A nice little scare
09-25-2004 | 09:51 PM
#1
A nice little scare
I'll relate this whole sad story because I think it reinforces a sign that's posted in our local Tech Rep's office. I can't remember it verbatim, but it reads, in essence: "Aviation in itself is not terribly dangerous, but terribly intolerant of any carlessness, laziness or innatention". True in full size aviation as well as R/C.
So there I was, three weeks ago, on Sunday, flying my VQ Veltro. Some wind blowing, but plane was flying great, as always, I had it up high and was trying to get it to hover. Yes, I was trying to hover a warbird, but that's another issue. I was actually having some success with it, when all of a sudden the plane starts rocking and bobbling, I figured I had gotten too slow so I throttled up to fly out of it. Immediately the plane climbs and turns, stalls, climbs again, all the while the wind is blowing it around away from the pilot boxes. It acted like either the CG had suddenly shifted aft, or the elevator was jammed up. I did discover that I had some small control over the plane, and either by the grace of God or just plain dumb luck (certainly not my piloting skills) I managed to set it down very gently in the grass. Only damage was a scraped prop and some scrapes on the belly, and teh canopy was missing. Plane was thoroughly inspected for any jams, binding, etc etc, but everything worked perfectly, and other than the missing canopy was in perfect order. CG was right on the money.
New canopy arrived in the mail Friday, so I mounted it up and off we went to the field. The engine was a bit rough, and it was later on in the afternoon before I got a chance to fly. I had inspected the radio intall, and performed both a running and static range check, perfectly. So out we taxied, lined up, opened the throttle. The tail didn't come up, but after about 20 feet, the plane jumped off the ground and went nose high. Again, by the grace of God or luck I managed to get it enough under control to plunk it down in the grass, undamaged except for one of the oleos was a little bent. Again, we checked CG, radio check, nothing. Then we tried running it up on the ground and watching the surfaces. AHA! When the throttle got above 1/3, the elevator went up. Didn't happen with the engine off, just running. I switched the connectors for the elevator and rudder and ran the engine again, and still the elevator moved. Soooooo, I pulled the servo out tonight to swap it, and found that the lead had been rubbed raw on one of the mounting screws. All the wires were exposed, and I would guess were connecting on the screw and shorting out. That's the third time I've had luck come to my rescue.....
Soooo the moral of this is, do them preflights, and take your time with the radio install. I would have sworn the leads were clear of the screws, but now I'm positive they are (routed differently).
Guess it's about time for a refill of the luck bucket....
Andy
So there I was, three weeks ago, on Sunday, flying my VQ Veltro. Some wind blowing, but plane was flying great, as always, I had it up high and was trying to get it to hover. Yes, I was trying to hover a warbird, but that's another issue. I was actually having some success with it, when all of a sudden the plane starts rocking and bobbling, I figured I had gotten too slow so I throttled up to fly out of it. Immediately the plane climbs and turns, stalls, climbs again, all the while the wind is blowing it around away from the pilot boxes. It acted like either the CG had suddenly shifted aft, or the elevator was jammed up. I did discover that I had some small control over the plane, and either by the grace of God or just plain dumb luck (certainly not my piloting skills) I managed to set it down very gently in the grass. Only damage was a scraped prop and some scrapes on the belly, and teh canopy was missing. Plane was thoroughly inspected for any jams, binding, etc etc, but everything worked perfectly, and other than the missing canopy was in perfect order. CG was right on the money.
New canopy arrived in the mail Friday, so I mounted it up and off we went to the field. The engine was a bit rough, and it was later on in the afternoon before I got a chance to fly. I had inspected the radio intall, and performed both a running and static range check, perfectly. So out we taxied, lined up, opened the throttle. The tail didn't come up, but after about 20 feet, the plane jumped off the ground and went nose high. Again, by the grace of God or luck I managed to get it enough under control to plunk it down in the grass, undamaged except for one of the oleos was a little bent. Again, we checked CG, radio check, nothing. Then we tried running it up on the ground and watching the surfaces. AHA! When the throttle got above 1/3, the elevator went up. Didn't happen with the engine off, just running. I switched the connectors for the elevator and rudder and ran the engine again, and still the elevator moved. Soooooo, I pulled the servo out tonight to swap it, and found that the lead had been rubbed raw on one of the mounting screws. All the wires were exposed, and I would guess were connecting on the screw and shorting out. That's the third time I've had luck come to my rescue.....
Soooo the moral of this is, do them preflights, and take your time with the radio install. I would have sworn the leads were clear of the screws, but now I'm positive they are (routed differently).
Guess it's about time for a refill of the luck bucket....
Andy
09-26-2004 | 07:25 AM
#2
My Feedback: (4)
RE: A nice little scare
ANdy,
Glad you were able to take the plane home in one pieve again. It's nice when people share these types of stories because we all need to be reminded of the things that can go wrong unexpectedly.
It's also a remnder that, if the plane isn't responding the way it should, it means that "something" is wrong and we should find it before the plane is flown again.
Dennis-
Glad you were able to take the plane home in one pieve again. It's nice when people share these types of stories because we all need to be reminded of the things that can go wrong unexpectedly.
It's also a remnder that, if the plane isn't responding the way it should, it means that "something" is wrong and we should find it before the plane is flown again.
Dennis-
