Had something similar happen earlier this month. I was working the flight line at our IMAA Fun Fly. An out-of-state pilot shows up with a 100" Ziroli B-25 with twin 26cc engines - beautiful airplane. As he's preparing to start up the ailerons are twitching. I walked over and asked if he had range checked the model that day. He says "She always does this when the batteries are just charged. It will pass after a minute." It's a 2.4GHz system so I figure he's not being hit. My Futaba doesn't do that, but I don't know much about other designs. When he gets the engines going the split elevator on just the starboard side is now flopping 1/2" as well as the aileron twitch. I stopped him and said "I would not fly that model in this condition. You are "at your own risk" if you go to the flightline". He says it's: "not a problem." I went to the line boss and told him that model was not right. Since the take-off was away from the tents and crowd we allowed him to continue.

After a 500 ft roll he horsed it up on the second bounce at a 45º angle. At 80 ft the right engine quit and he gave hard left rudder (opposite of the pattern) and pulled the nose vertical. Two seconds later the left engine stopped and it stall turned to the left nose down towards the ground. And then dropped nose first into a big pile of small pieces.

Post crash investigation determined this was the third flight on the model. Also that this pilot has a reputation of flying on the prop and checkbook. I fretted on this one since as club safety officer I could have grounded the plane; but didn't want to spoil the guy's weekend (he traveled a long way to get there). Ultimately, we're all responsible for ourselves, but if he'd have dropped that on a kid in a stroller . . .

Rule of thumb: A problem spotted on the ground NEVER gets better on it's own in the air.