I did what most on here predict.

I CRASHED[]

I was flying a pattern inverted and kept loosing altitude a little at a time. I decided to turn it over and made a choice to loop it out rather than roll it out. (Wrong choice) I didn't have enough altitude or airspeed to loop it out above the ground.

The worst part is I made the choice and it wasn't a split decision, just wrong.

The up side is that the worst of it was the landing gear, and about 3" of horizontal stab. I haven't looked it over very well so the engine mount may be broken, as the front gear was torn right out.

Not looking for condolences or pity. Just wanted to let the other newbies know that crashing is inevitable, if not likely if you do this long enough. And I have been doing it less than a year.

Got my solo, Maidened a scratch built, and crashed in just a couple months. I just wanted to be thorough.

Thanks for all the great advice,

Del

Creative thinking while you're flying is something we all do. Not all ideas have the same result as the mental picture we started with. Now you know that wont work. You'll move onto somthing else on the list of thing to try now.

I've been flying nitro for about 3 months. I know my time is coming Now that you got it out of the way you can move forward.

chopper man

Sorry to hear that! I crashed mine into a tree so I know all about the stupidity thing....Oh well, it probably won't be the last time...Can you rebuild or is it trashed?

Things like this happen. Don't let it get to you.

I was doing a maiden on an old trainer I'd picked up from a guy about 6 months ago just for a throw around plane and had a bit of a problem with it. As I came across the filed I rolled inverted, It lost a bit of altitude but it wasn't too bad. As it continued inverted it also continued to lose altitude. The planes roll rate was too slow to get it back upright w/o crashing, not enough up elevator to do a positive 1/2 loop to level and not enough down elevator to maintain altitude inverted. All I could do was watch the gradual but inevitable inverted flight into the ground. Yep, it crashed after about 4 inverted circuits over the field.

There are 2 kinds of airplanes. The ones you fly & the ones you keep. The ones you keep you don't fly.

with this hobby a great attitude goes a long way. (and a lot of glue) Still have 8 more days till I meet up with my instructor. I flat out refuse to put fuel into it till then. Well, maybe a little won't hurt.

i dont fly a nitro or anything , but i was out flying the other day and i got my skyfly up as hi as i could get it.after flying around for a few minuts the darn wing broke in half and the plane came spiraling to the ground.it was one of the coolest things id ever seen

It happens to the best of pilots. THe most rewarding experience is when you actually fix the carnage and have your plane up in the air again. I havent been able to do that because my crashes lead to total wrecks. One was strong crosswing that forced my plane towards the flight line; had to put her down , the second tiem around, the receiver battery unplugged itself during a roll, all i could say is, thank god the plane was pointing down, otherwise who knows where it might have ended up....

Sorry to hear about your crash.
BUT, you have just had one of the biggest learning aids you can get.
Yes crashes happen, but normally we can repair them. Total destruction is less common than minor repairable damage.
Once you repair your first model the fear of damaging it is much much less.
This allows you to be more adventurous with your flying, and so your flying will progress quicker.
You also have now gone through the 'I crashed my plane guys' experience at your club. This I found to be an invisible wall to climb.
my advice, fix it, fly it, roll it inverted and fly it. When neccessary roll it upright and continue to fly. Fly inverted some more until inverted is no longer an issue. There, you are over the crash.

Good luck, happy landings.

In this hobby, there are three lists:
1) Things you want to try
2) Things you want to keep doing
3) Things you never want to do again

Chalk that one up on list number 3! Go back to column 1 and try something new. Keep learning. You learn more from mistakes than anything else--and that's a proven fact.

Here's a little ditty that might help you. when inverted.
When in doubt always roll out.
You aren't the first on loop out into the firmer part of terra firma you won't be the last.
Good luck

And don't feel bad about "Getting Stupid", you didn't "Get Stupid", you were just "Not aware"

Now you are a little smarter.

Thanks Guys,

It's time to get back on the horse!! But the weather hasn't been cooperating. I supose the first thing to do is a little inverted flight, but 3 mistakes high

See ya.

Del

Dang Del ,sorry to hear you crashed. Flying about a year with out ones prettty good.
Welcome to the brotherhood of broken parts.

Del:

Really doesn't relate to your problem directly, but here's another tip that almost cost me an airplane to learn...

If you use Sullivan or DuBro flexible plastic pushrods, they need to be anchored in several places along their length, not just at the servo and at the exit from the fuselage. My elevator linkage is set up with the horn on the bottom so pushing the rod = up elevator. If you fly at normal speeds, the pushrod has no trouble with the control surface.

If you are flying very fast, the aerodynamic forces increase. Pulling out of a fast diving loop, instead if pushing the elevator full up, my pushrod buckled... and I got about half the normal throw. I never puckered that badly in flying EVER and I swear there was grass in the axels when I got back. The moral is that I KNEW exactly how tight a circle that plane could pull, until the pushrod buckled. Once that happened all bets were off and only inches separated my airplane from the ground.

Make sure you have the middle of that flex rod or Nyrod supported in the fuselage!

N

Never ever let a three year old have the controls of your plane either. I was doing okay with my instructor up until the point where I added my kids names to the cockpit windows of my Hangar 9 Arrow. I went through about a dozen touch and go patterns last night and was on a go round for another flyers deadstick. It was after sundown and the illumination was very good but the distance was a bit much. I turned inverted and cruised quite comfortably for around two or three hundred feet....still further and further away.... My down elevator turned a nice invert into a slow roll....which turned to a slow dive... WHICH at 3/4 throttle turned into a fast dive.

A loss of recognition of the english language and two extremely slow thumbs turned into what I can only expect was a spectacular seeding of the back forty just over yonder rise in the field. Wing leading edge broken in three or four places, airplane about 16 inches shorter, engine half a cylinder deep in the ground....I'm only really disappointed that it was over the edge of the hill cause I'm sure I would have come up with something far wittier to say than ' Oh Poop '. Lesson learned - "If the plane is going down, pulling the right stick back is the first thing to do".

We had a pylon race today which I volunteered for. I happened to be marshalling my instructors plane on the number one pylon which he didn't cut once . After making sure he knew his very good timing I asked what it takes to earn my wings. He replied "the last lesson will be stall and spin recovery, then you're done". We all had a good chuckle and the new Arrow (ARF) will be ordered on Monday. Keep smiling and having fun....

Ryan

Thank you for the thoughts everyone. rabraaten, sorry to hear about your loss.

I lost another plane this last weekend. This time the servo tray came loose in flight. Again my fault[] didn't check it out.

Hopefully I'll be ready to fly again after a trip to the LHS tommorrow.

Two in less than a week reaaalllllyyyyy is a eye opener to how this hobby can go.

See ya later.

Del

seen alot here. the students don't verticall park one while learning with their instructors. when they get their bronze wings for going solo they get to over cofident or cocky and guess what?? they vertical park

Never mind,
just don't let It get to you.

I was once In a rush to go out flying one of my old aerobird challengers,
but in the mad rush I managed to take the wrong wing with me(one from a commander 2).

After a couple of low fly by's I took It up high to do a stall then a steep dive and finally a pull up but as I started pulling up the wing folded up on one side,
using full left stick I managed to slowly circle It to the ground and got a decent landing without further damage.

My brother who was watching thought It was yet another gonner,then nearly spilled his beer when I landed It.
To this day It's still the funnyest landing I've ever made.

Paul.