Lee G

Since I'm suffering with after crash nerves and a near escape from a battery packing up on the ground just before take off.
I'm all doom and gloom

What are the most common mishaps with planes and precautions to try and avoid them.
I think I have gone overboard now with my setup and test kit.
Any new battery gets charged four times, checked and discharged with a futaba batter checker/discharger
All servo's are tested with a servo checker for glitching and sticking
Frequency checker used, even though the club has a board showing frequency's in use
Engines run in on a bench setup before being fitted

And like any newbie, asking as many questions as passable down the club to get the best set up advice passable to try and avoid human error.
I have only seen one bin bag case so far which was a spitfire with an engine stall and no fly aways yet

It sounds silly, but I'm now doing a risk assessment to put my mind at rest. Until I can settle down with flying, I wont be able to relax and enjoy it

Thanks Lee

sbd-5

My Feedback: (4)

batteries have always been the weak link in the system,what type pack ni-cad,nimh,other.nicads have been the most reliable and i will continue to use them till i hear better reports on the other types.i do a range check on any new plane installation and not the 100 foot kind i am talking of walking till the plane is barely visible,pointing the antennae at it and moving the controls in the predetermined pattern discussed with the helper.any movement on the way out or way back is considered a failure and plane is not flown till cause id found.after that range check it is only repeated at the beginning of a new flying season otherwise at the beginning of a flying sesion the quick easy antena down 100 ft check is done,before taking off all control functions are checked for proper operation and then go.needless to say that during assembly all wires are checked as well as clevises and engine bolts,muffler bolts.as part of pre-flight.not much else you can due.all but two of my crashes which are a total of 9 in 34 years were batteries going dead,only one time it was the tx battery the rest were flite batteries most of these occurred in the early seventies before i bought a lr taylor super cycler.back then we had four wire servos upto about 1972 and if one cell in a pack went bad the whole flitepack would no longer work.

Dr1Driver

Survey says...

The most common cause of mishaps with an R/C plane is PILOT ERROR.

Dr.1

khodges

My Feedback: (1)

I sort of agree with DR-1 Driver. My feelings on crashing are: if you haven't crashed, 1-You've never flown --or-- 2- It's just not your turn yet. You can prepare and prepare, do the Santa Claus thing (make your list and check it twice) and fret over every detail, and random chance will still come along and slap you silly the moment your back is turned. Small things become big problems, such as that servo or battery connection that "doesn't feel right" when you push the connectors together, or the clunk you didn't know has broken off the end of the line inside the tank, etc.

Don't beat yourself up too bad, just do a thorough preflight before each start-up, and take good care of your equipment, including a good preventive maintenance program on batteries, hinges, tanks, anything that is prone to fail with continuous use.

Then just go out and have a ball.

Lowlevlflyer

My Feedback: (3)

Well, I guess you could look at it this way... you've already got your first crash out of the way! Now, go fly and enjoy it!! Seriously though, It doesnt matter how much you prepare, sooner or later, it's going to happen, that's just the nature of this hobby. Whether it be a battery pack, engine, Rx, or servo failure, or maybe the R/C gods just simply dont like the color of your plane on that particular day, and decide to throw it to the ground... crashes are going to happen. Just get in the mindset that you will make thorough preflight checks, keep your plane and equipment in good working order, and go have fun. Dont waste all your time worrying and wondering if you quadruple checked every inch of the plane. This hobby is supposed to be fun, not worrysome!!

horace315

My Feedback: (15)

the balsa gods don't care they just want to be satisfied now and then.......s%$t happens just pick up and go again.

Lee G

I dont care about the balsa gods, I pray to the gods of clean underwear

multiflyer

Lee G,

Dr1 said it best. The most common cause of crash is the operator. I have been a avid RCer for 28 years now and I have never had a crash that wasn't my fault one way or another. If understood and treated properly, or equipment is plenty reliable.

I disagree that the battery is the weakest link. The battery is I think the most misunderstood and mistreated. Here are the important points. Properly charge. Don't overcharge. Use a battery with "adequate" capacity. My experience says battery capacity should be enough to give about 10 flights before stone dead. Fly at least 4 flights then cycle down the remaining capacity. There should be half left. And battery should be able to lose a cell and still give enough voltage. Contrary to what many will say, all cells in a pack don't just die at the same time. With the above margin, the decay is always detectable before causing a crash - IF you volt check with a good load of at least half C, before and after every flight. Don't look for a specific voltage so much as learn your voltage "trend". When that trend changes, check it out by cycling the battery. When you cycle check, charge then cycle, then charge and let the battery sit a few days then cycle. If the capacity measurement is significantly less after a few days of sitting, the battery is getting old. Excessive charging and cycling only reduces battery life. It's all about pack margin and monitoring for a consistent trend.

The weakest link in the system by far is the wiring, especially the cheep little connectors. Double up wherever possible. I don't think dual batteries provide more safety than one - if the above is strictly followed. Someone who does not understand batteries will mess up 2 just as fast as one. I have my packs made with 2 heavy gauge leads coming directly off the cell tabs. Then I connect 2 switches and plug these into 2 ports on the Rx. Now I have dual path redundancy. One switch on, if Rx comes to life that path is good. Alternate which switch goes on first each flight. A heavy duty switch with multiple contacts is not just as safe because there is no way to check each contact individually. With computers you can extend the redundancy further by running dual elevator and dual aileron channels. Just about every plane can be controlled just fine on one elevator or one aileron. Dual primary control channels gives redundancy to not only wiring, but servo, pushrod, links, hinges, all.

Protect Rx and battery from vibration. Most people don't do this near well enough. I wrap mine loosely with a layer of soft foam and layer of higher density. This impedes resonance. Then install LOOSLY within a box structure large enough not to compress the foam at all. This ensures minimum vibration transmission. Finally, if you care about the plane a lot, just replace the entire flight pack every 5 years or 500 flights, whichever comes first. Cheep insurance. The old stuff isn't bad, just don't fly your ???thousand dollar plane with it any more.

A little good sense goes a way long way. Watch out for over complicated schemes.

Multiflyer

nickj

RC flying is not generally a relaxing activity. Unless you're flying something slow and lazy, it takes nearly complete concentration for 10-15 minutes at a time. Which is why you don't normally land, refuel, and go right back up. But it doesn't have to be a constant worry. I don't use a checklist, but I try to stick to a normal routine so I don't forget anything, and I'm always looking over the airframe for anything broken or loose during cleanup.

Iturnright

I have found two solutions to this. Although I must admit they apply more to parkflyers than nitro planes. First have a plane that even if you do care about it, you know it can survive anything but a major crash, this might be a bit tougher in the case of nitro planes, but oh well. Second, I have actually found I enjoy flying my 3d plane more than the others just because I know that whatever happens to it, other than catastrophic failure of some part, I can save it. Sure, the landing is nerveracking for me, but the flying is a joy. Or just try the classic back to basics approach, just do the relaxing things first than go back up, and if its just not your thing to always worry about your plane, just fly things you are confident with. If you aren't enjoying flying because of the risk you may want to reconsider what you are doing it for. I know I have a couple times after one of my planes took some damage, but I'm always back out there.

Barry Cazier

My Feedback: (17)

LeeG...I've been in this hobby just a little over 2 years. I've flown a lot and it's a great satisfaction to me. I've learned a great deal and met a lot of fine people. But I'm in a pretty remote area and noone really teaches anything but the very basics. I'm a 3D pilot so after my initial training I've been on my own. I've totaled 12 airplanes. But I've had a great time. I can tell you there are many things worse than crashing an RC plane. I have exactly 0 worries about crashing. It happens. To me it happens quite a bit but I am a high risk taker. But I've yet to damage an engine or any radio gear.

The worst one I felt about was I forgot to raise my antenna. That was dumb. I don't like doing stupid. If I crash because I'm try new tricks or flying to close to the ground etc. no problem. It's stupid I don't like. So, my advice is to get yourself a "short" list that you do every time you fly. Than, do it. After that don't give it a second thought. Enjoy flying. If you choose to fly just basic stuff and no 3D you can probably go years without an incident. That's great. My guess if you start pushing the limits you will lose several planes a year. That's ok too. It's a great hobby that has room for all types. But to worry...shouldn't be part of the mix.

I notice now in my small club many people are starting to push themselves a little bit. There are some people there that have flown for 20 years and never been inverted. Now they are trying that and asking me for advice. Scary.

Anyways, don't worry...Fly.

Thanks
Barry

Lee G

Thanks for all the responces. It has surprised me that no one has mentioned seeing planes disapear off into the great blue yonder.
So thats a few and far between ocurance, its been mainly user error.
The fact that radio gear and engines survive, another good thing. Airframes dont cost the earth and props are cheap as well.
Im tempted to get a lecy parkflyer, just so I can see what Im doing a bit closer to the ground, rather than panicking about something a few hundred meters up. Ok closer to the ground means, less time to react as it heads towards the ground, but the price of park fliers must make crashes easier on the pocket

But if you look at the bi plane thread, you will see what I have planed for the future. Cant wimp out on learning to fly.

Just to grovel to the American members. The Mustang has got to be one of the moast stuning ww2 planes and I cant wait for the day Im at a level of being able to get mine airbourne

multiflyer

Lee G,

This summer I got the new Top Flight 1/5 scale P-51 flying. It's a very fine ARF and since they kept it very light, does it ever perform. Keep working toward your goal of flying one of your own. I promise it will be worth it!

Multiflyer

shag555

There are things you can control.... And, well, things you could control, but maybe our out of your (your meaning everyone) league. I built a 27% aerobat and, luckily had the battery fail on a taxiing test, prior to any actual flying. Appearantly, what caused the battery to go flat was that one of the chip sets in the circuit board of the digital servo fell off due to improper soldiering!!! The servo locked and subsequently overheated the circuits, and burned up - it drained the battery completely and I had no response from the plane. I'm lucky to say that it happened during a turn-around. I made a take off speed pass just before that happened.

You can check and recheck, but some things are just out of your hands. I still won't be tearing my servos apart to see if all circuits are in-tact, etc. It'd be like tearing a motor down to make sure everything's OK. Sometimes luck and GOOD QUALITY CONTROL from the factory play a part in it too. I won't mention the brand servo (maybe later if they don't fix it for free - they were brand new servos), but IMHO, this should never have happened, but I'm sure, on occasion, it does. By the way, the servo was from one of the Big 3.

MPB

rjbarthel

My Feedback: (2)

my hanger is filling up again so a crash is needed to make room for new

samolot

My Feedback: (14)

I only got two planes, one of which is unflyable (Took the engine and radio out of it and put it in the new one), so my life sucks.