Well, after getting 10 flights on her, we lost my Kadet today. Flew twice with my instructor and everything was fine, but it was windy up at around 200 feet. The wind was really buffeting the plane around, but after alittle while, it would die down, and things were smooth. On the third flight, I was flying the pattern at around 150 feet, and all of a sudden, the plane pitched nose up to almost vertical. I applied full down elevator, but the plane rolled on over inverted, so I applied up elevator to go ahead and bring it through the loop. As soon as it approached level flight, the wind was gusting so strong it pitched it nose up again. I fought this for about 15 seconds, and then told my instructor I no longer had control. He took it, and immediately, the plane did the same thing to him. He fought it for about thirty seconds trying to get the wings level, but the wind won out, and the rubber bands snapped and we lost the wing. At that point, it was just throttle back to idle and hope for the best. Plane went straight in, and the wing drifted down about 250 yards away. We were both puzzle by the fact that neither of us heard the engine throttle down when he reduced it to idle, and were wondering if maybe we got a radio hit, but who knows. Anyway, as hard as it looked like it went in (burried the engine in the ground far enough that only the tip of the muffler was visible), it really didnt do THAT much damage. It pretty much destroyed the firewall forward, and ripped out my main gear (mine is converted to a taildragger), and the vertical stab broke away from the fuse, but that's about it. The wing came down in one piece, with only one wingtip damaged on impact. Trashed a brand new 900mha battery pack, though. Oh well, that's all part of the game. It really wasnt anyone's fault, just some bad conditions all of a sudden. Besides, it's not IF you crash, but WHEN!! Gotta rebuild now so I can get back up there!

Lowlev, sorry about your loss.... the LT40 is a good plane.... good luck and hope you get back in the air soon.

Thanks! It's just another rung on the ladder!

Sorry to hear about your little (??) problem. I do have a question tho. How many rubber bands did you have on the wing and how many times had they been used? If they were weak or not enough of them that could have been at least part of your problem.

knowing his instructor, I bet he had at least 8 or 10 on there. Sounds like a weird deal. Too bad. Get her back together and get back up there. I saw some pics of it. Do you plan to rebuild, or buy a new fuse? New fuse is money, and time is money--that's how I look at it. If it's easily repairable, I repair it. If it's going to take a rebuilding to get it going again, I replace it.

10 bands, brand new, right out of the box. The wind just picked up way too much up high, but I am still wondering if we didn't have some radio interference going on also. Don't know, though. As far as the fuse, I think I am going to buy a new one, just to get back in the air quick, but I am gonna let Grandad1 have a crack at rebuilding this one also. He looked at the pics and said he could rebuild it. One things for sure, it's getting converted to a bolt on wing first thing. I started to go ahead with that when I converted it to a taildragger, but didnt. Might have been a different outcome had it been bolted on. Then again, hindsight's 20/20 as they say.[8D]

Sounds like a crash i saw... Was the RX battery secured, we had one that wasnt and went into a loop and couldnt pullout, we found on the reckage afte about 10 loops that it was the RX battery being loose and flew out

Yup, everything secured inside. Just got the engine cleaned up, and there APPEARS to be no damage. Turns freely, no resistance or feeling of dirt inside, so I think we're good there.

Lowlevl: That's excellent news on the motor. I figured it would turn out that way. I spoke to allen about it today too. He said that with that three blade prop, the down thrust on the prop might have made the motor continue to spin while going in making it sound like it was still running. I know I pulled the throttle stick all the way back, we know this for sure because there was no dirt in the carb and it was closed. Maybe it's one of those light is faster than sound things, but if that were the case, that was the slowest sound I've ever (not) heard !! (Of course the wind was blowing the sound away from us)

In the meantime, Grandad has a kadet, and a 46 size trainer, and Allen has a trainer, and I also have a trainer in my trailer. Keep coming to the field, we won't let you loose any airtime while waiting on a rebuild! I'll send you an email and let you know what time we're going to be out on Saturday...

Sorry to hear about this crash, but it happens. It reminded me of when I crashed my Hobbico Superstar on it's maiden flight. Total loss. And that reminded me of when I crashed my Ultra Stick 40 doing my first knife edge, total loss. And that reminded me of when I crashed my Ultra Stick 60 in a flat spin I couldn't get it out of, total loss, I thought but later repaired. And that reminded me of the 1st UCD60 I lost control of and almost hit myself on the runway, total loss. And that reminded me of the 3 UCD46 I crashed at various times last summer. All were a total loss. And that reminded me...why I love this hobby.
Thanks,
Barry

These type of stories make me cringe!! Sorry to hear about your plane. I'm presently waiting for my LT-40 to come in the mail (should be Tuesday) It will be my first RC model kit. I had read and thought about converting it to a tail dragger right away and now I wonder if I shouldn't bolt those wings on as well. Well have fun rebuilding....I remember my rubber power days when I spent more time repairing than flying....of course those were just a tad less expensive craft