a guy shows up at our field on sat. with his brand new ultimate bi plane in trailer. it was a beutiful plane check it out. http://www.horizonhobby.com/Shop/ByC...ProdID=HAN1100
any how i had to stay and watch this plane fly. he said he had $7500 in it complete with smoke system. he finally got it up and did a number of amazing stunts. then he said oh no. oh no. i have no up elevator. he did his best, and did a good job of trying to land in the field, but the front of the plane grabbed the soft mud and ripped the whole front half of the plane off. i felt so bad for the guy. such a beutiful plane and such a horific ending.

That is so very sad. I had the privledge to fly one and it flys so well and besides that's a ton of money to lose.

OUCH...

looks like he'll only loose the 1700 for the arf itself anyway.

Any idea what happened?

i think everyone was so upset that no one even tried to figure it out at the time. im sure ill see him again and find out. cuz i know hes got several funtana's he flys out there also.

Probably shot down by a kid who didn't know how to use the freq board?

No, just kidding.

HOw do you put $5800 into a plane on top of the price? Radio, $2500 tops probably for the top of the line, noone needs it anyway model, and that means $3300 for an engine. Wow!

not sure about the price, he may have included the cost of the trailer also.

Well, if you're spending $125+ for a digital servo with enough torque to handle huge control surfaces, and you need at least two on the elevator, two on the rudder, and two for ailerons.... ($750 plus heavy guage extensions) Then you have to buy a couple of "match boxes" at $100 apiece so that those dual servos can be precisely adjusted... So there's a $1,000

Of course, with a plane like that you'll want dual receivers, and they'll have to be PCM, so that's another $300, and dual 3000 mAH battery packs with heavy duty switches for redundancy. (Or spend $300 or more for the equivalent in LiPolys) $360 to $650.

And of course you'll use carbon fiber for push rods, or very large, expensive pull/pull set-ups. And the control horns you use will be at least $8 each. Figure close to $100 here.

Let's not forget that carbon fiber prop that cost you $140, and the $200 aluminum spinner, both to make full use of the power from that $2,500 engine.

Add that up and it's close to $5,000 tucked into that $1,700 ARF.

Anyway, there's a guy in our club that's built a couple of 40% aerobatic (3D) birds in the past year, and he had over $8,000 in each of them. [X(]
Dennis-

When a crash like that happens I like to study the faces of the onlookers. When they have eye contact with the poor fellow their eyebrows are knitted with the look of sympathy and concern, but when the pilot's eyes are looking down at the carnage, the onlookers are looking at each other with raised eyebrows and Mona Lisa grins. They usually help pack up the wreckage and send the dejected soul on his way, with their condolences, to contemplate his future in the hobby. But, as soon as he leaves, the first excited comments are "Did you see that!" and "I feel sorry for the guy, but that was an awesome crash!". Sure, they're being considerate in saving their comments until after he left, but what they realize is that they are ELATED it wasn't they, themselves involved. A wreck is very dramatic and is deserving of commentary. It's how we learn by witnessing others mistakes. I advise revelling in the moment (after the poor guy has gone home, please) because if you fly you have to know your time is coming. Keep in mind that the poor fellow ventured an attempt anyway and chances are that poor fellow is usually the guy that has a self-reliant grin on his face as the crowd ooh's and ah's at his flights more than any other's. His risk, his gain.

A few random thoughts of an onlooker of onlookers.
Peace and Blue Skies

And how about the tears on a eight year oll face
that watched his RTF fly away??

I guess we Can't have joy without sorrow

It'll work out for the best I hope.

Sorry About The Bipe.

Matt

Unfortunately, crashes are a part of this hobby. I don't think there is an rc pilot alive who aint crashed. And if they haven't crashed yet, the odds are against you. I crashed my Twist yesterday from either a bad rx battery or the crummy evo .46 engine. The wing
is a 15 minute fix but the fuse is well toasted. I can say that MAS props can take a beating....it hit on an angle and the prop never broke. Oh well....I have a 60 sized G stick that I can put the servos into...just need an engine for it.

Dave...

I think R/C flyers fall into the same 2 categories as motorcycle riders:

1. Those who have crashed
2. Those who WILL crash

(I've been #1 riding, but still lucky to be #2 with flying, - well aware that #1 is only a slip away...)

Any crash pictures????

cherry you hit it on the head just about everything you said he had in that plane.

the part i didnt tell yall was the guy was 16. that a real tough loss for a 16 year old.
one of the guys at the field took pictures and i know he lurks here at rc unv. i ll have to ask him if hes going to post crash pics. in the pics forum.

Wow,

16 yrs old and he has that kind of money..Dang, I'm 45 and the thought of needing $7000.00 to do a plane is just way out of my reach. Granted I make a comfortable living and spend my fair share on my 1/4 scales but 16 yrs old [X(]

Im 16, and I bug out at the thought of buying a 300$ brushless motor... my parents would flip out if they found out that I have a 7,000$ airplane, I would probably never be able to fly it... and if I crashed it... well... lets just say it wouldnt be pritty.
-Wes

Well, if thats the case, it was very easy on him. He obviously didn't buy it with his own money, so he wasn't out anything. Rich parents giving him what ever he wants. Thats just sad. They will just buy him another, so it isn't a huge loss to him.

If you can afford the plane, you can afford the crash eh!

in fairness to him apparently he works for his dad. and his dad says he earns and works very hard for every dime he spends on his rc habits.

Yea, sorry, I was generalizing. Probably not a real fair thing to do. People used to think dad bought me all my stuff too and I paid for it all on my own, so I know how that is. I shouldn't make the same mistakes those guys made.

Still sux that he crashed it. Hope he figures out what happened so it doesn't happen again. Nothing worse than smakin a good airplane in.

I also apologize for generalizing. [sm=frown.gif]

Still bites to lose such a great plane

Sorry Flyboy, I am plagerizing you somewhat here

........and to all those little pygmies is South America!...........Git 'er done!

Crashes happen. I have learned it. I just hope they quit happening so often for me later...

I've done both. R/C planes hurt WAY WAY WAY less.[sm=crying.gif]


Ray out

Interesting.... I have never seen a 40% go in, there's just not that many of them in my area. I do see a couple of 1/3 scales crash at our club each year and one in particular flattened quite a bit of corn. The last few where from pilots who weren't exactly newbies but not up to that level of plane. One lost an aileron servo, and the other guy hadn't flown an R/C plane in 5+ years and crashed on the first flight. I may have built my first and only "big bird" a 1/5 scale Decathalon. If the weather is nice it will do its madien flights this weekend and on a estimate I have about $1,000-1,200 in the plane total. The money really isn't the issue: the plane disassembled takes up most of my truck bed, and it took me six months to build, during which time I could have build several smaller planes. I also seem to bang and knick the thing, every time I move or walk around it, so it just as well that I start flying it.

Amen to that! I can't imagine *anything* worse than road-rash - but then I hear those carbon fiber props bite pretty hard too. The V65 and my frame were both repaired - hopefully the plane will be too...