Most common crash reason?
 

I do have to say all of my crashes have been pilot error and inexperience, sure I could probably blame all of them on 50 other reasons but after running it through my head, it always comes down to THE NUT HOLDING THE TRANSMITTER.
Mikee

Most common crash reason?
 

Hi Guys

Although my last prang wasnt a ARF it was a RTF to me as it had already been built. It was an Aerotech profile Hurricane and the guy who gave me it said that it flew well straight and level and slow gentle turns. No problem I said as this is what I wanted it for. So I gave it to our local test pilot and he tried it. I also reminded him that I was told it liked to flick out of a loop. So the brave guy took off. No problems but the engine choked and he had to land but it was into the wind. It came in very slow and almost stalled but landed with a nice three pointer. I tweaked the engine and let him take off again. This time I got the controls and it was great looked like the real thing it was great. The guy that had it had repainted it just a week before and it looked fine.

Again the engine choked but didnt go out so I nursed it home. It was too fast up wind and overshot do I tried to go around but the engine almost went out so I tried to turn it sharp into the wind but knew I wouldnt make it so it was time for a forced landing into the muddy field at the end of our runway.

The plane was about two or three feet from the ground when it tip stalled and dropped the right wing. I have pretty fast reactions but not that fats and it piled into the mud. It must have caught the wing with alittle force and broke the fuse in three places but the wings were ok even though it was them that took the hit. I suppose its all you can expect from a profile foam fuse.

I blame myself partly but mostly on the fact that it was a unpredictable little beast and would drop a wing with no good reason. The remains will now be butcher by a guy at our club who is going to make a auto gyro. He likes to modify things shall we say.

Merlin

Most common crash reason?
 

If it makes you feel better (it does me), I prefer to not call it a "crash" but say the plane was "re-kitted" ;)

Most common crash reason?
 

All my crashes have been involuntary contact with local terrain. All because I did something stupid. But like I said in an earlier post, its just another reason to go get a new one.

Most common crash reason?
 

And, if you're lucky, the wife feels your pain and says, "it's ok, Hon, go get yourself another airplane..."

Cell phone
 

I saw a guy flying an Advance 40. everything was going good untill his cell phone started ringing and he reached into his pocket to get it and completly forgot about the plane, the advance went down prety bad.

Most common crash reason?
 

#1 reason for crash? ..... PILOT ERROR!!!!!!!!

Dead Battry? See #1

Lost engine? See #1

Out of Fuel? See #1

Something came loose? See #1

Lost wing? See #1


ETC., ETC., ETC.

Jim

Another Reason...
 

Switches fail more often than batteries and are often intermittent (vibration related) and hard to diagnose...

Preflight?
 

How many of you do a preflight (just like the real pilots) before you fly?

Check all control surfaces to ensure that all mounts are secure and that all clevises are properly retained.

Check engine mounts to firewall, battery switches and harnesses.

Check for loose hinges.

Load test battery/battery test

Check carb for full range of motion

Check security of receiver and radio

etc..etc..etc..


What about during taxi ensuring that the control surfaces are operating properly and in the correct direction?

A simple preflight checklist and before takeoff checklist would really help minimize many crashes.

I've seen one too many airplane crashes from reversed ailerons or x-mitter antennas that were never extended. T

Just my 2 cents :0 :rolleyes:

Most common crash reason?
 

Battery or switch failure - Someone didn't insure the integrity of the electrical system.

See #1 above! (grin)

Most common crash reason?
 

holy shirt,,, i thought i seen elvis !!!!! :stupid:

Most common crash reason?
 

HomeBrewer,

You took the words right outta my mouth, from a post a while back on another forum:

*************************************************
I will chime in here... I have a couple of checklists I go over mentally before flying. One is while loading up to head out. Basically an inventory so I don't leave something behind that I need.
1) Flight box (that has starting equipment in it always)
2) Small parts/tool box with tape, CA, linkages parts, etc...
3) The right airplanes with needed stuff (wings, rubber bands, correct transmitter)
4) Fuel
5) Cash, in small bills and change for daily pass, vending machines, buying stuff from other pilots , etc...

Once I am at the field and unloaded I preflight the plane I want to fly:
1) BATTERIES CHARGED??? (Transmitter and receiver) I charge them the night before, but never take it for granted that they are ready to go when you are. A volt meter with load should cost less that $30 and could save you an airplane. Works best if you have a field charger with you, as you should if you are going to fly a lot.
2) Check aileron electrical connectors BEFORE attaching the wing... it is embarassing to get the plane to the flight line, start it, and have to shut it down to pull the wing and connect your ailerons... worse yet to take off with no ailerons.
3) Check control surface hinges. The hinges CAN break free internally and let the control surface pull free. I just give a little tug on each one to make sure there is no movement in or out.
4) Is the transmitter on the correct model you are going to fly? (computer radios)
5) Fuel up the model and start it.
6) A quick range check. (model restrained by a friend or device, transmitter antenna pushed in, walk away about 100' or so and see if all controls still work)
7) A final control surface check before taxiing out... right is right, up is up, full throttle is full throttle. Real bummer to take off and find out your ailerons are reversed!
8) Transmitter antenna fully extended? You can take off with it pushed in, but on the outer leg you will most likely lose control if the antenna is not out all the way.
9) Trim sliders in neutral position? On non-electronic trims it is easy to bump them to one side or another while setting mixture, moving model to taxi position, etc... This is the last thing I look for before powering up the model to take off.
10) Fly the plane and have FUN!

It looks like a lot to read, but when you get in the groove it only takes a minute to run through and can save you embarassment or worse. Being new to the sport, if you build the habits now it will happen automatically after just a few times through.

Did I forget something here guys? Lemme know, 'cause I find I am always learning something too.


__________________
Will Sharp
"Bankin' and yankin' my way through life"
************************************************** *

An ounce of prevetntion and all that... ;)

worst crash reason.....
 

#!...it's gravity, it just sneeks up on ya, and grabs your model. Not much you can do about it, but pick up the pieces and flip the sky off, once or twice.

#2...The ground, it just jumps up and grabs your aeroplane, and thats all she wrote. I usually just walk over and wet the ground where the ground got my model...wet spot supplied by drinking to many rootbeers.

#3...dumb thumb syndrome, it's a nasty little gremlin that can sneek up on the most experienced modeler. Caused by some kind of mystical gas that permeates the air around really cool pilots showing their stuff.

#4...The dreaded air pockets, gets you every time when you least expect it. I usually just pass wind in the direction of where the model hit the Terra Ferrma, and go pick up whats left...

#5...The Dreaded words "Oh S**t", if it do nodda fit in to one of the other four, it fits here. More pilots speak these words of wisdom then any other in a time of stress. These words explane it all, and covers everything from radio electronic bugs, to soft ball back stops that jump out and get our models...Just figure out how I know of that one !

There ain't no such thing as pilot error, for us aircraft drivers never make a mistake, fer we is a blessed spcecial kind of critter.

Soft landings always,

Bobby of Maui

Rekitting a plane
 

I have never had a problem unless I have violated "the rules" of flying. :D

Most common crash reason?
 

If there is a contest for the dumbest crash I might have dibs on first place. It all starts with a nice f/20 tiger shark going down the runway and rotate to take off all nice and ordinary retract the gear and the meanest figure 9 you ever saw. Upon the post mortem nothing seems wrong. But about a month later I was thinking and it came to me. I did not disable the snap roll switch.And if you think that is stupid I fixed the plane and it flies like new.But after a couple of flights I take off as normal all is well until I try to lift the landing gear. It won't go up and all of a sudden I have nothing. Augers in deep.Not believing my eyes I noticed my tx antenna was down.
OOPS.

Most common crash reason?
 

Just thought I'd relay my experience. Lost a H9 Cap 232 this summer doing a touch 'n' go to stall turn. Sad thing was that I realized I was going to run out of fuel, and I did. Learned the hard way that these engines don't run without fuel. Oh well, gave me an excuse to go buy a new one! :p

Justin

Most common crash reason?
 

One Sunday while hand launching my 049 powered pacer the plane just flew away! never saw it again!!!!! last I saw of it was about a 30 degree angle (up) till it went out of sight. Thinking about it . hum I never turned the plane ON!!!!!.

Most common crash reason?
 

o yea I forgot to mention it was the best hand launch ever, and I did yell to the plane (hey come back here).---- there is one bright note i did not have to clean up any mess!!. :D

Crash History
 

Hey All,

I crashed my Kaos back in 1985 due to Battery failure. I took a 14 year vacation from R/C and got back into it in 1999. One of my first purchases was a cycler and loaded voltmeter. Anyways, here is my list of mishaps from the past 4 years.

1: TX training switch failure, No control on either Box- Plane destroyed!

2: Power wire (positive lead) pulled from aileron extension connector- minor damage on take off.

3: TX "Pots" failure- Plane destroyed!

4: Stripped servo gears (aileron)- Major front end damage, one of the best flat spins you would ever see!

5: A friends Staudacher. Not sure here? I did a snap roll and we think the resulting G's broke the battery pack loose or it was TX failure (PCM). Definitely shot down. Never seen a plane destroyed like that one! I now avoid flying other peoples aircraft because I don't know how they're maintained, but I can sure draw a conclusion on some, if ya know what I mean?

6: Extra 300. Big time Tail Heavy, Balanced to plan, Crash landing- Minor damage.

7: Today... Well... A friend was flying my TT Extra 300 profile, at least 60+ flights on it. BLEW one half of the stab and elevator right off it! The plane landed safely and was actually flying very stable. The remaining half of the stab was broken at the trailing edge and cracked at the leading edge which totally blew us away that this thing could still fly?

That pretty much sums up my list in past 4 years. I do my best to maintain my equipment and keep my engines running at peak performance. I do a range check every time I fly and check all control movements before take off and monitor my batteries through out the day. I cartwheeled my Profile once on landing which tore one aileron off. I'll blame that one on alcohol abuse from the previous night, but other than that, major crashes have more or less been from issues beyond my control? Knock on a piece of Balsa Wood!

It is easier to create good habits than to repair and build airplanes. I've seen it all! Servo's reversed, Wrong plane on a computer radio, Poor maintenance and pilots to lazy to adjust the low end on the engine, resulting in dead stick crashes. A lot of crashes can be avoided if we just plan ahead a little and take the time to do things right.

To me, "Time is Money." And as dear ol' Dad use to say, "There is never time to do it right, but there is always time to do it over."
Good Luck to you All.

Happy Fly'n....


Extra300s7/ Justin,
Yep, they don't fly very well on a dry tank do they. I had that happen a couple a times, but luckily always made it back to the strip. I invested in one of those little clip-on timers and set the timer to what ever it takes to run a full tank dry at full throttle. Never ran out of gas again.

Most common crash reason?
 

mostly just me!!!

Most common crash reason?
 

no flight plan!

Most common crash reason?
 

Trying to fly VFR in an IFR situation... (Ex... flew into the sun! making it really hard to see!) When I first heard about that, I thought "Who would be silly enough to do that" Had to eat my words about month later! LOL

Oh well!

flutter
 

I have a good one for you, I built a S.P.A.D. Coro stang. If any one is not familier with this it is a coroplast (plastic) airplane from the Spadtothebone.com web site. It flew great being about 2.4 lbs and running a norvel .25 bb. The only thing was that it had major flutter at anyting above half power. I was flying and made it flutter to show a fellow flyer and he made the comment that the flutter would go away above a certain (unknown) speed. I then took it up to about 500' and did a full power dive. I am not sure if the flutter went away but it was a grey blurrrrrrrr. The home made control horn was not as strong as my servo, so during the attempted pull out I planted it up to and including the fuel tank. Norvel was undamaged, servos gears all toast and radio gear was fine. The wonderful world of SPADS.

P.S. the theory that flutter will go away if you go fast enough made since, My truck has a vibration in a tire at 65mph and stops vibrating at 70mph so it should work in a plane, right? Ha! ha!

Most common crash reason?
 

My crashes so far (I've limited it to fatal crashes!!)

1. Tried to do a turn at low altitiude, wingtip clipped the ground.

2. Brand new model, first flight, controls wouldn't respond after takeoff.....trying to figure out all day why it crashed...and suddenly remembered...i forgot to pull out the antenna on the transmitter...

3. Flying in low light conditions (almost dark)....lost orientation...and ditched it before it got dangerous..

Things I plan to do to prevent future crashes:

1. Don't be so damn stupid!!!!

reasons?
 

The damn trees keep jumping up and smacking my models or
The ground is to hard...!

- But most definetely brain fade is the most common reason for me -doh!

Cheers-