Learning the hard way...e.
 

Hi everyone,

I solo'd a few weeks ago and have since been thinking of nothing else but getting back up in the air.
Sunday I flew my new domino trainer and on the last flight of the day I dipped a wing on landing and she hit the ground.
My confidence was shaken but the damage was minimal and after some minor repairs she was ready to go.
Today was the perfect day for flying, very little wind, nice and cool and the sun behind a bank of cloud.
I took of and gently banked into a turn. After completing one circuit of the field disaster struck.
The aircraft was in level flight, 3/4 throttle, nice and steady when suddenly she pushed her nose down and spiraled into the ground. The plane would not respond to my radio at all and after a second of sheer terror there was nothing left but wood chips. My engine was buried in the grass and the battery and fuel tank ended up about 20 yards from the wreckage
Neither I nor my instructor could find a reason for the crash. We were flying on a farm and there were no other rc operators within miles of us. I am a beginner but I know when I make a mistake and this was not pilot error.
We tested my radio setup after the crash and it all works fine.
The only thing that I can think of is that my battery was low on power... I forgot to charge it fully last night. I will NEVER make that mistake again.
Well, I guess my Stik is going to fly sooner than I had hoped.

Ray

RE: Learning the hard way...e.
 

Much to my wife's dismay, I consider every crash to be a shopping opportunity. For the sake of our marraige, however, I try to keep such events to a minimum. :)

RE: Learning the hard way...e.
 

It certainly could have been a low battery. If you don't have one already, buy a battery tester. I use mine to check the battery before the first flight of the day and then check it again before the third or fourth and subsequent flights. Once the voltage gets close to marginal, that plane gets charged or put away for the day.

RE: Learning the hard way...e.
 

What battery tester do you use Chuck?

RE: Learning the hard way...e.
 

it could be the battery or the connections or the crystal.
I lost a model like that, but when I got all the piece back to the
work bench, everything was working fine, until I wiggled the battery's wires.
The battery's wire inside the heatshrink wrap got damage from a previouse crash.

I lost another model after I transfered the RX to it. Moslty likely a crack crystal.
Everything tested out good on the ground, but after I got in the air, no single.

of course most of the guy said ...pilot error.lol...I'm not that slow.
maybe they're right, since the pilot and the builder is the same person
It's nice to have a fleet, thou :)

RE: Learning the hard way...e.
 

Unfortunate for sure. Condolences on your loss. But these things happen and we learn.



When the pilot is the one charging the batteries they were correct. ;) I suspect a LOT more crashes occur due to low Rx battery than all the true "hits" and component failure combined.

Aileron flutter is another one that goes undiagnosed and hot melt ARF glue is blamed. Not in this case - usally those stories start out "my wing just collapsed all on it's own!"

RE: Learning the hard way...e.
 

Don't let it shake you, I still make mistakes, a lot of them. At least at this point when you have minor scrape it doesn't cost you $2K or more like when I have a booboo, and ain't it always the last flight of the day. Even when you come to the field with 3 40%ers, but I was alwayse told to get right back on the horse, so I try to fly again as soon as I can.

RE: Learning the hard way...e.
 

Thanks for the replies,

yes am getting back on the horse - with a shiny new Avistar and a OS .46 motor. (I spotted the shopping opportunity and my wife is NOT happy but she will forgive me eventually!)
I will get a battery tester ASAP and as I was the one supposed to charge the batteries I have chalked this up to pilot error.
Should have the Avistar built next week and will take her up on the weekend, in the meantime I am going to spend some time on my G3 flight sim.
It is not easy getting the models you want here in South Africa. I was hoping to buy a H9 alpha trainer but could not get one anywhere. Have any of you had experience with the Avistar? Is it a good plane? I ordered it unseen as it was the only trainer I could get at short notice other than the direct import Chinese models and I wont go that route again (no instruction, poor quality hardware and covering that peels off before you even get it in the air).