I almost pushed myself into a world of hurt this afternoon. I was at home for lunch and working on my plane instead of eating. Trying to get it ready to fly this weekend, just need to ground test to finish. I got the plane out of my shop and into the yard. After placing the wing on and balancing it, I decided to try to start it up and test the engine/fuel system. First indication of a problem was no throttle movement when the radio was activated. Come to find out, I had forgotten the clevis for the carb end of the throttle linkage. That would have made starting, or even stopping, the engine very interesting to say the least. Next hint to quit came in the form of a broken/stripped spinner bolt on my 3" aluminum spinner. The starter popped it right off. Luvly, just Luvly. Now, I resort to the chicken stick. (should have been there to start with) After a few flips the engine catches a little and I notice the third and final clue for putting the plane back in the shop. The right side motor mount screws have stripped out the threading thru the mount. (a set of 6-32 nuts should fix this easily) All in all, I feel like I have been given 3 chances to save both myself, and my plane, from an almost certain destruction. An omen perhaps? Coincidence? Or Divine Intervention? You be the judge.

Primodus

Make sure you have your instructor check your plane over very carefully

I plan on it! The old adage "two heads are better than one" is very useful for RC flight. One set of eyes may not see the difference between flying and crashing. I just have to remember not to let my anxiety to fly get the best of me. Time is something I have plenty of, cash to buy new planes everytime I crash is not.

Man....
That plane was just SCREAMING for your attention. Glad you listened. NEVER be in a hurry to get in the air. Be in a hurry to get to the field, (legally), be in a hurry to buy new stuff, but when it comes to putting the plane together or getting it ready to go in the air, take all the time in the world. Old adage from A/C maintenance: "when there's not enough time to do it (or do it right the first time) you'll find lots of time to do it over again later".... true with full scale planes as well as models. Ya done right.....

Andy

If I find 3 things wrong with a plane at the field... I pack it up to be gone over at the shop. That includes one hole in a fuel line... a bad glow plug and a loose prop nut.

Even though I've been at this for 15 years now (not a lot compared to some people) whenever I arrive at the field with a new airplane for the first time I always let the other experienced guys look it over for mistakes and/or forgotten items. I remember a beginner showing up at our field who was confident his plane was airworthy. Had I not tugged on the elevator he surely would have crashed as he had forgotten to glue the elevator hinges in place!

good advice here..........always listen to the airplane gods, or your plane will be the sacrificial lamb!!

Not an Omen or divine intervention... what you did is called a good pre-flight

I recently lost a plane on it's maiden voyage. I took off fine, but a second later I had no control of the elevator. Post crash analysis revealed a missing screw in the elevator servo control arm. [:@] I learned the hard way to be VERY thorough before the first flight of ANY new plane.

Kerry

I'm freaking out over my plane although two people have thoroughly checked over it already. (Four including my dad and myself.)

wow, when u go to the field call me first, so i can hide!

Update: Finshed checking the plane out (I thought) and took it to our local field to fly it. Our field being a rarely used, private dirt/grass, full scale runway of a local farmer. Had few problems with the nose gear set screw, but easily solved that with a suitable replacement. The engine was running good and started quickly after fueling. I finally found a smooth spot in the runway amongst the cow tracks and raised the throttle to start my run. The plane gathered speed and low and behold!>!>!> NADA! No lift, No flying. The plane was smoking down the runway at high speed but would not get off the ground no matter what I did with the controls. My instructor was with me and unfortunately the sun was fading fast at the time so we packed it in and headed for home. 45 minutes later I get a call from my instructor with a news flash and most likely the cause and fix for my flightless bird. He tells me to flatten the main gear (trike gear) and check the LE to see if it is slightly higher than the TE. We both think the wing was effectively acting as a downforce keeping the plane glued to the runway, harder and harder the faster it went. We will adjust and check some more and see how it goes again this weekend. Good Luck!

I allways chech my plane wich happens to be a hobbico MKIII over before the next day for flying! cause if i cought something I'm going to fix it. With my hard work of preflight before every flight earned, my plane now has well over 20hrs I keep a log book with the exact things i do in flight it so far has 6gal through my .91 four stroke engine!! one bad time I did was I was flying one sunday evening and all of a sudden my wing departed!!! cause i was so much in a damn hurry that i used the wrong kind of band from office max they were not weather or uv protected!!! cost me a new fuseand tail assembly along with a lading gear prop sipinner and servo all that for not using the right kind of bands!! learned not to be in a hurry very good lesson.

Update 2: I made the adjustments to the gear and lowered the TE. Took the plane to the local airport (old, unused runway) and got it ready to go. Set it in the direction of the wind straight down the runway and eased it up to full power. It still takes forever to get off the ground but finally did after about 250ft, and that was a struggle.[:@] It required about half up ELEV to stay level so I decided to bring it back and land rather than try to trim with the Tx. [&:] Turning onto final, deadstick and a soft landing in high grass that broke my prop and put her over on her back about a foot from the edge of a ditch full of [X(]( I love this hobby!) After this it's time to pack it up and save the plane for tomorrow's full day of flying. I will head to the LHS and snag a few new props and stuff and get back up in the air!

good ting you cought that or your plane would be in the dumps[X(]

What kind of plane are you flying? If it's a flat bottomed wing trainer, I'd check the balance again carefully, as even with downward incidence on the wing, they will still tend to take off. 250 feet is a very long takeoff run. And half up elevator, are you sure your engine is running OK? Has a big enough prop? And once again, are you sure the plane is balanced correctly? I'm sure you're in good hands with your instructor, but what you're saying is not good.....

Andy

Oh yeah, and you're quite sure your elevator is even with the stab at zero trim, and that your stab is at 0 degrees incidence with the wing?


Andy

I suggest you also snag a second experienced person to look your model over 250' takoff roll off a real (assuming paved) runway and half up elevator to keep it level. Something is diffently not right here [X(][X(]

Yeah, my instructor is going to check it out in the morning when we meet at the field. See how nice it is to have an instructor!

you guys all sound like your in some big hurry. Try makeing up a pre flight check list, helps alot.

I would check for down incidence in the engine. When the engine quit did it still require the up elevator or did it glide in easily? If it did than you have the engine pointing down which would account for several of your problems. Slow down.