I made my first landing today on my new Alpha 40, albeit on the trainer box. I made 2 or 3 passes to pratice my approach and then brought it in nice and slow. I gave it a little flair just before landing and set it down on the tricycle landing gear and rolled to a stop. No bounce at all. I felt pretty good and my instructor noted that I couldn't have done better than that.

I started taxiing to the pit area and all of a sudden the engine went to full throttle and the Alpha 40 took off toward a fence. I looked in horror as it went straight into the horizontal rail of the fence. My instructor was a bit confused at first but then he realized that he had let off the trainer switch and the master TX was at full throttle. He didn't react because he thought I still had control.

The damage was surprisingly minor. The engine mount sheared off and the propellor (all 3 blades) broke. The main spar on the left side of the wing was broken but it looks like it will go back in one piece. There was no damage to the fuselage or the tail.

My instructor offered to fix it and I took him up on the offer. He felt really bad about it, but I guess these things happen. The important thing is that nobody was hurt. It could have been a lot worse had it not hit the fence.

Anyway, my confidence is up after that landing. I think I'm ready to solo next time.

Sorry to hear about the incident. Trainer are going to get their fair share of bruises though. Just be glad that the plane didn't take off into the pit area or a group of people.

I'm sure your instructor will have it good as new in no time.

Very scary. Just shows that no one is perfect.

Like Chuck said, they are made to get some scratches and get back in the air. As for your instructor, I have seen things like that happen A number of times and so far all have been lucky without anyone getting hurt. When A student gets to A stage where all the instructor is doing is holding A switch every flight, sometimes the brain goes into that gray area. So far I haven't done it but sometimes I need A little shake after A students flight to get my brain back in order. Good going on your first landing too, A no bouncer!!! I was always just happy my plane still had all it's parts on after A landing. Still am!!!

My instructor did the same thing. I taxied back to the flight line and made the turn up to the the double lines and stopped. I told him to hit the kill switch on main and he did just what your instructor did. Luckly, mine ran into the netting and no damage, but the nerves were baddly frayed. I'll bet this happens a lot.

I found one other issue with the buddy box setup. The trainer box wouldn't give full throw on the throttle. If I trimmed up the throttle on the buddy, I couldn't get it down to an idle for landing. If I trimmed it for idle, I couldn't get much above 6000 at full throttle. Everything else tracked with 1 for 1 movement between the boxes. The master is my Futaba 9CAP supper and the buddy was an older futaba four channel.

Don

Well I think I'm done with the buddy box now anyway. I have enough confidence to be able to take off and land so the next flight will be my solo. This is a bit misleading though since I have been flying electrics for a little over a year, but making the jump to Nitro is a bit of a transition.

As for my instructor, I doubt that will happen to him again. He's a very good pilot and a very good instructor, and yes, I'm sure the Alpha 40 will be in fine shape (maybe better) when I get it back from him.

Tell him you want it back as a tail dragger

I had a similar event during my training process. I was also taxing back to the pit when all of a sudden it went full throttle into the fence. I got luck that it was about 2-3 feet from the fence so it did not build up a lot of speed. Hit the edge with my wing and just put a small dent in it. The cause: As we were moving to follow the plane during the taxing I stepped on the cord a pulled it off of the buddy box. We were very careful after that.

I'll agree with Gray Beard - holding the trainer switch with guys about ready to solo for 10 or 12 flights a day for 3 days in a row can get one into a brain dead state. One think I do is match the control settings to what the plane is doing so I can respond to get it out of trouble. I'm sure anybody who has instructed for a while has run into this complacency.

I had a student stall his Alpha about 6" off the ground this past Thursday and roll up on the wing. When he went to get it he found the wing had shifted and the prop broken. In the pit I noticed his tail was loose and thought the bolts had come loose. Upon further inspection we found the fuselage broken just under the midpoint of the stab heading forward. I think its either hangar rash he didn't catch in his preflight (he's been flying sporadically since April so knows how to preflight) or from his ill-fated attempt at solo on day when nobody was at the field and dorked it in from 8' busting the nose up. I'll help him fix it this week just to make sure he learn proper repair techniques.

HampdenTech - If there is any way you can get with your instructor as he repairs the plane you'll learn a lot about repairs which is another facet of the hobby one eventually has to learn.

Hogflyer

Great adivse. My time is about 20% building, 50% flying and 30% repairing. The last is dropping fast, but it just won't go away.

Don