armody

My Feedback: (10)

Hi y'all,

I'm asking here sort of unorthodox question which is yet sad and a fact of life. The question is, of course nothing lives forever everything has an expiry including our models, so how many people agree that every single plane has to crash, break, bite the dust etc.. someday. Some would crash on maiden, some would be after months of years. Question is how long can you prevent it from crash? how can you mitigate factors involved causing the crash.

If a plane is built and it's hung on the wall or ceiling it would last for so many years, but would deteriorate gradually. So How long a plane last, and no one can predict the cause of crash, I may be wrong, but that's what I learned from many crashes of my planes.

How long a plane can last and how many people would agree, how can it be prevented from crash.

Experiences, opinions, suggestions, all are welcome. I wanna learn from most experienced fliers, builders, operators over here, and I salute y'all on your persistence, perseverance and great involvement in this great hobby and encouragement. Above all, sharing your experiences so we beginners can learn.

Happy Flying

Mody

Mr Cox

With good care and proper preflight checks, there is no reason for any plane to crash. My oldest plane is about 30 years old and still going strong, so I don't now how old a plane can get yet...

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

There is no reason for a kit or scratch built plane not to last for decades. Three photos of a couple of my planes. You asked about planes that have hung for years. The Tiger Moth was a kit built plane from the UK. It was framed up and hung in an uninsulated building for 10 years before I got it. I re-glued the joints then finished the build. I only flew the plane for three or four years then sold it before I mover here. From what I have been told it is still flying? so in the air it has been flying for about 8 years. The Kaos was around 20 years old and on it's forth covering job, crashed a couple times but repaired. I finally stuffed it for good last year so about 2 decades+. The crash was my fault, I just had eye surgery and couldn't see well. During a stunt the header broke off the engine and I didn't have the power or air to recover it from a flat spin. The CG Extra is almost 2 decades old, I was flying it last Sunday. It could use a new covering job but I hate to take apart one of the best flying airplanes I have just to make it pretty again. Last year I also lost a very old, 2 decades plus 80 inch Kaos. I was flying it way too hard showing off and folded the wing. Completely my fault!! I knew better. An ARF air frame will only last me about one year before I start running into air frame problems, I tend to over stress my planes doing stunts so all my planes must be kit or plans built. To replace the small Kaos I built A Dirty Birdy, another Bridi design. It lasted one day + one flight before I had my first mid air. I didn't see that one coming. I have also lost a nice kit built Extra 260 on it's second day of testing. I had an RX problem and thought I had it fixed, I didn't.
So, you see you can have a plane for a very long time or no time at all. I caught a bad RX in my CG Extra a while back and replaced that then in the last week or two during a lay off in due to wind I discovered a bad battery pack in this Extra. It could have died last week if I hadn't caught that.
Gene

Minnreefer

I picked up an astro hog that is probably 40years old, I don't know how much the previous owner flew it, but if you do good preflight and conservative flying, most planes can last longer then a person gets bored with them. The more comfortable one gets with a plane, they tend to be more relaxed flying it and tends to push it more. I have known a few pilots that take older planes and see how low they can fly them inverted, doing stuff like that tends to shorten a planes life.

ArcticCatRider

My Feedback: (6)

As far as lasting for years, the construction of the plane and the covering system are two factors that will greatly influence the lifespan of an airframe. Fuel and oil is "killing it softly." If you can keep fuel and exhaust oil from getting absorbed into the wood, you have won half the battle. Obviously storage and handling play a big role as well. High humidity environments don't do much of anything any good, and model planes are no exception.

On the other hand, crashing will negate any efforts of fuel proofing and careful handling that were previously prescribed. Piloting is of course the biggest factor, followed closely by the individual's attention to detail; i.e. radio installations, battery condition, proper tuning of the engine, and maintenance...all things which will needlessly ruin an airplane. Typically, those who've been successful hobbyists will routinely check over the airframe, accessories, etc., and not " take chances"

But that's taking the fun out of it. Every RCer should have a "beater." I have a couple. These planes are flown in 30 MPH winds, snap rolled in full throttle dives, flown inverted 2 feet off the ground..and pretty much anything else that makes spectators think "i'm glad I'm not in that plane."
Just be safe when having fun!

armody

My Feedback: (10)

Mr.Cox,

All I gotta say is wow, that is really truly amazing 30 years wow.

Gene,

I'm truly amazed and surprised by your experiences that you guys have done great job to keep those beautiful planes flying. I never want my plane's to crash, one trainer friend lost back in my country, other plane, I had to give it to my friend as I was leaving the country, first P51 Mustang by H9 crashed due to Rx failure or somebody turned on their radio on purpose as I gave it to my senior very well experienced man, he said the RX is repairable but got toasted up in the air, I've never found the reason. Mustang MKII red tail, crashed, it was my bad, my stupid mistake, low inverted high speed pass, and boom.

Escapade involved many factors, not proper gluing on the stab as per their instruction which came out later, using metallic Z band on throttle, antenna wire I taped it under the servo container, fluttering and finally plane took a nose dive. That plane could have been repaired had I met my mentor who helped me completely repaired by Strega and that baby is ready to go up in the air again with first time 2.4 Ghz RX. He says every plane has to crash some day sooner or later and he is the person who would eliminate and alleviate every possible minor issue , which he thinks may cause a crash. My strega Phoenix model ARF was a poorly built plane, but after the crash which was due to turning into a cross wind, low throttle and it did a tip stall and nose dive as strega has very thin wings. I re-enforced so many things and changed aileron hinges, installed CA hinges, changed wing dowel, changed engine from Magnum .46 XLS to Thunder Tiger Pro .46, changed aileron clevises into metallic ones with 16 of an inch rod, screws and bolts, or may be more smaller, as I'm not good at fractions, I gotta learn again and my Mentor keeps teaching me, anyway, it's so much robust now and so many factors have been mitigated which may become cause of crash.

The feeling of crash gives me creeps in to my skin, spine chilling feeling, as I've started building Sig Kadet II Kit then Ultra Sport Kit, and then finally GP Revolver ARF which is sitting at home and future project is Top Flite's 60 size Mustang Kit. Spending time, money, care, sweat, blood and finally crash, I ain't gonna take it no way.

Your experiences are really very encouraging and I'm feeling very relaxed now.


Mody

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

While it's a funny joke in our hobby that all planes have an expiration date on them, I don't subscribe to that line of thinking. My Slow Poke is 8 years old with over 700 flights on it, and it's still flying just fine. I also have a Kaos that I got of somebody else that is 14 or 15 years old, with more flights than I can count. I see no end to it anytime soon unless I dumb thumb it.

Ken

opjose

Remember that after building a few kits, you'll look at ANY repair as being "trivially easy".

That attitude alone will help make your planes last a long time...

You'll be more at ease flying them, and less prone to make mistakes as a result.

You'll also to fix what does happen.

armody

My Feedback: (10)

Here are few images of my Strega, her wing was snapped and got parallel to it, the right wing which has a Hitec decal on it. It's full recovered now and I'm really enjoying the experiences and great inputs here

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

We often joke about "the expiration date" of an aircraft. As you can see by some replies, that isn't really a reality. Some do crash their planes, usually, and we've pointed that out many times, it's pilot error.. failure to pre-flight, some action during flight that causes uncontrolled action, battery care... any number of causes.. that can all be avoided.

Truth be told, I have crashed very few planes as compared to some, and I can point the finger at my ineptness in each and every case. Had I done what my instincts told me to do, I'd still have those planes.. or if I paid attention where I was... inept... forgot to raise the antenna for instance.. well, you get the point.

I still have some planes that I've had for several years now, and they still fly just fine. Not quite as many as some, I've not been in the hobby for that many years. But, I would prefer to say "I retired that plane" or "I sold or gave that plane to someone" rather than to say "well, I crashed that plane".

CGr.

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

I am one that has only been flying for about two years and I only had a couple of mishaps and believe me I put some flights on a plane. Some days I burn close to a gallon of fuel through a 55AX. When I fly my larger glow engines I can easily burn a gallon of fuel in a day's flying. I have around 400+ flights on my Pulse XT 40 alone and believe me some of them I fly with reckless abandon just to see what she will take. Early on I had a few newby mishaps but nothng too bad.

I still have my Alpha 40 trainer that I learned to fly on, all original and never crashed. I did crash my Pulse once because the metal rod in the elevator went to pieces and there was nothing to get flight control with. I had a couple dead sticks and broke my gear off one plane. I also knocked the gear off of a couple planes trying to fly in high gusty cross winds - maybe not the best choice [X(]

Given proper pre-flight checks and using good judgment I cannot see any reason to ever crash a plane unless sudden out of nowhere wind gust, equipment failure, or being a bit too reckless - like a high speed inverted pass about 10' over the runway and getting dumb thumbs.

Charlie P.

Ihave a Top Flite Contender 60 that has never suffered a crash. A few less than graceful landings but nothing involving broken balsa. I fly it fairly hard, no pulling of punches, but Ifly it as if I were in it - realistically.

Built from a kit in 2003 it is my oldest.

TruBlu02

I have ever believed that all models have an experation date. You always hear the statement, "It's not if you'll crash, but when," and I agree. We are humans and we screw up. But that doesnt mean all planes will crash. I am very meticulous on pre and post flight inspections of my planes. I have lost a couple of models due to improper or no preflight so I had to learn that lesson the hard way. True mechanical malfunctions are rare in model aviation and full scale aviation, so most accidnets are the result of some sort of human error. Take your time to properly care for your model and they can last a VERY long time.

armody

My Feedback: (10)

Great Inputs guys, I thank y'all.

I had 3 crashes, 2 back when I was not in USA. No dead zone, no high powered cables, my trainer which was lost by a flying friend, not buddy buddy, it took a nose dive, I suddenly lost my signals and it took a nose dive, then it was repaired, no pilot error. First yellow H9's P51 Mustang, it was Rx, either somebody turned on the radio on purpose, as I said in previous post, I lost the total control of plane, it banked left, as a matter of fact it was a tip stall, and plane was into pieces. Senior flying friend checked the receiver it was JR FM receiver, that some circuitry burned out, it was repairable, red tailed Mustang was my stupidity, human error, Escapade part plane, part my error, Strega which is fully repaired and ready to get up in the air, it was human error, cross wind, wrong direction and very low air speed. So it's not always human error, if somebody already has pointed out that it's not always human error so I'm sorry for repeating it, but again it's not always human error.

Happy and Safe flying always

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Fiberglass will fatigue. So it does have a limit to its useful lifespan. But wood does not fatigue. A wooden airplane, if well protected from becomeing fuel soaked, can last for decades.

I just sold an airplane that I flew for 9 years and I was the second owner.

As I introduce new airplanes into the fleet I tend to sell off the oldest airplane. Later this year I will sell another 9 year old airplane. It looks brand new. Not a scratch on it. Flies perfect. But you can't fly one of everything if you keep them all. You will end up on an episode of Hoarders.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

And the problem here is what?????

Ken

Rob2160

YEAH!!! What KENsaid!...

This is just the last 12 months... and I have many more helis, plus an 8Fg and a DX8 since this photo - helis here... http://74.50.85.67/RC/Helis/Helis.html

vega406

My Feedback: (73)

OK i got an old one..Dean Koger flew this scratch built fiberglass fuse 27% Skybolt in the 1984 TOC..
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHJ41L510ps[/youtube]

Rob2160

Hi,

I started RC flying in 1978 when I was 14.. I crashed my first plane when I attempted to fly it by myself... I rebuilt it and went to a club...

My instructor was great.. calm, patient and one of the best pilots in the club.. After about 10 fights Icould take off, loop, roll and land unaided (the benefits of youth)

He told me that if you build your aircraft properly and fly it well, there is never a reason to crash.

I can honestly say.. I have NEVER crashed a fixed wing aircraft due to Wrong Thumbing a model since then.

I have been shot down by radio interference on 29 Mhz AM in 1979.. So I upgraded to 40 Mhz FM in 1980.. Never had a problem with that radio for 20 years...

In the past 12 months I have returned to the hobby with a passion, discovering 2.4Ghz radios and also CP helicopters.

I average 15 - 20 flights per day nowand have probably 5000 flights in the past 12 months between helis and planes... I have even started night flying recently.. so much fun!... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSr8bakrMSw

But I still have a plane that has over 4000 flights on it.. with zero crashes... and is over 20 years old...

Here is a vid..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8DU7WD8ra0[/youtube]

AA5BY

We can be careful in our building, maintenance and flying and ward some dangers off... but to put an airplane into the air involves risk.

I once build a scratch built design featured in RCM and on its maiden flight control was lost on the climb out. It did a gentle right turn almost circling the field but when arriving at enough roll to lose altitude came down under full power. The cause... a broken battery tab. Several weeks building yielded ten seconds of RC flight... we've all probably got a similar story.

My oldest plane is a Sig Skybolt build in the winter of 1976 and painted to celebrate our nations bi-centennial. It got flown a lot for many years and has flown several times in recent years and is currently flight ready with batteries kept current. When upgrading the radio gear several years ago, the slightly larger aileron servo caused the ends of Z bends protruding above the servo disc to abrade into a balsa horizontal battery retaining member in a circular pattern. Fortunately the moment the ends finally dug deep enough to lock up was on base leg to final after flying a full flight.

I was off the power, wings were level and in a safe glide and when the plane failed to make the last turn onto final... it glided 150 yards into the top section of a thick stand of sweet gum trees where the multiple small limbs and leaves simply caught and cradled it without even breaking the wood prop. The only damage was chipping of the aging K&B epoxy paint on the leading edges of the wings. I think we have a word that describes such events... fate.

jetmech05

I've got three that are years old...2 under 5.....1 kit and 2 ARFs....they keep on going

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

Now that is the way to roll!

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

I firmly believe that any aircraft, if properly cared for, with proper pre-flight, and good flying practices, will last as long as anything else you can imagine. We have plenty of examples pointed out in the above posts about longevity of these aircraft regardless of their type - RTF's, ARF's, kits, and/or scratch built.

I can point the finger at each of my few crashes as to why they happened. All, of them were my error and not due to a failure of the aircraft or from some ghostly radio issue. I forgot to raise the antenna.. not the radio's fault, it did what it was supposed to do as did the aircraft when it did not get a signal from my transmitter. And one that I simply flew when I should not have been flying.. the wind was beyond my capabilities, yet I still flew.

On another occasion, I had a plane on the ground in the pits.. just sitting there resting, minding it's own business.. a gust of wind came along and flipped it over.. slammd it pretty hard on the ground and broke off the vertical stab as well as the wing saddle (high-wing Midwest Aerobat).

In any of the three I pointed out, well, I don't think it was the fault of the build process or if it was an ARF (all three were) or improper glue, or anyghing like that. And I'd still have all three if I was a bit more diligent.

CGr.

pmerritt

My Feedback: (118)

    

When I started flying, I used to get 3 planes to a gallon.  Now, three years later, I'm getting 3 gallons to a plane.  To date I have totaled out at least 18 airplanes and still counting.  If the wife knew the fatality rate of my hobby, I'd bet she would find a way to CA my tally whacker to my torso.  I truly believe some people are not meant to achieve success in certain endeavors whether it is learning to play a piano, singing, dancing, or even hobby flying. I personally started this hobby with my two best friends and today they far surpass my talents working with a much smaller budget than I.
      Nothing lasts forever.  Of the braggarts beating their drum regarding a plane's lifespan, a plane that hangs for 9 years out of 10 isn't exactly a statement of longevity of usage, merely longevity of the fasteners he put in the ceiling.  I admit that a plane with a profound dedication toward pre-flight, maintenance, updates, and continued service will outlast the beaters I buy that get thrown in the air with nothing much more than making sure the fuel is fresh, the battery is charged, and the servos all move as expected before issuing its death warrant at my hands. 
     I still come back after every crash and give it another try.  Damn this addiction anyway.  Now, where should I hide that bottle of CA?  

Murdoc

I still have my 40 size trainer that I learned to fly with back in 2001. 10 years