hilleyja

My Feedback: (3)

Slow Poke -w- OS FX .46

Takeoff was uneventfull and the airplane seemed to have plenty of lift. As soon as I made a left-hand turn out after takeoff she literally dropped out of the sky from a hard stall.

Tequila Sunrise (25-size)

Plane flew great until the engine dead stick -- dropped like a rock into a tree. This happened June 2002 -- the plane is still in the tree Feb 2003.

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

The Wacky Waco, what a POS that was!!!! Never could hold it in level flight, you want to go right it up, want down it went left!!! I swear the plane had an evil spirut in it and no matter what you did to try and correct the problems it still flew like it was possessed!!!

hattend

My Feedback: (20)

Dittos

Don

FalconWings10

My Feedback: (4)

Great Planes, F-15 with OS .46 SF. Wouldn't turn at low speeds without a great deal of rudder. Didn't roll at all and lost it on a dead stick. Glided like a rock.

FormerCA.

My Feedback: (8)

A FOAM cub (wings/fuse, and tail) that was grossly underpowered-a buddy of mine handed it to me after takeoff and that thing ate my LUNCH!

Combination of tail heavy, 4-stroke (cat pee) fuel in a 25 two stroker, and trim all out of whack.

Did it crash-YOU BET!!!

Airshark

My Feedback: (2)

ROFLMAO!!!! Man these are some good stories....lol.... keep em comming....

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

worst flying...
i took a trainer up on a test flight, the wing must have been off center because it took full trim, plus full left rudder and aileron to hold level, to turn right i let off the rudder stick some and let it go round, full left again would level her up, i flew two circuits like this with the owner telling me it looked great a almost perfect landing followed but hell, what a flight.

my Moondancer, it flew, thats as much as i'll give it, it was so dull

flying with dammage...
i lost my tail in a glider tow on a FunFly, after the glider ripped away with my tail i was spinning down and it bunted, if it can bunt it can fly, i throttled back and turned inverted, it sat nose high and stable, it flew well actully, i brought it back over the patch and lowered the throttle and cut it just beofre it touched. i got a round of appalause as this was at our display!

at a show i was the flyer on the buddy lead, the girl was being instructed by another flyer, when she rolled i left it go as it was high and ok, suddenly the wing snapped and it started to spiral in, thinking it was lost i gave control for a flat spin to lessen the dammage, this pulled it out of the spiral and into a shallow dive, i gently pulled up and recovered, it took alot of aileron and rudder to hold straight and i kept it just above stall to keep from over stressing the bent wing, comming in almost sideways it was a bumpy landing but a good one, the wing has been repaired and the club trainer returned to active servce

mulligan

Not exactly the result of a bad design, but someone brought an old sport Mustang (emphasis on "sport") that had obviously been flown a lot. He bought it and needed someone to test it out, trim it, etc.

Well, I did my usual pre-flight checks, but I missed a loose rudder linkage. Did ok for a couple of minutes, did a touch and go, then... pop, plane starts turning left, HARD. I feed ailerons, but the plane is still drifting over the pits towards the state highway. In these few seconds, I figured it was a rudder problem, so I gave left aileron and elevator to snap it into a dive. As I pulled out, I fed FULL right rudder on the stick and it still drifted left. Luckily, I was able to control it enough to land while holding full right rudder and maneuvering my right stick in the right half area.

Make sure to check those linkages!

- George

visioneer_one

My Feedback: (506)

One of my flying mates had one of the GSP 55" P-47 ARFs with an Irvine .61. OMG where do I begin with this one.

• huge join seam in the FG fuselage along the bottom
• unfinished white ABS plastic aileron servo covers which attach to the wing using machinescrews into the balsa sheeting. (no hardpoints)
• cheapo metric hardware
• "music wire" that snaps if yuo try to bend it
• landing gear mounts are epoxied into the foam wing. Again, no hard points.
• landing gear is set too far back... the plane noses over very easily. Bending the wire gear forward helps a bit here.
• paint on the FG cowl cracks and flakes off if you look at it too hard
• stalls deep and will spin if you let the speed get too low
• supplied tailwheel = junk, throw it away before it breaks your rudder off
• covering is thin, Econokote-like stuff and melts easily
• If you need parts you have to purchase a whole new kit. We don't stock parts for these. <-- direct quote from GSP

I could go on, but I won't

last time I flew it for him I (stupidly!) decided to try a touch-and-go. This thing lands at a healthy clip, but it was windy that day, so I thought I'd be OK. WRONG Touched down at speed near the 2/3 point of the field, and thought "not enough clearance to take off again, just let it coast to a stop" "damn! this thing isn't going to stop before it hits the fence - take off now" Threw in full power, the tail came up, the nose dipped and slewed left, the prop tips hit the ground repeatedly... then I horsed the thing off the ground on nothing but engine power... turned *hard left* and missed the fence (barely)... went between a backhoe and a tree... lost more lift 'cause I was now going downwind... pointed the nose down to gain some airspeed and hopped off the gear twice... all the while rocking the wings like mad as it was completely stalled. Finally gained enough airspeed to get out of the stall, and landed normally.

I swear the only way I saved that one was through body english and 'heroic' language

Airshark

My Feedback: (2)

LMAO!!! Good one visioneer!!! Love the backhoe manuver!!!lol!!

ZB50

marks models fun scale p51.

ZB

planecrazy101

One more for Flightcraft. It was the high wing model. Cessna? I actually had a friend who was going to teach me to fly tell me that it knifedged the best of any plane he'd flown. He could just stand still and fly it in circles around him. Of course I HAD to buy it. The two times i had it in the air, the fun was trying to keep it in the air. OH WELL

Wyohi

My Feedback: (1)

HONKER BIPE DESIGNED & SOLD By Dave Thornburg of glider, buzzards book, ect fame
This was a smal bipe with undercanbered balsa wings . Had a 25 on it & evertime you changed speed you had a whole different plane. idle it & slam the throttle full bore & it would a undescrible snap front ot back flip or something. the only thing it would do right is land at slow speed it would just settle in real nice.

redrocker

The old version of the Top Flite 60 size Corsair. About 14 years ago built one, put an OS 91 4 stroke on it. Plane was meticulously balanced, no wing warp, etc. But what a snap roll special. Snaps usually occurred about ten feet off the ground as I was trying to land it. Always dropped the right wing and tumbled down the field. I would repair it, add some weight to the left wing tip, and try again. Same result. After several cycles like this I was getting so uptight when I flew it that I had to get rid of it. Sold it to a buddy at the flying field, who was well familiar with what it did. He just liked scale planes, mostly to look at.

CorsairJock

My Feedback: (90)

Back in the early eighties, Kyosho had an ARF Ultralight, that I think they called the Wingmaster. Instructions called for a .10 2 cycle, so I installed the trusty OS .10, and used all micro radio gear. It was too awkward to hand launch, so I decided to take off from the ground. Attemps from grass were completely unsuccessful, so I opted for a paved area about 150 ft long. After several unsuccessful attempts, I finally manged to get it airborn by pulling full up elevator at the end of the runway. It promptly snapped left, doing enough damage to make me decide to give up on it. In retrospect, Kyosho should have recommend a larger engine for this, but I feel the wing was not a good design either: solid foam with very thin airfoil, as if it was designed for speed. Not good for an Ultralight.
The Great Planes .40 size Zero ARF is another bad desgn, as I feel ALL of the early Great Planes ARFs are (the foamboard covered ones). Very heavy for their size (and difficult to balance), mismatched colors, covering/ finish was easily dinged up and difficult to repair. Even with an 18 oz YS .53 up front, I had to add nose weight (brass prop nut).
Also, the Davey Systems electric FlyBaby, yet another overweight and draggy one as designed.
About the Top Flight 'red box' Corsairs, some feel that these are better flyers than the Gold edition ones, because they build lighter. I will find out some time this summer, and I have Gold Edition to compare it to (see gallery).

Wallrat

Sportsman Aviation ME-109. Only had one "flight" on it so far but on takeoff the tailwheel fell off. Then after reattaching the tailwheel I took it down the runway and proceeded to take off. It was a snap roll, stalled, inverted nightmare. Plane never got higher than ten feet and only flew about 50 yards. Came towards the ground hard and fast, wings perpendicular to the ground. By some freak accident, the wings righted at the last moment and it landed almost perfectly (I even have this on video)! Upon investigation the battery mount had popped off and the battery was bouncing all around inside the fuselage. Hopefully it'll fly better next time I go out.

FormerCA.

My Feedback: (8)

There was another (almost crash)-this other guy that was a guest at our field wanted me to see if I could trim his plane out and handed me the transmitter. It never would trim out correctly so I elected to bring it down and check things out-HE ONLY HAD 2 RUBBER BANDS HOLDING THE WING ON!!!!!

New policy-I dont take over for anyone in flight anymore!!!

CHassan

My Feedback: (13)

That was one of the better planes I flew.

Midwest Giles 202, was the worst for me. Built to heavy, with a heavy engine, lots of snap and no glide. Still liked to fly it just because it was realy big for me.

grs34

My Feedback: (48)

Hey Wallrat,
Can you put that video on here? We'd love to see it!

Stargazer

My Feedback: (3)

My vote goes to the GP super decathalon - ground loopin fool!!!

Gastronom-RCU

My Feedback: (5)

I am still working on this one, posted about it, also same words, flys like a concrete glider. Plan on puttiong a .61 on it when my power comes back up.. I hate KY in the winter..!!

OnTheEdge

Ditto, worst plane I ever built. Incorrect instructions, poor fit of parts, and it snapped into the ground on my first flight when the motor flamed out.


Interesting story.......A guy from our field and his son went to the Sussex County Air Show a few years ago (same summer the Raven crashed) and Wayne Handley was there. They actually got to talk to Wayne after his performance and they mentioned my plane and its fate. Wayne said he heard some other comments about this and said the kit that Global designed did not have the correct scale down dimensions and that the kit ended up being about 3/4" shorter than it should have been and this would cause the plane to snap. Kinda makes sense. A short coupled plane can be more unstable. I've since rebuilt it but never recovered it. Maybe some day.

.............Mark

LORD_RC

My Feedback: (1)

I got two... great planes 40 decathlon and a lanier 10 size stinger!

phuffstatler

My Feedback: (20)

These tales are all having some very common threads....

Too heavy...

Simple explanations there. Bad designs, over built, over powered, etc.

Too crooked... On ARF's, it is 'usually' the manufactuer (not always!), everything else, is up to the builder to get it right. I've certainly built my share of crooked planes... some flew ok, some didn't...

Folks getting the scale planes too slow... (flame-outs, etc.)

On getting the planes too slow, I think folks get used to trainers and sport flyers with thick wings and light loadings, and when they get into heavier scale planes, some of the those planes can get really tricky. Part of the scale experience. Some of them do better than others... Some go back to the Too heavy syndrome...
Still others suffer from the chosen airfoil. Some wings will stop flying abruptly, and drop a wing tip, (many aerobatic planes, like the Cap) some will gradually stall, like trainers and sport planes... some won't stall at all, just mush along while slowly coming down...

Some folks need to learn to use the rudder... (ground loops)

On the ground loops, it is common for some scale planes to be difficult on the ground. The Decathalon is one of those. Looks super easy, but it's not.... landing gear location plays a big part, plus toe-in (if any), rudder authority, pilot experience, CG, available power, thrust angles, etc...

There's probably many more valid reasons why these planes keep showing up on the junk list... These are just a few I've seen/done...

phil in austin

Mike Bogh

My Feedback: (14)

Hideho all,
I tell you, I still have trouble pointing the nose down...I do it all the time, but my natural reaction is down= bad...up = good...again, it's not a prob for me but it was years ago....oooooh, what do you mean point the nose down?...hehehehe, we all had to go through it.