well.... today was eventfull, was flying a friends Epicure II pattern plane. Was a sweet bird... doing all the normal stuff.. having a blast. so i found that you could do perfect squares (box`s ) in the air was neat as hell!.. up...over..down.... i was just about to try them outside (like an outside loop) instead of inside. .. then IT happened.... left wing broke off in the middle in mid air!....and i was waaay up there!.. i tried all i could do... but as we all know .....it was futile.....it augered in like a yard dart..

i dont fly much pattern,,,, but i guess you cant do them box manuevers at full throttle.....a sad ending.. it rained a few days before pretty hard so ground was wet....took us 10 minutes of digging to get motor out!... pulling on header pipe. was like yanking on an oak tree root. was not budging. had to use wing tube that was there to dig it out.

your friend kill you yet? too bad, that was a nice looking plane

was the engine and radio damaged? (aside from a good hard cleaning) cant say ive ever gotten this pattern thing.

well.... have not got that far yet...plane was not cheap though. was 4 or 5 years old.. but....was just about perfect.

once we check it out....ill post details...
was damnest thing i ever seen in the dirt... never thought id need to dig to get a YS 140 out of a hole

oh.. and he was ok with it.... so far.. heh

yea man....nice plane, or should I say was a nice plane. Did you pay your friend back? I bet the crankshaft is all bent up.

No need to pay his friend for the plane. Unless they 1. have a understanding that if each other crashes each others plane they pay or 2. he took the plane up without asking.

Too bad about the plane. Looks like an ARF? The engine and radio are the things you want to make sure are ok. But I can bet that engine isn't going to run the same again eheh. Who knows though.

Thanks for the pics. I really like the turnip you dug out of the ground, er the engine That's...in there...somewhere? I assume? hehe.

S

Yea well I'm not a plane guy...I spend my time on the ground and I'm just saying what I would do if my friend totalled my truck. Anyways I'm thinking about getting in to nitro planes. I know all about the engines and how they work because I'v been a nitro expert for 2 years so I know my stuff. So does anyone think I should get into planes?

Sincraft,

good words........ he is a friend of mine.. and we are ok... sucks ..i agree. i make it up to him... he never asked me to pay...we all know what happens. or what can.. happen.....

and no.. it was not..... an ARF it was a custom built plane.. all painted....whole nine yards..YS, retracts... all high dollar servo`s... PCM reciever ect ect.....

pattern planes fly like nothing else... smooth as hell.. i just thought .since they can go so fast....(and it was fast) . that they could take some g-force`s... i guess i was to hard on it....... being under 11lbs.... i guess you need to shave the weight some where...( and i think i know where now)...

Elmer: as long as the shaving isn't done via the ground. :0 But yes, well all know what can happen. Even a newb such as myself knows. I know when I takeoff I might not bring her back. And I also know that when I fly my bros plane and vice versa, as long as they don't take stupid risks that they wouldnt do with their own plane..then if something happens..it happens. It kinda reminds me of being younger and driving my parents car. Something ALWAYS happened to it when I drove it, and I didn't drive like a jerk either. But they understood. It's all part of the game. At least you got some great pics out of the deal. Sorry to hear it wasn't ARF. Kit planes just don't deserve (sniff) to crash...!!


Candian:
Yes definetely. Anything on the ground is just a toy. Well, until I recently saw the prices of some of these things. GEESH. I just don't see the appeal really though....except for the fact that you can enjoy this in pretty much all weather.
However let me warn you of something RIGHT NOW. Whereas you might actually enjoy a truck in the mud, snow, rain etc. YOU CANT in a plane...well most of the time HA. Just remember, you are a slave to the weather and the rain with planes.
I think you will enjoy it however. I think there is probably more enjoyment with a ground toy, as in fun and things you can do and when. But flying a plane will give more of a RUSH. Wait till your first TRUE solo, as in no one else around to help you if you get into trouble or to shove the controller into their stomache and say HERE FLY. I did this year after only solo'n a few times prior (with a friend nearby). WHAT a rush. After several hours later, I still get a rush on the first takeoff and landing of the day. Good times, what do you have to lose other than a few hundred bucks and a few tears.

Good luck in whatever you choose to do!

S

thanks alot Sincraft. And about driving an R/C truck in rain and snow....not likly...I would fry my electronics but I water proofed everything so now I'm waiting for the snow. Anyways I already have 2 nitro cars/trucks. I am saving up my pennies to get the HPI Savage 25 but then I thought about planes. I like to race my cars with my dad but he always liked planes and was always looking at them so I thought why not save up my money and get a plane for us? The whole reason I wanted to get into R/C was to have a hobby with my dad and spend more time with him. I know he loves the truck but he always had something for planes. I would probably get a RTF kit...you know any good ones?

Just be sure to join a club and get an instructor. You may know trucks, and that will help some, but planes are different.
Dennis-

dont take this a rude, but this just goes to back my adversion to foam wings. granet some say they are stronger, i still beliebe that i could build a stronger lighter ing with balsa ns kevlar (less brital than carbon)

atleast he hasent crashed a plane into your house yet, thats a pluss.

i can honestly say i have never seen a plane like that before, (i dont do patern though)
looks nice, can some one explain what pattern is?

I am curious what part of the structure you will use the kevlar on? As you know, Kevlar has very good tensile strength and stiffness... but in compression, it is butter! "E" fiberglass has roughly 2 times the allowable compression strength of Kevlar... "S" glass is even better...
"(less brital than carbon) "... that is an interesting statement... lets think about that.... if you consider any given load condition on a model plane, there is usually a compression load present that is nearly of the same magnatude as any given tensile load at any given moment. (Say... compression on the top spar cap and tension on the bottom spar cap) Rarely under these conditions is it the tensile member that fails... nearly always it will be due to compression, shear or failure due to buckling. (Instability of the structure)
Now "Brittle" is typically a remark that means "Breaks under conditions of small deflections".... so... we take the kevlar solution you propose... less brittle... ie... less stiff... ie.. more prone to buckling! also... it is the "Stiffness" of the resin system that permints a shear or compression failure... not the fiber. In nearly all air load cases, a less stiff (ie. non-brittle) structure is MORE prone to failure. A spar that is permitted to be more flexible will in fact induce upon itself more stress... particularly a stress that attempts to "Squish" the spar caps towards each other. Using a material that has exactly the same strength (ie. identical maximum psi at rupture) but "STIFFER" will reduce the stresses within the structure.
so basically...

Kevlar = bad
Carbon = good!

Foam vs Builtup?... The foam basically replaces ribs. If the foam is relied upon for more functionality then this, then the builder/designer is asking for trouble. I know millions of foam wings with 1/16" balsa sheeting and 4" of fibreglass in the middle have flown succesfully for decades!!! But this is a structure that is hardly optimized. Building a discreet spar, and reducing the sheeting thickness, honeycombing the foam, false cap strips are simple methods to end up with a wing that is lighter for the same flight envelope requirement. (Years ago someone argued that foam attenuated the noise...but I never saw any real testing) One advantage to foam core is that the average schmoe builder can build a very straight wing even with taper and changing sections.... easily!! This can be done with the more tradtional built-up with ribs etc, but harder to get there....

There are examples where Fiber glass can be a solution better than carbon... but usually these are situations where large amounts of energy must be absorbed, and accelerations must be minimized... like a landing gear strut... carbon will produce a stronger strut at the same weight... but it will be stiffer, and will subject the airframe and its contents to higher accelerations at any given landing descent rate.

(Aramid does make better body armour then carbon too...but thats about it)

drive carefully