dash008

My Feedback: (1)

I spent the past month or so putting together a Big Stik 40 ARF as my second airplane. I spent the summer and fall flying my trainer and was getting bored with it, so I was looking forward to my first "second airplane". A pretty nice day came along last Friday so I took it out to the field with my 11 year old son. We were both excited to get it in the air. Turns out I should have checked things over a little better... I spent hours getting it balanced just right, setting up control throws, flaperons, high/low rates, etc... What I didn't do is go over it and make sure everything was tight.

Ran up the engine (a new OS 46ax) and everything seemed to be working good so taxied out to the runway and lined it up. Made sure I had it on low rates, flaps up. Realized I forgot my sunglasses in the car so made my 11 year old run get them while I stood there with the plane idling. Got the sunglasses, more deep breaths, went to add power and the engine quit because it had been idling so long. Started it back up on the runway, ran it up again, and then took off. Nice smooth take off, climbed out well, just flying a big oval to get used to things, it's flying really fast so reduce throttle, it's flying level but wants to dive so add some up trim... some more up trim... It's flying straight now, kind of twitchy and fast compared to the trainer but I'm not having any trouble handling it. Still fast though so reduce throttle some more, flying nice big ovals to get used to it, try a roll, couple loops, man the engine is still screaming!! Went to lower the throttle some more and realize it's all the way down... Uh oh... Try the kill button... Nothing. That's ok, I'll fly it around til the engine quits. When the engine quits a few minutes later, I bring it in into the wind, it floats a lot further than I expect, overshoot the runway and put it down in some taller grass. Went and got it. It was fine.

Brought it back and take the wing off. The little screw that goes in the top of the little brass thing that attaches the throttle pushrod to the servo arm is missing. Find it rattling around in the tail area. Must have vibrated out. I guess I forgot to tighten it after setting up the throttle. I have no tools with me so here's where I get really stupid. I really want to fly this thing again so I put the screw back in and try to tighten it with my car keys! I know....

Run the throttle back and forth several times, working good. Start it up and run the throttle back and forth, seems good, so I take back off. I imediately go to lower the throttle and nothing... Oh well, I'll just fly it around again until it runs out of gas and dead stick it in again. This time instead of just flying ovals I decide to try to have some fun, so I do some loops and rolls and about this time the throttle goes to a high idle... Oh crap!!

Now there's not enough power to stay in the air, but too much power to land... Now what do I do? I don't know, I'm still a beginner! I'm getting closer and closer to the ground, I keep thinking it's going to stall, so I try to bring it in very fast. The plane hits on its wheels shoots straight up about 15 feet and then rams straight into the ground nose first... This is my first crash. My son's never seen me crash before so he's upset, he hasn't even gotten a chance to fly it yet!

I was so upset I wrecked my brand new plane that I wanted to get a new one right away, but I put it away and left it alone for a week now to let the emotions die down a little bit... Now i'm thinking I can probably fix it, it's not that bad. I think the engines ok. It ripped the wings off and did a little damage to one of the tips and broke off the piece that slides into the fuse slot at the leading edge.

The fuse suffered more damage. broke the fuse around the wing bolt down area. Probably the worst damage is the tail broke off right in front of the stabilizer... right now it's just dangling because the push rods are keeping it from falling off. I'm not sure how I'm going to reattach the tail but I don't think it will be that hard... I just hate that it's going to look crappy now. [&o]

Anyway, I thought I would share my stupidity so maybe others won't make the same mistakes I've made. If I'd have just packed it up after the first flight I would have an unbroken plane right now. Hope you enjoyed my sad story! LOL

dash008

My Feedback: (1)

Some more pictures... If anyone has any repair tips, please let me know!!

yetti831

Don't use those brass things! They're terrible, even when used with locktite! I had the same thing happen to me, except it was the elevator! Needless to say, I picked up my plane in about a million pieces, and never used those things again.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

I had the tail broken like yours on my Super Stick 60. I put the jigsaw puzzle back together with epoxy and covered it with sticky back trim sheet.

Here's a picture of it repaired. You can see the patch on the rear. I hit one of those hay bails. I tore the landing gear off too

dignlivn

dash008,


Sorry to hear about your experience.

I don't use those brass connectors either, there
junk IMO. A Z bend would have been a better
choice, if the rod was not threaded.

Good news is, it is repairable. A little time
and some tri stock and epoxy. As for your
second flight, I would say you had a warning
after the first flight, and you didn't even have
any tools. That was your second warning.

I go over my plane after each day of flying. I have
found loose aileron servos, rudder servo and even
loose ca hinges. Then there is loose landing gear
and the list can go on and on. I hope you get her
fixed and flying again soon, so your Son can have
some fun too.

Bob



Here's mine

bingo field

Just work on one thing at a time. It seems like you will have work for years when you begin. Focus on one part first, and it will go back together fine. I failed to take over one time working with my son in law, and destroyed the front half of a fuselage on an Alpha 40. I was just going to cut off the tail and make plaque award out of it. One day after it sat for about 2 months, I just started working on it. I was finished in about two and a half hours. That included fabricating a couple of pieces out of some scrap I had laying around. I started by making the fractured pieces fit together, and let just a little bit of thin ca wick in and start stitching parts together. Once it starts to go together, and you see some progress, you won't mind spending some time on it. Good luck!

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Those quick links work just fine. When you get the throttle set where you want it to be, use the medium strength Thread Lock compound. Add it to the set-screw before you put it on, and use the right tool to tighten the set screw. Tighten it as tight as you can and let it set for several hours.

I use these quick links all the time and they don't come loose.

Now, with that said, I would not use them on control surfaces, just on the throttle. I've used them on control surfaces, but replaced them using a 90 degree bend with a locking tab on the servo end and an adjustable clevis on the other end. But, quicklinks work fine on the throttle.

CGr.

Jester241

Man,sorry to hear about your loss. That sucks,but honestly it could have happened to anyone including us more experienced pilots. Its very easy to be lured into flying even when conditions are perfect. I probly would have found a way to fly it too. Playing around with it close to the ground is where the big error was though,but you've obviously learned and gained valuable experience from it and thats the good side of this story. I personally like those brass connectors your using too and have never had an issue with them,but I also use blue locktite on them. Z-bends are fine too,but you usually wind up with too much play in the control for my taste,particularly on throttle connections where that play usually makes for an unreliable idle.

Now for my advice to you....Your plane is fixable(gonna take alot of work though),but I also understand you enjoying to fly a mint condition plane . So I would say IF you can afford a new stik...get one. This way you will be back flying again right away which I know you want to do. Perhaps even a new .60 sized stik(I love mine) and a new .90 sized motor. You could use the electonics from the old stik for awhile. And now mentioned you have a kid who wants to fly and stuff.....so while your flying you new stik,you could play around taking your time fixing the crashed one and you might even find that kinda fun too! And in the end you'll have another plane to fly with your son. You'll learn some much needed repair skills and some monokote covering skills.

Gotta turn that bad experience into a possitive one! Might cost some money,but your pride is worth it,lol.

rclement

My Feedback: (1)

It sounds like your experience is limited at this point so I would fix the stick and build on your learning with it. The experience of fixing it is invaluable and then you'll have a plane you don't have to be too worried about banging around while you are building on your flying skills. Then get another one if you still want to.

bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

I teach all my students that the words that most frequently precede any crash are "it will be all right". Never second for second rate setup. If you can't fix it right, go home, fix it, and fly another day. You were suffering from "flight line fever". Its fatal to the plane.

The repairs you're looking at are pretty easy. But you will want to remove most of the covering in order to fully inspect for additional damage. For tight fitting word, thin CA works wonders. Sheeting is easy to replace in sections. Plywood thats cracked should be reinforced with fiberglass and epoxy once glued together with thin CA. Make sure you're wing spar hasn't cracked, as that is a critical load bearing item.

I guess one of the benefits of the ARF assembly jobs is the cheap glue gives way before the wood, making some repairs easier. Getting the wing hold down plate in place without gluing it to the wing will be the trickiest part. It might be easier to just make a new plate, glue it in place before you drill the holes, then mount the wing, check the alignment and drill pilot holes through the wing holes.

As far as looking crappy, don't worry about it. Ugly planes fly better.

Brad

carrellh

The adjustable connectors are definitely fine for throttle and nose gear steering pushrods. Getting it tight is very important, as you now know. It looks repairable, but it will take a while. As bingo wrote, work on fixing one area at a time. The big picture looks intimidating but it is really just a bunch of smaller projects.

I like Jester's idea of getting a new plane to fly and working on this one over an extended period. The hobby shop probably likes that idea too.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

You call that a crash???

No problem! Sure your pride is hurt a little, but that will go back together in no time - and once it's fixed, it'll be even better!

Why? Because you got the "First Dent" out of the way. Now you won't be afraid of dinging it and you'll enjoy it that much more.

As for the EZ connectors, I use them on almost everything. I now use loctite as a precaution, but I used them for years without. The main thing to remember is: Hold the barrel with a pair of pliers as you tighten the screw, don't rely solely on the pushrod to keep it from turning.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Based on personal experience.. [:@] I got to the field one day and said to myself, boy, that wind is really blowing, should I fly or not? Ah, what the heck.. and put the thing up. And had to carry it home in a bag. (yeah, this happened more than one time.. I guess it took a couple of events like this to convince me that my first impression was the right one).

A little experience with a crash goes a long way. In your case, should you have flown that day after using your key to "tighten" that se screw? What do you think? BKDavy said it best:

Sometimes there are simple consequences (you broke your plane) and sometimes there are more serious consequences (your plane flew through someone's windshield.. or worse yet... _______ (you can fill in the blanks yourself) )

Just some advice from those that "have been there and done that".

CGr

dash008

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for all the encouragement guys... I agree with most of you who said to fix it. I'm going to fix it. I went yesterday and bought some light ply and balsa sheets in different sizes so I'll glue together what I can and then reinforce with some balsa/ply? I had a clairvoyant moment when I ordered the plane and got some extra trim sheets that match the red, white and black monokote. I agree with the idea that once you have a dent or two on it you're not so concerned with keeping it nice. Good tip on holding the quick connector with pliers... I'll be sure to do that and use plenty of locktite

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Yes, a typical fix for something like this is to cut two pieces of lite ply and glue them to each side of the fuse (On either the front or rear end of the break)

Then add glue to the exposed part of that piece of ply and match the two surfaces.

I would suggest using wood glue or 30-minute epoxy for this rather than CA so you have time to get the parts aligned. Once they are together, you can use CA to glue the crack itself.

bingo field

That's it Dash - got the spirit, now run with it. A month from now you will have something to look back to. And with the experience, if someone scraps one that looks really bad, you may just want to take it home to see if you can fix it anyway. (And you probably can, at that point). The first steps are the toughest.

Charlie P.

I bet if you took a poll the shortest lived model is our second airplanes. That's when you start to think you know what's up and before you learn how down usually wins in ties.

That's the whole point of a Stik. They fly great and they're easy to build . . . and rebuild . . . and rebuild.

Mine rekitted on a mid-air, and even then it tried despirately to live. Another plane clipped me coming up and took off my wing. When the aileron leads ripped out they yanked the receiver enough that I lost the throttle. The fuselage went in at 90% throttle like a lawn dart from about 300 feet. Died with it's boots on.

The U.S. OS folks were impressed enough with the box of fragmented engine castings that they sold me a new OS 70II at their cost. Not often you see a shattered carbureator barrel on a REAR carb engine.

So now HardKnock University has taught you to preflight carefully, never trust an EZ connector and the homework assignment is fuselage repair. We've all been in that class and most of us have repeated. ;-) Best of luck with the repeir and return for the next round.

chashint

Not to bad for a first attempt ..... but all in all I agree with MinnFlyer if you call that a crash you need more practice.

opjose

Yup, a couple of hours work ( most spent waiting for the Epoxy to dry ) and it will be good as new!

The breaks occured in relatively easy to fix areas, and easy to recover areas.

Take advantage of this seeming disaster to get yourself a tub of the appropriate covering colors, a sealing iron, and maybe even a heat gun.

remove a bit more of the existing covering, repair the damage, sand the repaired area down until it is smooth, clean it, apply a little hairspray ( AquaNet ), then put on a covering patch.

Make it regularly shaped ( e.g. square ).

I've often accented the presence of a patch by putting black trim tape at the edges.

This makes it seem as if the repaired area was part of the original design, w/o much work.

You selected the right plane for this. That fuselage is very easy to repair.

blhollo2

My Feedback: (278)

crashing is also a part of Flying R/C Everyone has either crashed or going to crash so relax and enjoy it, you can definatly fix that! you'll also learn how to fix airplanes and ect, hang in there and have a merry xmas!

poolittlecairns

i am sickened

dash008

My Feedback: (1)

It's ok... It's all better now .

jrcaster

One note here, yes use locktite on the threads of the screw.  Before you use the set screw, check to make sure the bottom is cupped.  This will help to cut into the control rod.  Then add locktite to the screw while you have it out.  Tighten the set screw, loosen it, and tighten it again.  This will help to really set the screw into the rod. 

I learned this technique working for Bunton Mower.  They don't use locktite on the pulleys but use the double tighten technique to cut deeper into the shaft.  Their set screws have a tooth to them so they don't release too easy. 

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

These are called
Dog point set screws

F4U Corsair

My Feedback: (22)

On my Stik, I added a few pieces of 1/4" square poplar in the corners of the wing bolt mount to beef them up a bit. That is a known weak point in the ARF. I also pinned the firewall with 1/8" hardwood dowels on the sides and bottom. You should have it flying in a few hours if you get to work on it.