So I maidend my second plane this weekend.

Good flight overall...but the antics on the ground were quite funny as well.

Its an Ultra Stick with a Saito 91 in it. So im taxing out to the runway (dont worry guys, taxing is part of it, long waay from the runway to where are pits were...no people, property, or other souls or spirits were in harms way) So its going pretty fast for a taxi...so my buddy runs up to it from behind to grab the tail for me (was gonna stop it long enough to adjust the servo arm for the throttle so i could get the idle down)

I hit the kill switch to shut it down, and apparently it only closed enough to get the motor running backwards...so I blip the throttle to try to get it to go forward again, and the thing just shot backwards, FAST...now he wasnt in the way or in any chance of getting hurt (other than maybe hurting himself as he fell to the ground laughing) ...

Im sitting here with a plane that wont shut off or run forward...i just drove it backwards into the grass which stopped it, but driving a taildragger backwards is interesting...i was able to reach under and put my finger on the carb to stop the motor.

Nobody hurt, nothing broken...maybe some sore ribs from the laughing.

As a note to any begginners. Stuff like this is funny, but depending on where you fly, could get you in trouble, or worse. I tell a funny story cause it sticks in peoples minds better than just telling them something. When you maiden a plane, check everything. Everyting else was fine, but the idle was too high and even with trim, i couldnt get it low enough...even though it was fine the day before taxing around the yard..

That should have told me something...the problem was that my pressure line had a cut in it (was a bit too long, and the throttle pushrod poked it) and thats why I guess it leaned out a bit and idled faster.

CHECK EVERYTHING...and if something is different, dont shrug it off..find out what it is.

After that though, the maiden went beautifully!

A few years ago at on of our big fun flys, I guy was up their doing some aerobatic demos with around a 33% extra. All was going good and when he came into land , he had to make a couple go arounds. Something was wrong. His 2-3 idle position was not working. Throttle was stuck on some serios high idle.

So he landed it and was taxing that thing around ayt a good clip. Also whe it landed, tailwheel broke, so this thing is going around and around and around in circles. About 5 of us aro out their like trying to get a sack of money off a bulls horns at a rodeo. Trying to grab this thing without gett nail in the process. It fell like forever but the whole thng was only a coupl eminutes long. One guy finally got the tail and stopped it when another guy took off his shirt and threw it into the prop to shut it off.

It got the crowd going

last story sounds vaguely similar to mine. I was flying a well used omp yak profile aircraft, why this bird still can fly is a mystery to me. I made a slightly hard landing but nothing too bad, evidently the fuselage has been weakend over time with all the flat spins and high g manuveers and the occasional hard landings on the wheels. Well anyways I landed a little hard but it was enough to finally break the the heavy balsa runner that stiffens the foam core fuselage core. When it broke the front of the plane bent 30 degrees to the right which also caused the throttle linkage to push the engine into 1/3 throttle setting with no way to back it off. The funny thing was to watch me with a transmitter in one hand trying to tackle this plane while having to hold it in a tight spin so that it would not take off.

This happened at one of our fly ins a few years ago. It's one of those scary at the time funny later things. I young guy was flying a 60 size heli about 10' in front of him. We had an orange plastic safety fence up. He lifted off and the heli came toward him clipping the top of the safety fence and slamming it onto the pavement ,on our side of the fence. As soon as it hit the battery went flying off to one side. So there it is wide open dancing around on it's side. The rotor had busted but there was enough left to make it hop around in circles pretty good. I ran out of the radio impound area with a good stomp in mind. It was bouncing and spinning within 10' of some nice planes and a few pilots. They were all looking at it like a deer looking at head lights. Just before I got to it something broke and the rotor stopped. The engine raced and quickly leaned and died. It all lasted maybe 15 seconds but seemed like 5 minutes.

David

I was flying alone at my local field and was holding the plane while taching it to get the lowspeed needle set. I accidentally bumped the throttle to almost full and the plane just rocketed. I grabbed hold of one wing and it started spinning me in circles. Imagine someone holding an 80" ws plane by one side of the wing, going in circle control-line style, while trying to pick up the transmitter every full rotation. It is funny, but I'm lucky the prop didn't rip my achilles tendon apart or mince my family jewels.

Yeah, these are the stories I like..

Yeah, it could have been dangerous, but in the end, you can still see the humor in it all.