superflea

none of the full scale B52s i ever worked on had ailerons and i worked on B52Hs at minot AFB you know the H model the most current model out there.

but if they were smart about it i would hope that these people would have deviated from pure scale and added elevons to it to help roll response otherwise it would have taken 100 mph to maintain roll control. i would think that with spoilers you would lose roll authority long before you reach the true stall speed. i dont know for sure but it seems like you would any way

Hatty

It is my belief that true scale is a dumb thing to do. Smaller or larger objects never work the same as the originals, and aircraft is a major example. Didn't we learn anything from Langley? Any reasonable person would have added the necessary controls and other items in order to make their plane flyable. I hope they did change things and that the crash was just a major example of when not to fly.

p47dman

My Feedback: (22)

Look very closely to the crash photos. I see only one servo bay per control surface. The Rudder alone appears to be 4' tall.

Spaceclam

you know they make some super giant scale servos that could easily be used in a small full scale aerobatic plane...

iflynething

I noticed that also. I don't care how big of a servo you have, if you have 40% planes with 3 servos just one the rudder, and you have a 150x larger plane with only one servo, then I would think that is faulty on whoever built it. Well, not the person who built, but whoever though to only put 1 servo. I could be wrong, but there could have been a servo on the other side of the vertical stab. I just saw one. I don't think the rudder servo or anything had to do anything, but I'm just making a point....

I'm sorry that happened, that crash is about 20 times worse than the 12' w/s (probably larger, numbers arent' exact) B-25 that I saw crash from rcwarbirds.com or something.....

Sorry

~Michael~

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Hair raising... I felt this one in the guts when I saw it go into tipstall. 8... EIGHT turbines up in smoke... Better get a third morgage on the house eh?

trumpetjet

My Feedback: (12)

[:'(]
The servo issue aside these large planes handle more like the real thing than the models we are accustomed to. Is seems that a lot of these planes are lost due to pilot incompetence. I know some of you will say that the guy was an exellent pilot bla bla bla.... but that does does not change the fact that the dude stalled the jet an plugged it into the ground. I'm just glad no one got hurt. my .0355

bigd652

Well all in all its sad to see it go.

powertoys

My Feedback: (2)

Just to let you know, we use servos for our remote control jet skis that we use for gunnery target exercises. These are your everyday full scale Bombardier 4-tec 150 hp skis. We use servos that are water tight and are measured in ft. lb. of torque instead of the oz. in. torque that we normally see in the hobby. The servos are only three inches by six inches, adequately small enough to be installed in that behemoth of a plane. Now with that in mind, we do pay $900-1,800 per servo depending on which one we are getting for throttle or steering. If you are willing to pay the price, there is someone out there willing to build it.

volkan

another thing with the servos
Gordon knows what he is doind, he ive a amazing builder.
And besides, if the 1 servo per surface was complete crap,
then the plane wouldn;t have passed the CAA tests, which is
required for a model that is ove 20kg to fly.
Also, what makes the elecator trim on a 747 turn??? SERVOS,
like the guys above said, there are huge servos with tonnes of
kg in touque, remeber that.

a65l

My Feedback: (17)

A "servo" is not necessarily an electronic device. A servo is a device for converting some sort of energy into mechanical motion, and, it has a self-regulating ability. I.E., it moves only as much as desired, then it stops, and holds position. I'll speak from experience, here, the H-46 helicopter uses both electric and hydraulic servos in its flight control system. Larger hydraulic servos are used to move the actual swashplates, controlling the rotor heads, while smaller hydraulic servos are used for automatic flight control inputs. Electric servos are used, also, to control the artifical centering feel on the control sticks, and to trim the aircraft. I don't know 747's, but it wouldn't suprise me if the trim servos were hydraulic on such a large aircraft, even though they actually only move trim surfaces that cause the full control surface to deflect. Once you get above a certain size, hydraulic actuators are lighter than comparable powerfull electric actuators.

And, there is a post a while back to the effect that the B-52 model was converted to alierons, as they found the spoilers weren't all that effective.


Andy

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Even with a 20ft plane, someone can have really bad day.
Some have em with with theire 20 dollar SPAD, some have them with a multi zero costing giant.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

I think that we should be a little more understanding with regaurds to the piloting of this airplane.

A B52 was not intended to be flown by the seat of the pants.

This is a fly by the numbers airplane.

And he didn't have any numbers to fly by.

I don't know that I am convinced that it was pilot error, even if the pilot thinks it was.

gutmark

No, he's never FLOWN a plane...

volkan

it was piolt error.
IT WAS PUBLISED WITH THE LMA.
Gordon said there were 'distractions on the flight line'
... enough said.

But still Gordon is an EXCELLENT builder and piolt.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Destractions at the flightline... Ill try to remember that for next time I goof up and dart one. "It wasnt my pilot skills, I got distracted"
No matter how big your aircraft, we all crash sometime. Nobody is perfect. But he sure picked a bad time to be less perfect.

Seriously, im really sorry about that plane, it looked truely awesome.

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

Freakazoid,
Take a look at Post #88. It might put a different light on things.... I don't know if it's true or not, but it might be worth looking at.

Bob

volkan

it is true.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

I dont know about him, but I usually space out during flight. You can set my pants on fire, and I wont notice.
Still, having a raving fruitcake next to you who wont stop yapping can get to ya in a while, I guess..

ScaleRCpilot

My Feedback: (1)

[&o] That was the coolest plane that I have ever seen! Really sad to see the thing stall on the down wind leg. Scale planes with high wing loading do not like flying down wind in what would have been (IN SCALE) hurricane force winds and not up to top cruising speed yet. Really makes one wonder!
Had to have costs thousands to build both in dollars and man hours. The other video that showed the long flight proved it to be air-worthy, Man what a cool toy them dudes had! So Sad! SR/CP

tomriddle

My Feedback: (3)

Hi all,

Current version of the crash report is located on Gordon's webpage: http://www.gordon-nichols.com/news/b...ash-report.asp

Glad to see that they are building BigBuff 2.

Regards,

tom

qfinger2004

I wonder if Gordon Nichols + co use any type of telemetry systems, like turn indicators, airspeed, alt, artificial horizon, engine performance, etc...I bet that stuff is relatively cheap and could be useful (fed wirelessly to a co-pilot's laptop) when flying such a big and complex bird. Just a thought, but I have zero expertise in the field...

Ingieuk

hey yea that would be really cool! It would give you an insight into what really is going on rather than what you presume/think is going on.

Ingie

Rockhound

I must say I dont feel so bad about my wreck into a tree.
I felt this guys pain when i saw it go behind the trees.
truely one of the worst feelings ever.

junkjet

My Feedback: (55)

Hi all. For what it is worth here is my take on this crash. I have not read the report but it seems to me after watching all the vids of this amazing aircraft that it doesn't like to fly slow in a turn. After wathing the long test flight vid. the pilot has a smaller incident which he was able to recover from. After some time passes he slows the plane and makes a right turn and the inboard wing stalled, with plenty of altitude and good control inputs the pilot was able to recover.
The crash vid show a same condition develop along with the admitted distractions and incorrect inputs on the transmitter that lead to the demise of the B-52.
What I get out of this is these models fly just as the full scale birds. They don't like to fly slow and turn. I was looking at another vid from a jet fly in and noticed a similar crash of a P-80 powered DC-10, the pilot slowed the aircraft on the down leg and started to turn on final, the inboard wing stalled with little air to recover with. In these situations control input is the enemy as they only create more drag in a already to slow condition.
This is my analysis. I hope the builder goes for it again. But here would be my advice, keep them spooled up.
BTW I love wathing the gient models fly over there. keep the vids comming.
Freddy