HercDoc

As the saying goes "There are 2 types of RC pilots, those who have crashed and those who are going to". I have yet to fly my newly built first plane LT-40, and before I started building my impression was that only the less than diligent pilots crashed planes. Being fairly new to this forum I have spent considerable time reading many different threads in a short time and am feeling that its just a matter of time before I crash. Even if I'm lucky to avoid a crash, I have tail fins snapping off and nose-gear and mains collapsing. Are my fears justified? Or am I just spending too much time in "Crash Pictures & Discussion" forum.

As I am very new to the sport, I am no newbie to aircraft as I am an aircraft mechanic, and have a very good understanding of the big picture, I pay very close attention to detail and and am very thorough. Are there any pilots out there who haven't crashed a plane? and if not how many of your crashes were due to mechanical failure or were pilot error?

Just looking for a realistic view on what to expect.

Felix21685

My Feedback: (1)

i crashed cause of high wind..my stuid mistake to take her up
Felix

photoniq

I too paniced when I read all the crash stories (I am still on a trainer too). I think it has made me much more wary and definitely resulted in my choosing not to fly on one particularly windy day. Thanks to the forum for saving my plane that time. I just hope that by the time I do crash, and I guess it will happen one day, I have the building skills to repair it again
P.

jcflysrc

My Feedback: (50)

Indeed your fears are well founded. It is advisable to get a mentor-instructor. This will save your plane for a while longer and speed your learning, while saving you money Understand that there are many things out of your control as a beginner. Having said that, also know that almost all crashes can be traced to human error. You forgot to check this, tighten that, adjust this, etc., you get the idea. Then there is pilot error...dumb thumbs...happens sometimes. And of course mechanical failure, such as stripped servos, flutter, deadsticks, folding wings, etc. I would say that mechanical failure is not often a problem for beginers...but it might be the cause of a veteran flyer to put one in. The beginner is more likely to dumb thumb it into a death spiral and not know how to correct. There are far to many scenarios to mention, but you can be sure that you WILL experience one (crash).[]

Now...relax...and enjoy! It is not that daunting. Get an instructor, and secure a place to fly...usually means joining a club...he will help you build your skill, knowledge, and confidence. Soon you will be looking at and buying MORE planes, and flying your a** off. Don't let the fear of a crash get in your way. There are a lot of nice people in this hobby, and often all you have to do is ask, and you will get the help you need.

WCB

Just fly and have fun and be safe with it. If you crash ( you will someday regardless) just remember it's nothing but some balsa sticks glued together. Fix it if you can...if not go get another and fly some more.

Montague

I totally agree with Aeronaut.

Sooner or later you will plant one. And eventually, you'll plant another. Chances are, it will be pilot error, a little bad judgement, or whatever. Sometimes it's just luck, like a mid-air.

In flight equipment failure is not nearly as common as pilot error, but does happen.

Try not to over-stress on it though. The more you worry about it, the more likely you are to tense up and crash. The more relaxed you are, the less likely you are to make a mistake you can't get out of.

And get started on that second plane

(fwiw, with a good instructor, it's not uncommon to not crash the trainer, or at leats not crash it until well after you've soloed. It seems the second plane tends to have the shortest lifespan, though, of course, there are lots of exceptions)

Oh, and since you asked, the only guys who never crash are the guys who never fly. More experienced pilots do crash less, but when we do crash, we usually do it in style and with big $$$ results .

Ducted Fan Dan

My Feedback: (2)

It helps to define a crash. You can "crash" many, many times and not hurt the plane all that bad. For instance, at our field we are surrounded by a corn field. Technically when your plane lands in the corn field it's a crash. I put probably four of them in there last year but, I could dust it off and maybe patch a hole in the wing with packing tape and fly again that day.

I just started flying last year and I have flown 3 different planes. I have crashed all of them but they are all still flyable. The crashes for me are like this:

1) Trainer, pulled WAY too much elevator on take off, it went up about 5 feet and fell to one wing and hit the ground, no damage.

2) UCANDO 3d, during assembly, I drilled a hole in the fuel tank resuting in coating everything in my plane with fuel and shorting out the radio. It crashed on maiden at the hands of an experienced pilot who saved it the best he could but it broke the fuse in two different spots. I repaired it and flew the next week. It could have VERY easily been avoided if it wasn't for my assembly error.

3) Sportsman Aviation Hot knife. I flew it extremly tail heavy. I took off and it just stood on its tail. I crashed it four times that day and only the last one made it unflyable. So the lesson for me was to still have someone with more experience do the maiden and once I found out I couldn't fly it I should have taken it home and rebalanced it.

So not one of the crashes were some sort of anomaly that "just happened" it was all due to assembly and the first one was after I had soloed many times and I was experimenting with performance.

If you are careful with building and balancing, which it sounds like you are, your chances improve A LOT.

If you get on the buddy box with someone, your chances improve A LOT more.

To break it down in percentages, think of flying with no experience and slapping a model together as a 1% chance of success.

But take your careful attention to detail and an instructor on a buddy box and you have at least a 95% chance on the first flight. Probably better. That's leaving about a 5% chance of radio failure, battery failure and engine failure. (Your chances are better with an engine failure because you still have control of the plane). Even then, your airplane has about an 85% chance of being flyable after the "crash".

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

Stay out of the crash forum. Get a good instructor and you will learn to fly without crashing. Eventually, you will do something dumb and crash. There are few that will total the plane. It can almost always be re-built. Sometimes it doesn't make sence to fix it, but you still can if you want. I have fixed some that most would throw away, and i have thrown a lot away that most would fix.

Its a fun hobby. If you crash, learn from it, have fun with it, and don't worry about it. If you stress about it, you will probably end up hindering your learning and crash more. It isn't a big deal. Build another plane for a backup and eventually you will be like the rest of us who have too many and don't worry at all about crashing.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

The only way to guarantee that you won't crash is to hang it on the ceiling when it's done, and leave it there. Of course, there's nothing saying that some day the string will break and it will fall to the floor and break.

The good news is, once you have banged the plane up a bit, you get over the FEAR of crashing.

Dewalt17

The fear of crashing is a good thing. You should always have a bit of that in the back of your mind. When first starting you will be very nervous. This is also a good thing. It keeps you focused on the task at hand. When you lose the nervous feeling altogether thats when the crahes happen.

Not to worry. If you take the proper steps to fly then you lessen your chances of failure.

Happy Landings,

Sean

A.R.T.F.

In my own experience and that of others, you will spend days, weeks and even months building and setting up your new aircraft. The day will come when you crash it and you will find yourself gluing it back together so fast just to get back into the air this is the point when precision seems to go out of the window and you remember your plane is for fun and its not the end of the world when you crash it, its just the end of your day at the flight field. I crashed my trainer a few times when I was learning and you realise it usually can be fixed in a few hours. I would strongly suggest getting an instructor they will do most of the difficult stuff like taking off for you until you are ready. You are probably more likely to crash when you get more experienced as you fear the ground less.

jucava

I have had so far only hard landings, no real nothing to recover crash, and beliveme some really bad hard landings and the plane alwas was able to fly the same day or the next week. It is part of the hobby when I get that only splinters crash, then I would have space to get a new plane.

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

Allright, I gotta add my two cents. Considering most of my landings are mistaken for crashes anyway, you're gonna inevitablly make a mistake on landing and flip your trainer over on its back, or bounce it really hard and break a prop. These are fairly common occurences, and techically they are "crashes" but a new prop or a little CA and you're back in buisness. At the worst a little 30 min epoxy and you're good to go. Far, far less common are the really major crashes that result in your plane being totaled, the kind where you hope at least your engine/radio gear is salvagable. The three I've seen so far that totaled a plane were the restuls of:

1. A midair (my plane totaled, the other one badly damaged but still flying)
2. A stall due to a wind gust totalling the only flying F-84 I've ever seen.
3. A radio failure which resulted in a 4*40 landing in a tree. Well, two trees.

The good news is that they are really few and far between. I don't mean to be fatalistic, but if you're not willing to plant it, don't fly it. You can mitigate the chances that you will have a big major crash by:

1. Carefull maintenance and upkeep of your airplane.
2. Inspect, inspect and inspect again
3. Know your limits and NEVER second guess yourself when you decide the wind is too high, there are too many other planes up, etc etc.
4. And last but not least, remember most fatal crashes caused by pilot error are preceded by the following statement:

"Ya'll Watch This One!"

Relax, have fun, enjoy. As one of the guys at the field said after he planted a plane "into every life some rain must fall..... time to start the _____(fill in the blank with your next airplane kit)"


Andy

staggerwing

My Feedback: (5)

Been at this a long, long time. If you don't crash one every once and a while---you don't have any reason to build a new one.

ttmr

Another big thing is to know the planes and your limitations. Both of my major crashes resulted from pushing it. One I flew in to a limbo pole and shatered a wing, Two I flew in too much wind and the hand of god just pushed the plane in on landing, broke the fuse in 2 places. But on a side note, both are flyable now.

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

there are planes that are built to withstand crashes,,I like the JKAerotech foamies,,look them up, they bounce off in a crash and your not worried about crashing them so the fear is gone,,then there are the spads, but they can get heavy from the construction materials,US Aircore are kit spads pretty much....My JKA trainer flys under power for 3 minutes then the fuel runs out so I have to deadstick it in every time..great practice...working on my second plane from them a pocket rocket mustang for an .049...should be a blast......Rog

NJ Georgee

My Feedback: (3)

I have the same thoughts,I have been building a HellCat for months now and My sujestion is to buy a trainer and dont risk your built plane.I may even pick up a Estes toy rc plan from toys are us just to give me a basic feel for flying.and its only 30 bucks lost if crashed..lol

Crashem

Unfortunatly most toy store planes don't feel even remotely close to the "real" thing all you're going to do is be frustrated and waste 30.00

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

So HercDoc,
I'm guessing that you feel a lot better now, right? [:@]

Unfortunately (or fortunately depneding on your point of view), everything that's been said is true.
Yes, you'll crash if you fly.
You will probably solo without crashing if you have a decent instructor.
You will have many planes that survive multiple crashes of differing degrees.
You will have a few planes that don't survive the first.
You will get over each and every one of them. (Or will likely quit flying before you have many.)

There are very few endeavors without risk that are worth much. This hobby is a good example of that.

There have actually been one or two of my crashes that I've enjoyed. Not that I've enjoyed losing the aircraft, but I have enjoyed the lessons they taught me. Those lessons in turn have saved other planes from similar fates.

Relax and forget the risks. These planes all come with an expiration date, the problem is they don't print it on the box.
Dennis-

Todd M

My Feedback: (1)

Two Lessons I have learned.
1. you will crash
2. it will probably happen again.
If you are real worried about smashing your balsa trainer and destroying all of your hard work do what I did. Get an Aircore Trainer to learn the basics on and then when I'm ready I will bring out the balsa Trainer and hopefully it will live a longer life. I spent too much time on my scratch built balsa trainer to risk it on the initial steep hill of the learning curve. The balsa trainer would have been toast on the first flight, but the Aircore bounces real good. I probaly would have totaled the balsa trainer twice by now but have spent less than one hour fixing the pilot errors on my Aircore. Get an Aircore and stop worrying about it.

HercDoc

Dennis,
I think that maybe deep down inside I was hoping everyone was going to lie to me and quell all my fears of crashing. I wont have my first chance to fly for almost another month or so, and I already have spoken with my future instructor several times. He is a retired Air-force pilot of 25 years with 20+ years RC flying... not that it guarantees me I wont crash, but I think I have the odds in my favor. Before coming to this forum I had convinced myself I could fly my first plane without help of an instructor, as I have very good understanding of the "Theory of Flight" and how each input affects the plane, I play my share of flight sim games, and have flown Cessna 172 on my own a dozen times or so. Now I am not so sure. I appreciate all the honesty from all of you and I have put things somewhat into perspective. More to follow once I have made my solo flight.

dean320

My Feedback: (5)

HercDoc - your fears are correct, and they will come true, but that is just part of the hobby. I did not fly much my first 2 years for the same reason as you, to avoid a crash. But early in my 3rd year, I had 2 crashes in a row, both requiring repairs, both pilot error. But those were the best thing to happen because it made me a little mad and presented a good challenge. I was not going to let that little plane beat me. I started flying more and joined a club. Now, my father-in-law, who got me into the hobby, says I am a better pilot than he is. Crashing is inevitable. But you will find that the better pilot you become, the less pilot error crashes you will have. You will still have equipment failure crashes, but even the best pre-fligh inspections cannot eliminate them all. Go fly your plane and enjoy it. Look at the crashes as learning experiences, because I will bet you will never make the same mistake that causes crashes more than a couple times. Good luck.

Mike in DC

Fear of crashing is a good thing, if it makes you careful and alert. There are two things to fear: 1) hurting your airplane, 2) hurting people. As others have mentioned, the first is easy, get an Aircore. It's not only close to impossible to damage the airplane, but the design does a good job of protecting the engine and radio components. The key to avoid hurting people is distance. On take off, if there are other pilots, don't take off until your plane is past them. Try to fly when there are few people at the field. Start landing on the grass beyond the runway until you're more comfortable flying closer. Don't let peer pressure push you beyond your ability to do things you're not comfortable with.

Fear of crashing is NOT a good thing if it makes you so nervous that flying is not fun. If you have a choice, different fields have different configurations that affect safety. A field where the pits are 40 feet from the flight line produces a lot more anxiety than one where the pits are 200 feet away.

Personally, I crash a LOT, which is why I fly Spads (or is it the other way around?). But I never get complaisant about the risks of injuring another person, and there are times I flat out won't fly (for example, when there are small children on the flight line).

spokman

My Feedback: (2)

Long posts.. Herc do you have an RC sim or MS Flight Sim that you can use a tower view on like you're standing on the ground? I saw you mention flight sims but not a specific RC sim. If you have a couple of months to burn you might as well be flying on a sim. This helped me so much I solo'd my first day of flying. Not that sim exactly duplicates flying the real plane but it helps with orientation and stick movements. Having an experienced pilot trim my plane out and give me some lessons along with the sim worked for me. I would recomend a little more instructor time than that though. But my plane is still in one piece. It's an LT40 kit also!

HercDoc

spokman,
Flightsim2002 is the sim I was actually referring to. I have tried a few different free versions of RC Sim's and found that they suffered from severe tunnel vision. Without panoramic view I found it unrealistic and having to be within 20 feet of the runway before it comes into view doesn't appeal to me. But that being said, the feel and responsivness was probably quite accurate and was able to master it in a very short time. I am optimistic that I will grasp RC flight very quickly and be in the sport for a very long time to come.
Thanx for all feedback.