One of our instructors was going to maiden his plane. OS1.6. Spent a lot of time getting the motor running just right. Taxied around to get the feel of it. Then took off. OH MY!!! Lifted up, went inverted and parted the cornfield like the Red Sea. He got this puzzled look and said "the ailerons were reversed"
Apparently he was so excited to get the engine running that he forgot to check the controls. Total Loss. He said well that is the name of the club Balsa Butchers

OUCH!!!!

ROOKIE MISTAKE
MAYBE SHOULD NOT BE AN INTRUCTOR

Actually he is a very good pilot. Does a little 3-D. He is a good instructor. Just had a blond moment

It is a proven fact that the more experience one has the more likely one is to make "rookie" mistakes.
Statistically speaking in most work environments it is not the new guys getting hurt, its the guy who's been at it a while and knows "what I can get away with safely" that screws up.

NEVER SAY NEVER!

It almost goes without saying that whatever your experience level........ NO ONE IS IMMUNE expert flier or not!

Once an Air Force flying safety officer it was not too uncommon to see excellent pilots have incidents, or even loose their lives.

Common issues-

Not being attentive
Rushing to get airborne
Skipping a good preflight
Getting too brave

The list is endless!

COMPLACENCY is probably the greatest enemy! We often get too lazy to perform the proper checks to make sure our airframe is safe. The same remains true of this hobby as full scale, except here the pilot gets to walk-up the carnage after the crash, then gets to go home.

Just remember what you saw !!! You can learn from other people's mistakes. IN fact, thats the BEST way to learn !!!

Adui.. umm.. where did that quote come from? Did I miss something?

Take a look at my post: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7547963/tm.htm

We all make mistakes... instructor or not. And I am an instructor.

CGr.

A long time ago I did that. Ever since, I make a point of checking the controls before I taxi out. Thought I had the problem beat.

Then, last summer I was flying two electrics with the same Tx. The first was hand-launched, the second took of from the ground. Sure enough, when I was about to taxi out, I checked the controls and the elevator was reversed - still had the other plane programmed in.

Ok, switched to "plane 2" checked controls and took off.

Later, I went to fly "Plane 1" - the hand-launched plane - because it doesn't taxi out, I forgot to check and , sure enough, I was still on "Plane 2" so it didn't get very far.

Just goes to show you, you can always get bit by the gremlins!

I do a preflight check before leaving the pits. Then again before going to full throttle just before take off. Always check that the surfaces are moving in the direction they're supposed to. Also, remember to check you're on the right model memory. I check that twice as well. Once at start up then again just before entering the runway.

To help me from destroying a plane I like to set all my planes up the same way, (all the same channels either normal or reversed on all planes)
When I finish the maiden and trim flights, I set all my trims to center and adjust the surfaces for trim. This way if I do have the wrong model selected
I won't have any problems with controls reversed, and the trims will not be all over the place. I also preflight before every engine start and recheck
either on the line or if someone is carrying out for me I check while they are walking.

But we all make mistakes and accidents happen.

I've seen this happen when a servo is replaced by another servo of a different brand. They don't all turn the same direction.

That is good thing about Spektrum radios you can't fly on the wrong plane. I have some on Spektrum and a couple still on a Futaba 6x. Only once i had the wrong plane both were yellow planes and I had one listed as yeller. I was having a guy help me with some stuff and he changed the plane from a Twist to yeller as he thought the twist was yellow. Thank goodness it just would not get off the ground and we figured out what was wrong before we tore a plane up. I have been flying for about well almost two yrs. and have in that little time seen probabaly 10 crashes because of radio glitches on various radios. But never on Spektrum. Did however have my neighbor over and we just could not get his Zenoha running right it wanted to run full speed and was at idle. The servo was twithcing like crazy. We changed it and same thing. Finally moved his ign. batt. away from reciver some and it stopped. So the Spektrum is glitchable i suppose. One of our trainer type guys crashed a big cub because of some failure just a couple days ago. Man nice plane he had also said it was no longer made so no need of even thinking of trying to repair.

Fly with DX7 (or any other 2.4 GHz system) for several flights, then fly 72 MHz. There is a fairly good chance you will forget to pull up the antenna. I've done it, and I know several others that have done it. Usually, only once, though. If you don't think so, well, wait. It will. You may be fortunate enough to catch it before any damage is done, but often, you are to much in trouble and trying to do something to save the plane to realize that it's down until after you pick up the pieces. Ouch is right!!!

A buddy asked me to maiden his RV-4 last weekend. He's been flying for almost as long as I have, but gets pretty nervous with a new plane. I asked if everything had been checked, and he assured me it had. I asked him to double check while I was watching, just to make sure, and sure enough, the ailerons were reversed. He fixed that, and when we flew th plane, it performed flawlessly. Its now his favorite plane to fly!

It never hurts to double check and have someone else look at it.

Brad

Yeah, Brad.. one thing I am paranoid about is aileron reversal. I don't know why because I've never crashed one because of that, but have heard of many and seen at least one. It was not pretty.

Now, I've done the right-hand left-hand thing in a panic. I was in a take off, and the plane veered toward the fligh line. When 'commanding' my brain to use the rudder, I, for some reason, used the aileron. That was on take off, at full throttle, and about 5 feet off of the ground. You know the story... a tad bit of up elevator for normal take off, but then, in mild panic, full aileron.. rolled inverted, then... Expiration date on one Venus 40!!

I purposely have the throttle on my two planes reversed, that way when I look at the carb before starting I know right then if I'm on the right plane..

Excellent commentary for getting a JR Spectrum. Could NOT happen.

My problem is that I still catch myself trying to pull my DX6i's antenna UP!

I don't know if they still publish it but the Army had a monthly "Flight Fax." It was a monthlyreport of all the Army aviation accidents along with what happened and whowas at the controls. Most of the time, the overzealous experienced pilots were at the controls when their so called "experience" allowed them to screw up. Most new pilots are actually paying attention.

One thing is never get into a conversation or go and start one while a person is getting his plane ready for the day. I was putting one of my better P-51s together one morning when a couple of blah blah blah whats this and that morons came by. Well through the course of the morning I never did fly that day.

Went to take the plane apart. Removed the belly pan, the wing was sitting inthe saddle just nice without any bolts!

I'm not sure, its gone now,. I am fairly certain I wasn't quoting you however.

Minn, I apologize to you and the forum for whatever in my first post required editing. Please let me know via PM so I can be more careful with my words.

Adui

I wasn't point at something I posted, or that anyone else posted, just confusion as to the content that you quoted. Just wondered where it came from, that's all.

I was just commenting on the fact that we all make mistakes.. sometimes, they can be more serious than others. In this case, well, the poor guy suffered the worst as a result of a mistake. When we have computer radios that have multiple models, this will happen. The exception to this is something like the Spektrum series that will only respond to the correct model selection. But, I imagine that someone will find a flaw in this 'foolproof' system.

CGr.