Been working on a Cessna 182 Skylane. Got it finished up this morning. Has an OS .46 AX in it. Took it to the field this afternoon.
Weather was 5 mph wind, overcast and 47 degrees. I get to the field and forgot the struts!!! Then, tried starting engine. After a few thousand tries and numerous 4 letter words, a club mate points out that engine aint never gonna start without the glow igniter! DUH!!!
She starts and I taxi it to end of field and give full and she takes off. Man this plane looks great in air!!!! 3 clicks of right and about 5 clicks down and its trimmed. I get her set up for landing and am turning right. Plane is a little low so I give it some up elevator and nothing!!!
Doesn't respond to up or down stick! Bonk! Hits the turf on an angle. Prop breaks, all the glued in windows pop off, vertical fin comes off,
left part of wing comes unglued, cowl is cracked, spider cracks along the fiberglas fuse etc. Found the problem. Was using the quick connects that came with the arf (CMP Cessna you find on ebay). Either I neglected the tiny bottom screw of the connect or, it came loose because the elevator servo had no rod attached to the control arm when I inspected the damage. Lesson learned. Never use the cheap quick connects!!! I'm tearing off all the ones on the plane and replacing them with either Dubro ones or, re-do all the control rods.
Anyways, took plane home (3 minute drive from field), grabbed my Tiger 2 and flew it rest of afternoon.

Dave...

Hey Lucky!

You should join in on the thread for us lucky cold weather fliers up by the "northcoast"! ( see "Sepulivida Basin waaaay North East!)
You are only a very short drive from us up in Ashtabula co. so you would qualify......(check Mapquest, just don't follow the er, "directions".

I personally think EZ connectors should be outlawed throughout the hobby for all control surfaces. They don't cost less than a clevis and they have the highest failure rate of all linkages. Too bad about your plane though. Hope you get it back in the air soon.

Just a simple building tip. I use sullivan metal clevis on the non-threaded end of the push rod, after I thread either 4-40 or 2-56 thread on the rod and then solder it on firmly. I then use great planes, locking clevises on the adjustable end. Never had a connection come off, since both ends have locking clips on the pivot pin end. Now let's throw out those cheap ARF control horns and get some really good ones for a couple of bucks and make the system really reliable. Be sure and inspect the locks before every flying day, on your fist pre-flight check, then you can worry about switch failure, or battery failure or . . . .

You need to call the arf mfg and see if they will replace whatever was damaged. If you properly installed THEIR hardware and it cost you an airplane they should make good on it if the are worth their salt.

The ARF is from China Model Products. Made in China, just like everything else in the hobby is. The damage isn't really that bad. The plane went in on low throttle. I re-glued the vert fin on. Took off nose wheel and straightened it out. Just have to re-glue the left polyhedral part of the wing and the cabin windows. Also, for strength and very little extra weight, I use used dryer sheets and thinned epoxy as a fiberglas sort of patch. This adds some strength to a thin fuse.
Jett, Ashtabula aint that far from me. Maybe about less than an hour up route 7 I think. Any fun fly's in 2005 up there?

Dave...