Ouch! That hurt!
 

[:@]Well, it finally happen. I went flying this morning. It was a cold morning. 39 degrees when i got up. Burrrrr......... For some reason it took me longer to get ready and leave for the field. My boy wasn't with me this morning because he stayed overnight at a friends house. He usually stays up very late playing video games when he spends the night there. I had good info that his friend had just gotten the new Halo 3 game. He would be up really late. I didn't even bother trying to wake him too come with me. When i got out of the truck at the field i felt a gentle icy cold wind across my face. It dug deep to my bones. I unloaded the plane but the cold just shut me down like a moth on a window sill in the morning. I sat a chair in the sun and just soaked it in for about 45 minutes. I was warmed back up and moving around. A few planes had gone up and i decided it was my turn. I crank her up and the fellow next to me carried the plane to the taxi area. I taxi out to the end of the runway, turned around and floored the throttle. She rolled straight down the runway and lifted off as i expected, no problems. I should have taken off from the other end of the runway as the winds had been blowing from the east, instead of from the west like it usually does, but it was only a slight tailwind. I didn't even notice a difference. I climbed out and started to fly the circuit to get used to it. I kept flying in large oval patterns and could not get the feel of the plane. It seemed off but i not could figure out just what it was. I decided it was time to come in after about ten minutes of circling and still not shaking the bad feeling i had. I pull back the throttle on downwind. Turn on base alittle to soon. Final was off too. I should had made a go-around but for some reason i didn't. I just wanted to get the plane down. Over the threshold i was near the south edge of the runway and coming in at an angle instead of straight down the runway. I slowed too much. The ailerons seemed to be very sluggish and it would not bank to the left to line up with the runway. Maybe it was the slight tailwind, maybe it was just me. It landed then rolled off the runway going towards the barriers. I switch to the rudder side in my brain to turn it back to the runway. It turned sharply as it went off the dirt onto a taxiway. When it hit the dirt on the other side of the taxiway it dipped down hard digging the spinner into the dirt and cartwheeled. First it hit the right wing tip then flipped up tail side down in the dirt. The left wing tip hit then it settled down to a stop on its gear. This all happened within 5 feet of me. I yelled "LANDING" and went out and picked up my plane and pride. There is always a very quite moment after something like that and this time it was my turn. I guess the morale of the story is if it don't feel right stay on the ground till it does.

here's a few pics of the damage.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1644.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1641.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1639.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1638.jpg

It isn't too bad and i am hoping to have it fixed tomorrow so i can fly it on monday since i have that day off. I'll post picks of the repair if i can. Wish me luck!

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

39 degrees would have kept me at home by it's self. Assuming you are refering to 39 degrees Farenheit. Albeit the lesson you learned is one all modelers seem to have to learn on their own. That compulsion to fly it at all costs at some point disapates when you find out the cost. Best of luck with the repairs.

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

its part of the learning curve, its a small price to pay in your case,mine was a full fuse rebuild of my trainer,blowing a landing can be disasterous yours doesn't look bad at all.
then there's building your own models another aspect of the hobby that has its own rewards .

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Sorry to see that, you should be back in the air in no time, Good luck with the rebuild

Austin

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Replacing the covering will take longer than fixing the broken balsa. You'll be back in the air in no time.
Good Luck.

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Any damage hurts.

But you mentioned "tailwind" in the same breath as "approach". Not a good combination.

And it was probably the reason for the damage.

Airplanes are SO much easier to land upwind. And it's SO much safer.

Hard lesson...........

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Listen to that little voice when it says, " go around ". I`ve yet to see any damage caused by a go around. Seen plenty when pilots, including myself, tried to force a landing off of a bad approach.

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Skeeter, Are you going to have to basically rebuild the entire tail of the plane? I'm just waiting for mine. Thanks for the advice.

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Yes 39 degrees farenheit, Burr..........

I got lucky not much damage. The plane is built tough. This was a kit i built about 20 years ago and refurbished it to start flying again. Back in those days there was no such thing as an ARF.

I stripped off the covering on the tail end and epoxed the tail back on. I spread the epoxy out over the wood area to help give it some reinforcing. Tomorrow i will use some microballons and epoxy and form a fillet on the underside where the horizontal stab attaches to the fuse. That will give it more surface area contact and reinforcment. i'll recover the aft portion. I'll post some pics tomorrow, hopefully.

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Here's a few pics of the tail removed. A simple epoxy job and recover should do it.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1651.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1654.jpg

These are of the tail reattached to the fuse. I epoxy it back on as mention above, waited a day then used the microballons mixed with epoxy to make the fillet. Maybe tomorrow i'll slightly sand and recover the exposed parts.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1657.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1659.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1661.jpg

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Skeeter,
Lazy or not responding flying surfaces (ailrons in your case) is the indication of stall, basically plane stops flying and I strongly believe tailwheel landing contributed to that effect.
Great job on rebuilding the plane also I would suggest gluing some tri-stock balsa or strip of fiberglass with epoxy on all those repaired joints for strength. just my $.02

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

Well it's done! Perhaps it will be back in the air tomorrow if i can sneak out before the wifey wakes up. At a distance you can't even tell it was damaged. Upclose only thing visible is some monokote patching. Had to add a slight amount of nose weight to bring it back into a prefect balance. I'm looking for some small pics of crashed planes so i can add them to the nose for how many times it has been crashed. lol.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...a/DCP_1687.jpg

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

39 degrees isnt to bad, now 10 below with a 25mph wind, thats cold:D!

Stick40:eek:

RE: Ouch! That hurt!
 

I strongly disagree sir..

You see if its 39 degrees, and fairly calm, Im going flying, (and freezing) if I can. But at 10 below, especially with 25mph wind I'm going to be nice and cozy in the house flying my simulator :D:D