brett65

My Feedback: (18)

I was at the field today like most of you I'm sure, and the club pres. had his big scale extra 260 out there. DA-100 was running good and he was flying great, next time he went up with it, he just got off the ground into a 5-10mph crosswind, when it sputtered and died[X(]. He tried to turn when it was sputtering which is what got him. It died about 50 ft up in the middle of the turn and it came down pretty hard. Snapped off the gear, canopy, and broke the fuse in half at the leading edge of the wing. Turns out, the he FORGOT TO PUT FUEL IN IT AFTER THE LAST FLIGHT![:@] After I found that out from another guy out there, he told me that he did the same thing 2 weeks ago with another big scale extra! OMG How do you forget something like that on a $4000 plane?

MetallicaJunkie

damn that sux, so he lost 2 giant scales because of not refueling?


i lost a Wild Hare baby extra the other day on its third flight do to not strapping the battery down enough..... it was sad, all we could do was watch it gracefully crash to the ground, it did about 3 nice large diameter circles. I learned my lesson

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Well, at least he didn't lose one becaue he forgot to raise his antenna.. [:@] []

That was a tough one.

Just goes to show that after flying 2.4GHz all day, then switching over to 72 MHz, well, ya gotta pay attention!!

CGr.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

It happens all the time unfortunately. Sometimes the more advanced a plane is, the more likely we are to forget the simple stuff. Mike and I were in Dayton, Oh over the Labor Day weekend covering a show being held there. One such incident really drives this point home. A jet pilot there had a gorgeous scale F-100 jet. He had over 2 years work in building it, and close to $20,000 sunk in it. He spent close to 45 minutes getting it ready to fly. It really was going to be a show stopper, as he taxied out pretty much the entire site stopped to watch him. He accelerated down the runway, lifted off, and rolled over and crashed. Yep, ailerons were reversed. [:@]

Ken

Mr67Stang

Yep! Deffinately the simple stuff will get you. About two weeks ago I was flying my Hanger 9 1/4 scale Cap 232. Took off did my usual aileron roll after take off and leveled out just in time for the 35cc gasoline engine to sputter and flam out. Pointing skyward the plane almost instantly stalls. I have no more than 50 ft to get some airspeed and flair into the bean feild. All I could manage was a flat pancake controlled crash. Fortunately it was enough with the help of the 4-5 foot tall bean plants to let me escape without damage. So what caused the flame out? I neglected to charge the ignition battery[:@] At least I did charge the radio and receiver bateries

spiral_72

Man, that's terrible. I gotta sick feeling in my stomach and I'm just reading about it!

overbored77

My Feedback: (11)

Looks like alot of people had a rough long weekend.
I had a case of the reversed aileron syndrome also

n19htmare

My Feedback: (1)

a fellow member also crashed his Dual Ace due to not switching models on the Radio. Reversed ailerons.
I feel bad, he used to have a separate radio tx for each plane, I brought up why he doesn't just use one? so he started using one and first couple flights were ok and then....he forgot to change the model!

brett65

My Feedback: (18)

Wow, it's all your fault![:-] JK

Deathbunny_SG

My Feedback: (6)

About 2 weeks ago I destroyed both wings on my wildhare baby edge. I finaly had everything balanced and flying perfectly and was very happy with it. Landed it and had it sitting there about 8' away pointed at me and the pits just idleling. Went to kill the engine with the throttle down trim and accidently hit the power btn on the radio instead. Normaly this wouldnt be a huge issue since the failsafe would kick in however I had just switched engines a couple days before and the switch required my throttle servo to get reversed. Well now the failsafe put the os 1.6 to full throttle right at me. The torque pulled the plane to the left and it missed me and crashed full throttle into a run up table. Luckly no one was hurt although my pride took a pretty big hit... Lesson learned when you change stuff make sure you redo your failsafe and tripple check EVERYTHING!

Gary L.

I only have two planes on my 9C, and I made it a point to have the throttle reversed on each one, ie, the Fly Boy throttle is closed and on the Lucky Stick it would be open.
That make sense?

aerowoof

it happens in full size also,about 10 years ago steed aviation finished the restoration of an f-100 [if my memmory is correct]on the first flight after several years of work it crashed and the pi;ot was killed after ejrcting.ten minutes in the air and the fuel tanks ran dry

Steve Steinbring

Spending 10 yrs as an Air Force safety officer accident reports often pointed out that complacency was a major accident factor and it kills. Translating that to model aviation most of us all neglect proper pre-flights, often skipping important checks ending up with disastrous results.

Take a little more time to check your airplane and gear it will payoff with interest.

manks

It happens, I forgot to attach the fuel line after filling mine yesterday, started up right away (How I Love OS Engines) then died, and for a couple of minutes I was working on it, wondering why it was not running, then looked at the fuel line - opps!

manks

We should not feel bad, a few years ago NASA lost a Mars probe because one of the engineers did not do a conversion from the Imperial measurement system to the Metric system, the craft thought it had much more room than it did and went in.

If NASA guys can make simple mistakes, anyone can!

I also remember a satellite launch that when bad when the European Space Agency did not change the guidence package to account for greater G forces on a new rocket, about 10 seconds after launch the rocket went sideways and had to be destroyed at a cost of well over $100 Million in payload.

So for those of you who have forgotten to extend your antenna, don't feel too bad, way smarter people have done way more dammage doing things just as dumb!

beachbrada

My Feedback: (17)

Since you brought Safety Managers up, I know our local office is having loads of fun with two back to back incidents on our base. First one the aft mount of the #2 engine on a A-10 Warthog broke in flight. The funny thing is that the pilot didn't even know anything had happened until he was taxiing back and the crew chief catching him said: "Sir, where's the rest of your engine?" What had happened was after the engine mount broke in flight the inlet of the engine nacelle broke off and landed in a farmers field. The second incident which happened a few days later, the pilot called in a in-flight emergency. He said he had a number two engine fire, which turned out to be the least of his problems. He landed fine and shutdown on the runway, as we approached the jet we were in shock. The whole back half of the engine was gone and there were two huge holes in the nacelle. The 10th stage compressor turbine shelled out and destroyed the engine, damaged the right rudder, damaged the horizontal stabilizer, and dropped all of this debris on my buddies house 5 miles from the base. ( Can you say cha-ching!!)

ErikElvis

My Feedback: (2)

Simply a case of more dollars then sense. That would be a problem I think I could deal with.

cervelott

As an ex-Airforce pilot and current airline pilot I can tell you from experience that we are taught routine and systematic approaches to our pre-flight checks, and just about everything else we do.

I am completely new to this hobby and have caught myself several times from making glaring mistakes. One thing I have noticed is that our clubs offer many distractions by virtue of the fact that they are clubs. It is often a social outing with some neat aircraft flying around and lots to see and watch. I have to keep reminding myself not to get distracted and concentrate on the task at hand. I will purposely not try to engage a fellow flyer in conversation when I see he is heavy into a mechanical issue or servicing his aircraft. A checklist always helps as well, you'd be amazed at the amount of airline veterans I fly with that use a personal checklist for items not covered by the aircraft checklist.

We all have our bad days, but learning to recognize distractions and getting into a routine (i.e. fill up your aircraft as soon as you park her if you are planning on another flight), can alleviate crashes and a whole lot of embarrassment . I think Aircraft Model Clubs would be wise to teach their students the discipline of routine and making them wise to distractions. Personally I think it'll make you a better pilot as well and at the end of the day I think that is what we all are trying to accomplish.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Ummm... like forgetting to raise the antenna on 72 MHz transmitter after using 2.4 Ghz? [:@] [X(]
(yep.. personal experience.. not once.. not twice, but thrice!!! Shame on me!! #1 cost me a prop. #2 broke the fuse in half, but it was easy to repair (electric). #3.. well, that came down hard.. very hard.)

CGr.

Steve Steinbring

CG,


I had one of my recently soloed students forget his antenna about two weeks ago. I noticed his airplane flyng erratic and when I went over to check why, I saw the problem. I was amazed that he didn't crash, apparently his radio has pretty strong signal even with the antenna down. The culprit was being buddy boxed until recently and he had not built a solid habit of extending the antenna.

bruce88123

This is why I always have my students extend their antennas. They need to get into the correct habits immediately IMO.

Bruno Stachel

My Feedback: (4)

I did the same thing on the very first flight after passing my club's flight test. After my plane rose off the ground and began to grow smaller, my instructor ran out and pulled out my antenna - luckily before anything could go wrong. I like the buddy box excuse. I'll have to remember that.[sm=biggrin.gif] The guys starting out on 2.4 systems have it made!

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

One time, way back when, I took off and actually flew a couple of circuits before I realized that my antenna was still down!!! That was with my Airtronics RD6000 radio. I reached up and pulled it out and continued flying. Someone in the peanut gallery saw me do it and pretty much busted my chops for the rest of the day.. and occasionally reminds me of that.

Ah yes.. good old 2.4 GHz systems. One less thing to forget.

CGr.

ErikElvis

My Feedback: (2)

My nexstar somehow made it a few circuits with the antenna down. Didnt realise at first. That was with the pre-installed futuba stuff.

RU4JESUS2 FALCONGTS

what I did was fly my f22 and its acting very nose heavy ,and then the light bulb goes off in your head DUH !! you didn't ck the COG little late now able to land her no damage
except my nerves and when your on a roll things keep going that way ,
my weights are at home .THINK theres got to be something here i can use ,there 2 triple aaa packs Yea that will work taped it on and flew it , yup do you think i would remember to ck the COG Landed and ck thankfulls it was back beyond normal but for me its correct
And i have put proper weights on

also forgot to put the antenna up also once .YOUR not alone out there