I had just bought my second plane about 2 weeks ago and had about 10 fights with it, well yesterday I was out the field and eager to fly so I gassed the plane up started the thing up and taxied down the runway. I hit the gas got up to speed and pulled the elevator down and the plane went up but banked to the left. I used full right but she was still going left and bank into a roll and the rest was history.


NUMBER one lesion check all flight controls before take off. Just cause the plane was fine yesterday doesn’t mean something has changed over night. I believe the left aileron lead came out of the receiver. I was running twin servos for the ailerons.


You hear your instructor tell you to check the plane but until something bad happen it doesn’t sink in……..In has truly sunk in now.

Right On. Enough mystery things happen that kills planes. The oversights are just plain dumb. I too, know. The main thing is to learn from our mistakes.

Dogz, were you using two channels for the ailerons or a Y-harness? If you are using two channels, make absolutely certain that you plug the servos into their proper channels. I watched a beautiful Extra go in because although the servos were plugged in, they were in the wrong channels and were reversed. Sorry to hear about your crash.

Yeap... was using 2 channels for ailerons

the left aileron was stuck and only had the right one. As a last effort I hit the controls to left just incase the leads were reversed but this made it completely roll and crash.

The plane is repairable and there was only minor damage to the wing. the rudder and elevator are fine. most damage was fuselage were the wing connects to the body and firewall was pushed back and snapped the prop, engine is fine and only one servo was damage ripping the wires out of the servo.


It could of been worse

always do a range and control check each new flight day.

I have seen the same experienced pilot do the same thign twice over 6months. Forgot to check his ailerons. On his nice big Extra he tried to get it back using rudder-he didnt. On his bype, he had them hooked up backwards. Did the most spectacular roll on take off and came down hard on the gear. Actually it was such a smooth manuever , it looked like he planned it. Got lucky and only replaced the gear.