Hey,

Since this is a beginner forum and I am a beginner, I just wanted to see about this. I know that crashes happen and are considered relatively normal. But, how normal are they? Are there any planes out there that have just been flown and flown and flown which are relatively old and still flying? or should an RC pilot be used to losing their rigs?

I am new right now, but before I fly my LT-40 solo, which will be several months, since I don't even have it built yet, I plan on getting plenty of instruction. With proper training, can I allow myself to get attached to my plane or should I always be weary of the fact that I might lose it at any time?

Bryan

I know of one trainer that has been through 6 beginners and is now over 25 years old... never crashed.

That's a bit exceptional... Average is closer to 6 months for a trainer. 1 to 2 years for the 2nd plane when you have a GOOD student.

As little as 0.5 min per plane with a poor student.[&:] who won't listen[:@] and insists on not using the buddy box

Bryris,

How long your model will last depends on alot of things.

1) How frequently you fly
2) Do you perform pre-flight checks before all of your flights
3) Do you fly in extreme weather conditions or only in perfect weather
4) Are you happy flying around in level flight or do you like to push your airplane to it's aerobatic limits.
5) do you use a buddy box and a good instructor

I asked some guys in my club the same question when I got started. I was told that every member that flys regularly has crashed an airplane in the last year. After watching for about a year, I'd have to say it's 90 percent true. But just remember that if you fly your model too conservatively you won't push yourself enough to learn more than the basics. Part of the fun of flying for me is pushing the envelope just past my comfort zone. If you combine that with good common sense like preflight checks and good judgement your trainer has a good shot of lasting until your ready to move up to the next one. The key is to think of your trainer as a learning tool, and if you crash it, try to learn something from the crash. Have fun and don't worry too much about your trainer.

About half my crashes in the last 4 years are from "too much fun"

Too much fun doing full throttle touch-n-goes.

too much fun doing snap rolls low over the trees.

Too much fun teaching cub scouts....

I'd do them all again except the touch-n-go one. One less go... refill tank and it would have been fine.[&:]

I had one last about 6 seconds last year....

The next question is this: In a typical crash, is it possible to salavge the motor and servos, reciever, and battery? Because, I could buy another kit and build it up, then reinstall the equipment and save myself the money of having to buy a whole new plane.

Is this the typical situation? Or are these items typically shot too after a crash?

The majority of times the engine, servos and receiver survives if you crash gracefully and if you don't make a lawn dart out of your airplane. You have to pack everything with foam. sometimes the wires can rip out. It all depends on the force of the crash.

I did some minor damage to my Cub at the end of it's second flight EVER this morning, after spending two months building it. I thought I was going to lose my breakfast, and I hadn't even eaten it yet! I realized that I had gotten too attached to the plane during it's buildup. Think I'll have to take a new attitude toward balsa and ply from now on.

Lachlan

Every plane has an undertimined number of flights in it... enjoy every flight.

I pretty much concur with the rough stats listed so far. We all crash. However, once you learn good ground safety checks, and you fly within your limits, you can be rewarded with hundreds if not thousands of flights without a major incident.

Typically there is always something you can salvage. I've only had one incident where I could not salvage anything. The plane caught fire after it hit (yes, while extremely rare, glow planes will catch on fire.) For major impacts, just be sure to closely check items or send them in to service before placing them back into service.

I've been flying my Spitfire for 10 years now, and still going strong. I think that once you're pretty experienced, say about 2 years, most crashes are caused by some componant failure. Like a servo fails, or a piece of wood breaks, or a screw vibrates loose. There are a million things that can go wrong. But if you inspect your equipment every few flights, you can catch a lot of these problems before they cost you.

I always tell students; it's a great sport for breaking stuff!

I've been taking a very casual attitude toward my RCM trainer. It's ugly but it's been a great learning tool. Each day I come back from the field with the thing in one piece (mostly) I figure that's one more bit of good luck but eventually it's going to crash. Not that I haven't already crashed it in some sense. Almost all of the landings so far (excelpt for beauty the other day!) are kind of low speed semi-controled crashes. I wouldn't want to be a passenger in my plane! I've also landed in on the downhilll slope of the hill on the approach line and ditched in in the brush at the end of the runway after a deadstick on take-off. But so far, all I've had to do is work on the nose-gear and re-iron some loose bits of monokote.

Now the BIG question is whether I'll be able to achieve similar ZEN detachment from the scale Eindecker I'm currently building! BTW, I plane to have the best pilot in the club take it up first and if HE crashes it, I'll know I would never have had a chance!

At least I'll have the photos.

It's O.K. to become attatched, BUT.... If you don't want to crash 'em, don't build 'em.
Charlied 123 gave good advice/answers to your questions.
Don't be overly concerned with crashing, and HAVE FUN!!
Yes, you can usually re-use your engine/radio/tank/wheels/ect. over again. I personally, after 16+ years of flying, and hundreds of planes, have only broken two engines, and on Rx beyond repair.

Jetts

The older and beatup your plane looks, the longer it will last. Murphys law. I have lots of beatup planes.

So true!

My two favorite planes are both over ten years old each. They look like hell, but they still fly great!

Your preflight checks and general maintenance procedures will have more effect on life time of your model than your piloting ability. I think well over half of crashes are due to faulty or careless maintenance and preflight checks.

I've been flying for about a year. I like to fly my planes at or beyond my aerobatic ability. I am beginning to get a little hesitant to fly when wind speed is over 20 mph, because it frequently requires a certain amount of rebuilding. I replaced my original Hobbico Superstar with an ARF this winter. I could have repaired it again, but I decided I would rather start with a new one and not put the effort into rebuilding it. I have flown 70 flights this year and have had 6 crashes. All of the crash damage has been repaired except for the Flip 3D in my avatar. I will repair that one in the next month or so. I've had to purchase a couple of motor mounts, stripped the gears in one servo, and broke a couple of cooling fins off from a $10 swap meet motor. Other than that I've just had to purchase glue, balsa, and covering.

I find that my nice new shiny planes last about 5 flights max before I do some sort of damage. After I have repaired them once then I lose interest. It is these ones that look like hell that I don't care about that last for years and years.

Seriously though, your first plane will get abused. The advent of buddy boxes have made this far less painful. You will then probably go through a period of minor mishaps which will vary in severeness from scraping a wingtip to destroying the airframe. These types of incident allow most of the major components to be re-used.

After a while you will notice that you are crashing less and less. It is at this point that your models last longer and you start getting a few incidents caused by component failure.

Half the fun is not crashing. The feeling of drving home with your model in one piece is great. Crashing is just an excuse to build another new shiny plane!

forever

It's funny, in a large sense, everybody has the same experiences. I had a maiden flight that went about 200 ft. 100 feet straight up, and 100 feet straight down. I left a screw out of the elevator servo arm. It was on my third airplane, so I should have known better. But unfortunately I learned the hard way about thoroughly checking my planes before flying.

Kerry

i should know!!!!
normaly a couple of years, but i crahed my twinstar on madien flight!
(but i swear it was the servo, not piolt error!)(thats true)!!!!

This is my 3rd year and I started losing them on Memorial Day a year ago. Lost my 5th just this past weekend. Of the 5 crashes here is the reasons:
1. Ultra Stick 60 - Last Memorial Day doing aeleron rolls - got to close to ground inverted and pulled the stick when should have pushed.
2. Ultra Stick 60 - 2nd of same plane - Built by someone else (just transferred the radio, servos and engine to it) Coming out of a Split "ess", the right wing broke at the wing center, rest of the plane was a lawn dart. I found out that when the wing was assembled, very little epoxy got on the front of the right wing joiner block. Could have happened to anyone.
3. Funtana - Dumb thumbs - aeleron rolls on high rates, came out inverted, and did do the right thing, pushed up on the stick started to recover and accidentally moved my thumb a little to the right engaging the right aeleron, spun it right into the ground.
4. Avistar Trainer - (My original plane) Hit a bird head on during a boy scouts day at our field. It was the 11th flight that day.
5. Magic Extra - Last Sunday - Took it to the field and tried flying it in a crosswind. The heaviest that I have ever flown in. Took off, flew great, and missed my first landing approach. On the abort, I turned to the right to go around and as soon as the wing was 90* to the wind, it pushed it right into the ground.

So you see, it can happen anytime, and for any reason, the goal is to reduce the possibility as much as you can. I am now getting a low wing plane that acts more like a trainer and going back to basic practice, especially the crosswind situation. I will still practice aerobatics and manuevers, but need to get back to basics on my flying as well. I certainly won't mind the practice.

Everyone misses something sometime... thats why we all gather around the new plane (no matter WHO put it together) and go over it.

A couple of weeks ago someone found my elevator servo arm screw was missing. A few days before that I found some loose hinges on a new model by a VERY experienced builder (he just forgot to glue em...[&:])

You'd think that guys that have been building them for 30 years would no longer make mistakes... But nooooooo We make some of the same dumb little mistakes any beginner can make. We're just smart enough to have some other guy help us find the errors before we try to fly it.

Well, I got my trainer around 5 months ago, and i called an experienced guy and brought it to him to check over, my carberator wasn't opening fully! When I take it to the field for the first time i will get it checked over again.

Rider

One fellow at our field lost a plane the other day that he had flown for over 15 years. Forgot to pull the antenna out on his radio...

I had been thru about ten planes, mostly because I never had the time to rebuild them. About two years ago I got one that I have absolutely fallen in love with and have a blast with. I have done three major rebuilds on it so far, one wing, one fuse, and one complete wing and fuse, luckly is a profile so most of the time it has only taken about a week to rebuild and get it back in the air again. So go ahead and get attatched to the plane. It will die only when you let it.