Hello everyone, my name is Marco, I'm 24 years old and I'm new to the RC world. This past weekend was my first flight with my instructor and everything was going great. After a successful first flight we took a break and just went over some minor details about what to be aware of while in the air. We fuelled up the plane for another go and everything was fine until BANG! Another plane collided with us in mid air. My instructor quickly took over control of the plane and tried to save what he could but he had no control over the ailerons. The plane did a nose dive straight into the ground. I ran over to the plane to recover it and everything was surprisingly in one piece. It landed in a really muddy area which i guess cushioned the impact. The wing needs some work and i think one of the servos was badly damaged but other then that everything was okay. The instructor told me after that they have never had an in air collision at their club until that day. They told me they should have the planes repaired by next weekend so hopefully i will be back up in the air in no time.

Sorry to hear about your incident but don't get discouraged. I had the same thing happen to me. I was still in the learning phase with a trainer that I got used from one of the club members and one of the instructors was with me.The other pilot was flying his plane all over the place and was not paying close enough attention when he flew through the left wing of my plane. It cut the left side of my wing off and my plane went down in a ditch that was covered with thick brush. His plane hit the railroad tracks and scattered all over the place. I don't think he ever found all of the pieces. I had to come back the next day to find mine as we spent hours looking for it. The club president at the time was also the owner of the local hobby shop and saw the midair happen. He gave me a great deal on a new plane and I was in the air in no time. I didn't get discouraged I just kept it up and not too long after I soloed and what a great feeling. That happened over 10 years ago and I'm into the hobby now then ever before. I have nine planes that are flyable, one that needs an engine and a couple of others that just need to be finished. I also had a midair with my Sig Rascal. I just finished up repairs from a previous crash when the battery slid all the way forward and I couldn't pull out of the dive. Right after I got it fixed I took it out to fly it and there was another guy flying his Hobbyzone Firebird. I guess he thought it would be cool to see how close he could get or his depth perception was lacking because he my plane in the left wing, shearing off my wing bolt. After the fuselage hit I had to wait and watch the wing flutter back down. I fixed it and I still fly it today however I just don't do any aerobatics with it because it's too weak. Sorry for rambling on.

Wow, I would never guess a HZ Firebird would do more than tear some monocoat if it collided with a 40 sized glow plane.

<div>Just as wind and other conditions are important to pay attention to, who is flying and what other planes are in the air is equally as important. If there are some hot dogs flying, I will wait until it is calm. Better safe then sorry.</div><div></div><div>TB</div>

I almost cut one in two yesterday.. Another plane was hovering in the middle of the runway. Didn't see him until it was almost to late. Glad I was on high rate ailerons.

Mid airs happen. At my local club we reduce its occurance by one simple rule: trainees fly far. In other words, if you are a trainee, you fly further up and further away. Another way is everyone flies anti-clockwise (wind direction is left to right). You do whatever aerobatics you want into the wind and fly circuit the other way, so if you mess up in the aeribatic move you dont hurt anyone. If you are experienced enough to fly closer and do more aerobatics, you give each other ample space and fly the maneuver, fly out of the box and let someone else try. And if the hot-shots or jets take to the air, everyone either keeps their distance or lands.

Inspite of all this, we have had mid-airs, on one day we had three followed by two hairy-scary landings from people including me who got disturbed by the mid-airs. In fact I landed too close and then caught the plane while it was doing a good land speed with the left wing and turned it around thrice before it stopped (throttle cut did not work). Needless to say after that everyone landed, packed up and left for the day.

We also had a few bird hits on a few other days

Ameyam

Hey Stang, I wish it was the 40 size Rascal however it was the electric arf version with the turd-like brushed motor with gearbox setup using a nicad pack. Now it's brushless and lipo so now I have to be super careful so I dont fold the wing. The fuselage looks a little crooked and beat up but considering the thing has been in the ground twice it still flies nice.

A couple of things come to mind ...

Our club holds a Thursday evening (4 PM 'til dusk) training session. No other flying is permitted. We also (try to) limit flying patterns to "race track". This eliminates the newbies flying with the "hot dogs". The planes are by and large trainers that are fairly slow floaters. The likelihood of mid-airs is reduced significantly.

When training on other days (especially the weekend - our club has over 300 active members) the other fliers are pretty respectful about coming out on the line when a trainee (identified by the buddy box) is in the air.

When I come to the flight line I will watch the other pilot(s) I will announce where I will fly. If they are doing in close patterns &amp; 3D stuff I will fly up and out. If they are maidening / trimming their plane (usually high and in a race track mode) I will announce and fly down and out or down and in. Not something that our club recommends - just seems proper to communicate on the flight line.

Marxoverkill - good luck in your training! Have fun and go to the field with a goal in mind. Boring holes in the sky is cool 'n all but you need skills to keep these wonderful toys in one piece.

Just sign me "decommissioned too many planes:

300 members in your club? That's huge! I think my club has under 20 paid members, and two of those are me and my son. Very rarely do we even have competition for airtime!

Though mid-air colllisions happen, keep your chin up and your transmitter in-hand. You'll be flying high on your solo in no time.

If you tried to hit each you couldn't do it.....what a bunch of bad luck.....sorry to hear of your crash

Thats why I don't like hovering. That hogs the field[]

Why not just wait till they are done? Shouldn't take more than 10 minutes and then everyone gets to enjoy their day

Wow, mid-air on the first day out. Thats impressive. I've been flying for more years than I care to admit and only had 2, one was flying combat so that really doesn't count.

I flew for 5 years and never even saw a mid-air. Then I had one, which annihilated my Laser Models Laser 3D. Then, the next week, I had another mid-air with the same other pilot, which killed my Burrito. That was about 5 years ago. So I guess I am due for another two.

And yes, if you tried to hit another airplane in flight you would not be able to!

Thats exactly what my instructor and some of the other guys at the field were saying. They said that they have actually tried to collide planes together and it was extremely difficult. At least it wasn't my fault. I would of felt really bad if the plane went down due to my poor flying skills.

Even the best pilots have mid airs. Unfortunately our depth perception really isn't as good as we might think it is when we are on the ground and our birdies up in the air.

We have about 65 members in our club. Often, on weekends, the pattern folks sort of take over, which intimidates everyone that is not flying pattern. We hate to go up and fly when one of them is doing their sequences for fear of interfering with them, knowing that they are practicing for competition. They are a good bunch of guys, and usually don't fly when someone is "sport" flying. But, when they get up to the flight line, well, everyone lands and gets out of the way. Even so, they usually fly up and away, but most of us watch and fly after they land. I practiced pattern for quite some time, but never competed. It does make you a better pilot. But, it just isn't my cup of tea.

Then comes the 3D'ers. When they fly, no one flys because we never really know where they are going to be because they are not in the pattern. We lost one a couple of years ago because someone was hovering and sort of lost it, recovered, but flew into the path of another plane that was in the pattern just up doing orbits.

We are fortunate to have two fields. One is a full-scale grass runway that the Forestry Service lets us use. The other one is smaller area that was a baseball field that the County abandoned. The County lets us use it, and it gets used, primarilly for Helicopters.

So, for the most part, we manage to keep out of each others way, so we rarely have a mid-air.

CGr.

As much as I like hanging around the field checking out everyone's planes and being social, I prefer to fly alone and having the whole sky tomyself.To me it's much safer and less stressful. That's me though.

When I practice hovering, I do it at one end of the field that does not lie in the pattern area. Also, I do so at good height, so should the engine quit, I can trade height for airspeed and land. Finally I never go up if more than 5 airplanes are aloft. And I leave close-in hovering to the pros on Sundays when there is a crowd. That makes a bit of 3D some-what safe for our field

Ameyam

Please don't feel that the mid-air is in any way your fault due to a lack of skill....we were all beginners once..
There are un written rules in RC aviation.....a student under instruction with an instructor can't cause a crash....usually
The more experienced pilot should yield to the student.....

I am not trying to assign blame...I just don't want you to feel this is all you...it isn't...like I said...if you tried to hit each other you probably couldn't

thats how I am too,,we have 2 fields and about 100 members and I hardly ever see more than 5 people on any day....Rog

Our club has solved such events. You (or your spotter) yell "Landing!" when multiple fliers are in the air to claim the runway and hovering is forbidden over the runway if more than one plane is up. Simple.

Em, 12 gauge pump shotgun if they don't listen ...

Just kidding ...

Flying over the runway is forbidden (yea, right) unless it's a special event. Our club rules strongly advise that all fly byes, slow approaches over the runway, landings, touch-n-goes are announced and acknowledged by all pilots on the flight line (raising of radios or verbal). Only announcement that trumps everything else is "DEAD STICK!".

That sounds good Charlie