Experience pays off.
03-23-2008, 02:44 PM
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Experience pays off.
My first flight of the year and a maiden flight of my B-day present, SIG Kadet Senior ARF.
This turned out to be quite a joy ride and why we are always harping on beginners to get help with learning to fly or at least get an experienced pilot to trim your airplane out for you.
Everything looked ok. I did a range check with the engine running.Everthing was in order. I taxied out, lined up, checked the controls one more time and and away I went.
As soon as I got in the air the plane tried to turn hard left, I straitened it out but the plane was just plain squirrly. I fought the airplane around the field a couple of times and managed a good landing. I tried to taxi back but the plane would not turn.
After inspection I found that I lost my rudder servo, it does nothing but hum. In flight it was more than just the rudder, it seems the bad servo was making the other servos glitch a bit. Made for quite a ride.
I have no doubt that a beginner would have taken this airplane home in a garbage bag.
This turned out to be quite a joy ride and why we are always harping on beginners to get help with learning to fly or at least get an experienced pilot to trim your airplane out for you.
Everything looked ok. I did a range check with the engine running.Everthing was in order. I taxied out, lined up, checked the controls one more time and and away I went.
As soon as I got in the air the plane tried to turn hard left, I straitened it out but the plane was just plain squirrly. I fought the airplane around the field a couple of times and managed a good landing. I tried to taxi back but the plane would not turn.
After inspection I found that I lost my rudder servo, it does nothing but hum. In flight it was more than just the rudder, it seems the bad servo was making the other servos glitch a bit. Made for quite a ride.
I have no doubt that a beginner would have taken this airplane home in a garbage bag.
03-23-2008, 04:35 PM
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RE: Experience pays off.
It's good for you to let beginners like me and any model no matter how experienced they are aware of problems that constantly put airplanes into the trash bag. I have flown only a few times on my dad's trainer and two flights on mine and i always check to make sure everything is working properly. The two flights on my trainer had very close checks on everything due to a servo horn that was slipping on the servo and crashed the plane on its maiden(It's fixed now). Your near accident is a great reminder for everyone so that they can remember to stay safe by double checking servos and whatever else is critical to that plane for it to fly under your control. Thanks for sharing you story and good job with saving the plane safely!
Farr301
Farr301
03-23-2008, 05:02 PM
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RE: Experience pays off.
Thanks and yes that is why I posted it, well that and I wanted to tell someone 
Never trust new stuff to work the way it should.
My neighbor had 2 brand new servos that were bad last year. Both Futaba. This one is a Hitec.
Never trust new stuff to work the way it should.
My neighbor had 2 brand new servos that were bad last year. Both Futaba. This one is a Hitec.
03-23-2008, 08:05 PM
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RE: Experience pays off.
Kadets can be flown by themselves, so you shouldnt have any problems snacker,also (true story) the best way to land a Kadet is to line up with the runway, cut the throttle, and set transmiter on the ground and wait. A slight bouce is normal, but will roll out fine! I hope you guys enjoy your Kadets!
Stick 40
Stick 40
03-24-2008, 07:38 AM
#8
RE: Experience pays off.
Well, missileman, I was going to suggest that you fly a "known good" plane to "relearn" how to fly for the beginning of the season rather than to both maiden a new plane and on the first flight of the season. But what you described would have happened no matter what. Good save!! 
I was helping someone re-maiden a repaired plane last year. It was very interesting and a very short flight. I did a cursory check to make sure all was ok, and asked if the plane had been pre-flighted by the owner, a fairly new but somewhat experienced flyer. He said yes, so I accepted that. So, I taxied out and prepared for take off. All was well, so I slowly pushed the throttle. Eventually, I was at full throttle and the thing was gaining speed but not yet flying. Finally, it climbed out and leveled out (without my changing the throttle, by the way). I pulled back on the throttle a bit and it immediately started to lose altitude. Back to full throttle and it just barely maintained altitude. I managed to get it around for a couple orbits, but realized it was a futile effort, so I lined it up for a landing. Quite an impressive landing, I must say, at about half throttle!!!
The plane weighed in at about 14 pounds.. heavy for this particular plane. I realized this after landing, by the way. I had him disassemble the thing and I took a look inside. He was using wrenches as nose weight... had a couple of sockets in there plus two 5/8 x 9/16" box end wrenches in there, crammed on top of the fuel tank. Tank.. a good name for this beast. I suggested he figure out a way to make the CG without having to add about three pounds of tools in the fuselage.
And, yep, I should have checked it myself rather than take the word of someone else that it was airworthy. I didn't break it, but that was based on experience, as you said, Missileman!!
CGr.
I was helping someone re-maiden a repaired plane last year. It was very interesting and a very short flight. I did a cursory check to make sure all was ok, and asked if the plane had been pre-flighted by the owner, a fairly new but somewhat experienced flyer. He said yes, so I accepted that. So, I taxied out and prepared for take off. All was well, so I slowly pushed the throttle. Eventually, I was at full throttle and the thing was gaining speed but not yet flying. Finally, it climbed out and leveled out (without my changing the throttle, by the way). I pulled back on the throttle a bit and it immediately started to lose altitude. Back to full throttle and it just barely maintained altitude. I managed to get it around for a couple orbits, but realized it was a futile effort, so I lined it up for a landing. Quite an impressive landing, I must say, at about half throttle!!!
The plane weighed in at about 14 pounds.. heavy for this particular plane. I realized this after landing, by the way. I had him disassemble the thing and I took a look inside. He was using wrenches as nose weight... had a couple of sockets in there plus two 5/8 x 9/16" box end wrenches in there, crammed on top of the fuel tank. Tank.. a good name for this beast. I suggested he figure out a way to make the CG without having to add about three pounds of tools in the fuselage.
And, yep, I should have checked it myself rather than take the word of someone else that it was airworthy. I didn't break it, but that was based on experience, as you said, Missileman!!
CGr.
