Finally went back flying today after an almost 2 month layoff beacuse of Katrina and Rita I had just been let go in July so I was a little nervous to get back flying. No one was at field so I carefully put everything together and watched what I was doing safety wise. Had a little cross wind not too bad about 12 mph. I took off made a couple of circuts and made 2 landings not too bad so I calmed down. Decided to go up again so I fueled up and grabbed my transmitter thats when it hit me I had made the fist flight with the antenna collasped. Whew it could have been bad but as I said more luck then sense.

Good job on your "lucky" flight. Did you go far off with your plane? Im interested to know if your antenna is collapsed is it range that is affected, or is it just strength of the signal? I dont know, and really dont wanna try it . Good job though. How is your field? DId it take damage? Sorry to hear about your losses in Lousiana.

flew like I normally fly went pretty far away, didn't have too much damage at filed but with everyone having some sort of problems or damage filed runyway hadn't been cut and everybody was busy trying to get back to normal. We had lucked out and caught left edge of katrina and right edge of rita. Still had high winds and power outages and some roo shingle damage.

I'm always forgetting to raise the antenna. Someone usually comes up to remind me, but I've flown 5-10 minutes at a time with the antenna down. Usually the plane's just sluggish, like maybe it's getting tossed in the wind. Sometimes the engine hunts a bit, like it's not set right. But I can fly it several hundred feet away without losing control completely. It's like an aerial range check.

Sounds more like Russian Roulette. Just asking for trouble. Personally if I did this more than once I would find a way to remind myself to put the antenna up. Easier than picking up small pieces of balsa when that's all that is left from your plane.

Ken

I raise my antenna BEFORE turning the tx on. This avoids the problem of forgetting it once the engine is running. For those who argue that it's too easy to hit the prop or something else with the antenna I would respond that a bit of planning, finding a good place to put the transmitter, and a bit of common sense once the engine is running, don't hold the tx in a way that lets you get the antenna near the prop, can prevent any problems.

I've only been flying 10 month's but CAN NOT imagine forgetting this VERY important step, especially MORE than once antenna UP before plane is UP in the air. I walk 100' away for range test and the antenna goes up before I walk back to plane

I'd rather be lucky than good, any day.

For some time, I've been raising my antenna before turning it on. A long time ago, first time I flew my Meister Corsair, I decided to do a running range check. Taxii'd it to the south end of the runway, put the antenna down, and my retracts retracted. That was embarrasing. I recommend against it.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

Twice I've started the engine, ignored the very high idle and set the plane down on the dry lake without turning the plane on. It was funny the second time watching my friend chase my plane all over the dry lake.

I've taxied the plane to the line before with the antenna down, but I noticed it before I went up thankfully.

I have done that so many times, luckily just with parkflyers. I have a tendency to increase my precautions as the importance of the plane goes up though. I have never left my it collapsed with my 3D planes, but probably have forgotten about 5 times in the course of eight months or so flying my stryker parkflyer. Haven't had any crashes from it whatsoever fortunately.

made checklist to make sure it dosen't happen again