PLTW

I am doing a project at Bow High School and I am trying to justify that a device that could reduce the damage in a RC plane crash is worth while, since there is a large number of Pilots here it made since to get feed back here. Give me feed back, and stories if you have them.

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

In my "RC career" I've had 2 crashes. Both were my fault. One hit a tree becasue I was not paying attention and the other was too slow for a given stall manuever. In either case there was no way to save the plane as it was definitely pilot error in judgement and either too close to an object or not near enough altitude

308jockey

Most of my crashes were avoidable in some way but I have had two this year that were agonizingly slow and drawn out. The first was a Hangar 9 Edge 540. For some reason an aileron got stuck in full deflection and while I fought it for a couple of minutes it was a losing cause. The odd part is that while I had it semi-under control it finally put the nose down and in it went.

The second crash was a trainer that had absorbed hits from a couple of hundred paintballs. The final death throes took a full minute, fighting it all the way. It was finally clear it was uncontrollable and would not be saved so I let it go. Total loss in both cases.

Rick H.

SU-13

My Feedback: (1)

I have had 3 crashes, 2 pilot error and 1 mechanical problem. i had a super chipmunk which i had repaired from a previos crash and it was only the second flight after i repaired it. i was coming on to final when the plane went into a uncontrollable death spin. i wondered why it this happened until i checked the servos and the rudder servo was stripped. well that was the end of that plane.

nickj

My panic button is the throttle. Usually, you know the plane's in trouble--not responding, airframe problem or something. If it looks like the plane won't make it back to the runway, I chop the throttle. Usually the damage isn't too bad. To be successful, any kind of airplane-saving device will have to very lightweight. No one wants to carry around a lot of extra weight "just in case".

bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

I've had 5 crashes in a year and a half, all five attributable to pilot error. They were all SPADS. In the first, it was the first time I'd ever tried to fly a plane, and of course I was too smart to need an instructor. Having learned my lessons well that day, I worked with an instructor. During instruction, on approach one day, I was coming in too low on the edge, and neither I nor my instructor realized how close we were to a SPAD eating tree. Crash Number 2. Luckily, the only damage was a bent landing gear. 10 minutes later, we were back in the air. Crash 3 was a total loss of perspective during a diving spin. Plane was inverted near the trees when I tried up elevator. I've never seen so many plastic pieces at one time. Since it was a SPAD, I said "That was cool", picked up the pieces and went home. After rebuilding the plane Crash 4 was during an inverted low approach. Dumb thumbs bumped up elevator at full throttle about 5 feet off the ground. Once again "that was cool". Crash 5 was a maiden flight on a personal design SPAD. Plane had a slight warp in the wing that I thought I could correct for with ailerons. I thought wrong. About halfway around the field while I was trying to adjust the aileron trim, it nosed down and inverted. Before I could get perspective and correct, I realized I wasn't going to have time to save it, and just cut the throttle before it nosed in at about a 60 degree angle. Yeah, that was cool too. That plane has been rebuilt with a good wing, and now flies, although I'm still trying to tweak the trim and the CG.


Device that would reduce the damage in a crash? I don't think in any of these cases it would have had time to recover the plane. The number of possible attitudes and speeds is so large, the system would have to be very intelligent, and might be cost prohibitive.

Brad

love those warbirds

My Feedback: (39)

I have had....well ... a lot of crashes in my flying career and so far about maybe 45% I knew no matter what I did nothing could saves it. Like My super star ep when the radio cut out or my zero or my easy bug [&o]...o ya and my sail plane....... or when I was teaching my Dad how to fly a air plane.(He first learned helis-go figure lol) The 182 we were fly wing ripped off for no apparent reason. God I have a lot of radio trouble. But back to the Q I for one have had plane I knew could not of been saved. Hope that exert in to my painful life of crashing help you

DamonTX

Something like this would be good for a twin engine plane. This summer I lost an engine on a scratchbuilt twin and lost the battle trying to bring it in.

There was a deployable parachute on the market a few years back. I'm not sure it was very successful. Probably because it was in a large box that attached to the top of the plane....looked ugly and bigger than necessary.

JIMMYTHEEAGLE

My Feedback: (47)

I lost the elevator once on a biplane that was a good knife edge flyer. I kept trying to fly it close to the ground knife edge so that I crould roll it upright at the last minute but without the elevator to turn it in knife edge I just eventually flew it into the base of a tree.

Spaceclam

out of four crashes, only one was possibly my fault.
my first crash was a definite radio hit. this happened in the famous "bermuda triangle" at the sepulveda basin flying field.

the second was the one that was possibly my fault. i am actually not sure whether it was a stripped throttle servo or i put the fuel lines on backwards. i took off and went straight up, and with 10 feet of altitude, 0 airspeed and i was on the edge of a hill, the throttle cut back to idle. as i nosed it down, i almost had it until my engine kicked back down to full throttle (nose down) and the initial jerk from the downthrust tore it into the ground. both the fuel lines came disconnected in thecrash so i will never know, but my throttle servo was definatly stripped. this never showed up during a ground test, possibly becuase there were no g forces. or maybe it stripped when it hit the ground, i will never know

the third one was an airframe failure. i endered a spin with my VMAR cap 232, and one of the wing halves broke off. as a tribute to their strong, ultra light design, the wing half fluttered off never to be seen again, almost as though it were made of their ChinaKote covering, while the plane fell in a graceful heap, about 600 feet to the ground, as my flying site is on top of a hill

the fourth was a mid-air collision, caused by another flyer going against the pattern.

it would be nice if they were just pilot error so i could learn from my mistakes. it sucks when something like that happens and you have no control over why

Silvanskii

My Feedback: (17)

I think on my 5th or 6th flight ever I balled my Seniorita into a cornfield after getting distracted. I guess technically that's my fault if you want to count the learning period.

My last one was my 35% Extra. Completely sucked, from about 150 feet I watched the left aileron then the right flutter (at idle) followed by complete left wing seperation. No amount of rudder in a knife edge could save that one, and I killed the engine and hit all controls hard over on high rates to try and get it to pancake as best I could. 2 year old plane killed by brand new servos...

Semi Retired Aviator

A couple of times, which is a couple too many!!

Sir Fliesalot

My Feedback: (2)

I've crashed many times and consider myself an expert. A panic button would help if you could press it in time to save the aircraft but by the time I know it's going to crash it's too late to do anything about it because it's just too low to recover. You always think you can save it right up till it hits the ground. But for a beginner it might help if they can "reset" and try again. Good luck!

acr007

I have crashed a few planes of the years...just part of the sport. My last two were down to electrical failure a battery shorted so no control ...panic button would not help. The previous was engine failure on a high wing loading fast plane and on the approach in a tight field stalled trying top avoid a big tree and wham so again a panic button would not help....plane was to close to the ground when engine gave....moral fly high enough to give your self room to recover.

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

I do have one question that I have not seen asked yet.

What exactly would you have this panic button do?

I'm sure your poll is trying to find out just that, but it does sound like you might have an idea in mind.

If you do, let us in on it and maybe we can help you out even more.

Just so you know, I'm not picking this apart. The poll is a good idea but I just thought we could help more by going at it from another angle for you

PLTW

Currently we are trying to justify the problem, we have not accuatly thought of the widget yet. Although when we start to think of the widget, we will let you know.

cmulder

Lost a 4 meter scale ventus glider in the sun once and when i saw it again it was diving FAST.
Pulled up to fast and the wings folded

I wich i had a chute device to slow it down enough to avoid damage on inpact.

Not shure what the weight would be with current fabrics but a glider that sie eazly can handle a 200/ 300 gram and using a spring loaded system that eject the canopy would not make the fuse weaker.

Just my $0.02

multicasting

three words, Flat Spin deadstick.

Jim_McIntyre

Sure ... [link=http://scalebuilder.org/dr1maiden.wmv]Wanna see[/link]?

CrashPro

My Feedback: (1)

haha...Great video Jim,...wow....that was some touchy controls...any damage to plane?

Spaceclam

what happened?

adrenalnjunky

My Feedback: (18)

I've seen 1 that was savable - one was a thunder Tiger super decathlon - after a snaproll into an inverted flat spin, the pilot shouted that he didn't have it ---the snaproll had slung the battery free of it's mounting and the control surfaces held the plane in a pretty inverted flat spin all the way to the ground - and there was plenty of time to watch it - heck we even started walking across the field to where it was coming down before it had hit.

Jim_McIntyre

Yeah, the centre wing mount and fairing broke, I lost mega sleep, and a lot of good practice time before team trials (obviously the repair needed to be cosmetically perfect). Still, the story has a good ending, I made the team and attended the World's.[8D]
Here's a pic from static judging 1 week after the crash;



As the vide title states, I confused positive and negative expo. I normally fly JR but, set this aircraft up on a Hitec radio only to discover (too late) that expo is setup inverse of JR on these radios....

To make matters worse, I was intentionally using a LOT of exp (70%) to give me the extra elevator throw I would need to nail the tail in landing and taxiing without having to reach for a rate switch (the point where you need this extra throw is very time critical on landing).

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Fixed up an old used Pica T28. watched it flutter the elevator off coming out of a cuban 8. Hit at about 100mph and about 20 degrees nose down, wings level. Splintered into toothpicks. I think it could have been saved if I had rolled in a little flap. But the flutter lasted about 1/2 second and then the elevator came loose and then about 2 seconds later it hit. I didn't really have time to figure things out.

Someone mentioned the dreaded flat spin deadstick. Done that one.

Had the batteries die in a Marks Wonderer glider. It took almost a minute to spirral in. I had time to sell tickets !

Once, I was flying off a hill top in Greenville Tn. The engine died. I couldn't make it back to the hill top. It went down out of sight and hit the side of the hill.

Back in the AM days, I lost a few from interference, ( so did everyone ). You just watch and wiggle the sticks. Its a sick feeling.

Iturnright

My Stryker has gone down about 4 times, all of them because of batteries. Three, times its ejected the battery, (moral is, more tape!) and since it became very tail heavy it just tumbles slowly to the ground. I wasn't really worried with these since I knew it would land without damage, but once, I lost power at about 100 feet up just at the top of a loop and it went straight down and there was nothing I could do. However, being a foam plane and all, the radio was still working, motor and servos still worked fine imediatly after the crash. I found later that one servo had broke, but it was cheap to fix. It was in a about 6 pieces, but the main wing surface stayed together, just the front of the fuse and the motor mount broke and they were (luckily) in large foam chunks, easily repairable. While it was going down, I didn't freeze or anything though, I was movin the sticks the whole way down

I also saw another pilot's Mini Funtana crash in a spin from a good 100', a sort of twirling nosedive. Amazingly, he offered it to me, and it's almost ready to fly again, once I pick up some electronics!


Servo: 15$ Glue: $7 Watching a cool crash and coming back with almost everything still able to run: Priceless