Please folks do a control throw check before going airborne......
I can't tell you the number of times a crash could have been prevented by a simple control throw check...usually it is reversed ailerons just like my friends 50CC Yak today......I have even seen a rubber band not applied correctly it was between the wing and the aileron....causing the ailerons not to move.....
Please take the time and get in the habit of standing behind your aircraft...just don't throw the sticks around...but look at what is happening....say to yourself ailerons right, right aileron up...ailerons left, left aileron up...elevator stick airplane up...elevators up...airplane down elevators down...rudder right, moves right....rudder left,moves left.....
I'll bet I have seen a plane a year lost to something so simple.....

Guilty as charged. Ilost a 60 size U-Can-Do on it's first flight a little over a year back. Reversed ailerons. Iabout lost a Twist 150 on it's first flight shortly after the U-Can-Do screwup,due to excess aileron throws.

Another common screwup is to have the fuel pickup and vent linesswapped.I caught that one Thursday before flying. Ihadn't flown the plane a while and I usually use a red or orange vent line and green or blue pickup line. For some reason I had them swapped and had forgotten it.

Don

The club of "I did not do a proper pre-flight" has many current members. I joined this club many years ago when I took off with reversed ailerons. I was lucky and could land before damage was done. Others have not been so fortunate.

There is a reason why a pre-flight and pre-takeoff check list exists for 1:1 scale aircraft. Stuff can happen so we need to be vigilant.

Not only must throw directions be checked but throw amounts need to be verified.

Ever start a 100cc engine and it is a full throttle? Fortunately my friend was restraining the plane when I was starting it. This episode was a wake-up call as I thought I was being careful in verifying correct model and had done my pre-flight checks. Having 2 aircraft with very similar names and programming set up in your radio can cause such event. Never assume nothing.

Happy landings and remember, "safety is no accident".

Bliksem

A plane a year seems about right. Many years ago, I was doing it about once a year all by myself. Did eventually pick up the habit. Some guys catch the mistake before they crash. I usually figured it out at about the same time as the plane hit the ground. The only thing more important than this to remember is "Don't turn your transmitter on before you get the pin."

Guilty!

Oh I didn't mean to say I haven't been involved in reverse ailerons....I was teaching an ol glider guy...he never had ailerons or throttle....we had gone over preflights and control throws numerious times......he had done them under my eye with no problems....bottom line is that day I didn't watch him do his checks....I take off and lo and behold I'm now coming down the pits instead of down wind...I yell a warning and pull up....
My old instructor got my students airplane down as I just couldn't get my mind wrapped around reversed ailerons...even with rudder.....
Talking about feeling low...felt I had been lax in my duties....Now I watch even after they solo when I can

I can honestly say that I am not yet guilty that particular sin. I have, however, left the darned antenna down on two separate occasions (72 MHz). One caused a pretty spectacular crash, the other, well, the plane ended up in the woods on the far side of the field some 500 yards away. I managed to find it, intact minus a broken prop, but it didn't take long for it to to on it's unplanned excursion all by it's lonesome self.

So, there is a lot to do on that first flight of the day (or the first flight of "that" particular plane). In my case, for the second one, the one that ended up in the woods, well, I had been flying 2.4GHz all day so the lowered antenna on my Little Something Extra E-conversion looked normal to me until the plane developed a mind of it's own and headed just about directly away from me towards the woods.

CGr.

A 50cc Yak?? Ouch that one hurt. Hate to hear that.

I agree 100% with JetMech.

Get yourself into the habit of standing behind the plane and checking aileron, elevator and rudder just before you taxi away.

Very good advice Minn. The other day I had a brain fart while talking to a friend at the same time I did my control check. I had swapped radios in my 1/4 scale cub andI was standing in front of the plane instead of behind it when I checked everything,something I've never done before, don'tknow why I did this time.Fortunately I was already about 30 feet high before I gave any aileron input andrealizedthis radio had theailerons reversed.It took a conscious effort to land it again and fix the radio.,If it had been a real windy day, I might have been a newly initiated member to the "improper pre-flight club".

My last crash was due to an aileron servo arm coming loose after 2 previous flights.  Lost the aileron on takeoff.  Short of lifting the plane onto its nose to inspect the underbelly, (which I do prior to the first flight)  I do not know what I could have done to see this one in advance.  I guess I just didnt look at the aileron servos closely enough prior to the first flight.  Never again.

I am also a member of this club. I made it over 15 years before I did it just a few months ago. I have never felt so stupid. Most of my maiden flights have been with an observer to double check my model. Well this time I didn't and unfortunately I somehow missed that my ailerons were going the wrong way. [:@]

Yep, Mike, Jetmech. One of the very first things I teach a new student is just that. Stand behind the plane and do exactly as you said. Deliberate movements to insure the control surfaces move in the right direction.

Oddly enough, my instructor, who drilled that very process in me way back when recently lost one because he didn't check.. just that one time, he didn't check. And, well, you can imagine the rest of the story.

CGr.