CrashBurn69

My Feedback: (1)

I went out for my second day of instruction today. It started off a little rocky. We did the range check and everything looked good. We took off and about 2 minutes into the flight, I pulled a loop and started back around. All of a sudden all control was lost to the plane. It was just doing loops on its own at almost full power. No throttle, rudder, nothing. We had time to yell for everyone to check there radio and get a response back after they checked. It seemed like it was out of control for a minute and a half, but in reality was more like 30 or 40 seconds. My instructor got a little elevator back, but the plane was heading out over the river. It managed to turn itself around and was heading back toward the pit area. I knew it had to be run in the ground before the instructor said anything about it. After he did, and it was just still doing loops at full throttle. It was about 40 to 50 feet up and coming down fast. At the last second a little throttle control was regained and I don't know if he cut the engine at that point or already had the TX in that position, but the engine cut at about 4 feet off the ground, and while going almost full throttle it did a little porpoise action and hit on the front wheel and nose cone and flipped and landed on the landing gear. I thought the plane would have been a pancake at that point, but when we walked over to it, the wing was unseated a little, because it broke a few rubber bands. But other than making a quarter size hole in the sheeting under the leading edge and a few small cracks in the fuselage, it was fine. It hit hard enough it knocked the screw out of my aileron servo and cracked the aileron just a little where the metal arm goes in. But as luck would have it, when we got to the plane all the control surfaces worked perfectly. A little CA and a little packing tape to cover the hole and change the prop, about 10 minutes and it was flight worthy again. I made 4 more successful flights after that. Everyone there just could not believe it survived so well. They all thought it was toast.

I was not the only one getting interference today. A couple others were also. I think I am going to go ahead and order a new wing, and glass the joint before the next flight. That way I can repair the one I have now, and maybe add dual servos in the wing to get some flap function to play with. I am also going ahead an open up the fuselage and clue the cracks there. I don't see any sense in leaving a weak spot in it.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Ya ducked a bullet on that one.....congrats!

Jerry

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

They have their limits....

The rest of the fuse/wing went home in a plastic bag.... at least I saved the engine

CrashBurn69

My Feedback: (1)

Ouch what happened? Did the wing seperate?

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I just want to steal this opportunity to tell all you newbies that here is proof of what I have said many times...

RUBBER BANDS SAVE AIRPLANES!!!

Don't be so anxious to switch to bolts!

CrashBurn69

My Feedback: (1)

Minn, your right. I had ten bands on. I think if I would have had eight on, I might have not had any damage at all, If it would have been able to snap all the bands, but it only snapped two or three. But with my OS 46 Ax and an 11x7 prop, it will power dive pretty hard, so best not to chance it.

hookedonrc

Congrats on getting it back and being able to fly it. My Avistar was just the same, tough and reliable. I had plenty of mishaps while learning and that plane always came back for more. It was finally put to rest by a mid air with a bird. If I ever replace it for another trainer, I probably will go right back to the Avistar. Nothing but good memories of that plane.

BTW: I flew with 10 rubber bands also.

vagent

For a65l -- hope you kept those wing pieces (and fuse pieces). I was flying my Avistar and another flyer was flying his. I was taking a break while he flew. I was in the porta-potty when I heard it--even tho I'm a new flyer (had flown about 3 weeks) I recognized that crunch. I exited the porta-potty and saw him headed towards his plane hanging in a tree about 150 feet the other side of the runway. The fuse was repairable, but the wing was badly broken. I asked if I could have the remains of the wing.

Several weeks later I was flying my Avistar practicing touch-and-gos. I got too close to the runway safety fence and did a "doe-se-doe" with a metal pole holding the fence. Impaled the stbd side of the wing up to the wing spar and took out a couple of ribs. Point of the story is, I was able to cut the damaged area out, and cut a piece out of the other guy's wing and repair mine. Even used his monokote to repair the skin. Note the 6 slashes of yellow trim on the stbd side of the wing as opposed to the 3 slashes of yellow trim on the port side of the wing in the attached photos. Have flown the plane several times since and it's doing well

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

Mine is the result of a midair also. About the only salvagable pieces of the airframe would be the tail feathers.

Andy