an otherwise calm day sent it flying... almost straight up....
When I arrived to the field there was a rather unusually large pile of balsa in one of the field trash cans.
Everyone was trying to figure out what kind of plane had crashed...
We later learned the sequence of events.