Hello everyone,

Last Wednesday at my flying field a guy crashed his airplane. It was around 5 feet away from me when it crashed in the pit area where I was tending to my airplane. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, keep an eye on all of the airplanes in the air, at least if you are in the pit area. So this is what happened, I ran to my airplane because I wanted to clean it, (I'm 16) and then a second later BOOM, to my left a trainer crashed by first hitting the top pole of the structure and then it slid 20 feet down the pit area. Even though a "trainer is a trainer" it still is deadly. I mean this airplane crashed hard and fast! I'm sorry I didn't take pictures because we cleaned up the area really fast, (everyrone helped out.) The whole airplane was messed up. The carburetor came off the engine... blasa and fule everywhere, broken pieces all over, it was a nasty site. But once we cleaned it up it was ok, the guy had another airplane so he wasn't too sad, and I believe that the servos were ok and maybe the reciever. So once again, please know where all of the airplanes or hellis are when they're in the air.
Thanks for looking.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Matt

You're exactly right Matt and well put. I'm glad you weren't hurt. I've seen more than once when people had to scatter when an out of control plane streaked through the pit area. Even an expert pilot can have a malfunction (or a moment of stupidity) so stay aware of what's going on at all times.
WCB

nice matt im am 16 alllmost 17 and the same thing happened to me...my dad and i were just learning to fly and i was doing better than him any ways i was standing in the pilots station next to my dad and the instructor listening and learning... when oh nop nop i dont have it.... next thing i know im seeing a hobbico superstar 40 with a HOT magnum 46 on it headed towards my head!!!!!! the only thing to do is to duck behind that beautiful orange plastic barrier... the wing hit just above my head and deflected the plane about 1 ft behind me... thus saving me from harm... lets just say that he dosnt forget that day very often!!!

The one thing I notice from your story is that the pilot didn't say "I don't have it" or even a "Look out!" I know things happen fast, but it's going to take at least a little bit of time for a trainer to drift over the pits.

Hey,
Thanks for responding guys!

The trainer was moving fast, I think it had a .53 size engine... I don't know why but the guy didn't say anything... he was an older man.
Man, I love flying rc aiplanes, but it sure is dangerous!


Matt

I THINK YOU NEED TO PULL THE OLD MAN ASIDE AND TALK WITH HIM ABOUT SHOUTING A WARNING.
TRUE STORY I LET AN ADVANCED STUDENT CHECK HIS OWN THROWS BEFORE FLIGHT. STUPID ME DIDNT WATCH OR DOUBLE CHECK HIM , AFTER ALL IVE SEEN HIM DO IT ALOT OF TIMES. HE TAKES OFF ON THE BUDDY BOX AND THE AIRCRAFT ROLLS LEFT INSTEAD OF RIGHT (LEFT IS TOWARDS THE PITS) I TAKE THE AIRCRAFT APPLY RT AILERON AND NOW I'M IN CONTROL OF AN AIRCRAFT THAT IS FLYING DOWN THE PITS AT AN ALTITUDE I WAS VERY CONCERNED WITH. MY FIRST REACTION WAS TO PULL UP AND YELL. THEN ONCE THE AIRCRAFT WAS AT A SAFE ALTITUDE (SAFE FOR PEOPLE) THEN WE WORRIED ABOUT SAVING THE PLANE WHICH WE DID BY THE WAY.
GOOD ADVICE MATT THANKS

mine was on landig approach when ithappened so it really happened fast!!!!

Great advise Matt, Even with all the safety measures we have the best one is to watch out for other planes.

Thanks guys.

Here is some pics of my airplane.

omg! I just noticed I have a pic that shows were the airplane hit...
Look at the pic.

Matt

Man that's scary.

My dad and I were flying a 1/5th scale FW-190 and a 2.6M Yak in formation respectively when an old guy planted his .40 size trainer about 6-7 feet STRAIGHT in front of us. Kind of funny to walk on shrapnel while you are flying... He completely locked up on take off, had no clue what to do but watch it cram in the ground in front of the pilot stations at full throttle. He never yelled anything, he never looked up, he never even came up and APOLOGIZED to anyone. No one is above common courtesy, NO ONE! Luckily haven't seen him since.

The good part is we think it was his last "big" plane. The scary part is he still believes he can and wants to do it (scary for us), the scariest part is HE DRIVES! It's no wonder all those old people get in wrecks and take out innocent market goers...........

Now before you flame on, keep in mind we all know that not all older people are completely deficient in hand eye coordination and reflexes, but we also all know exactly what I'm talking about!

Matt you got lucky man, that was close.

One thing I would like to emphasize is #1, ALWAYS keep your head up, or at least listen to the sound of the engine when someone is flying. Mechanical, electrical, or mental breakdowns are a very random affair. #2, IF YOU SEE A PLANE OUT OF CONTROL AND HEADING TOWARDS A DANGEROUS AREA, YELL SOMETHING! It doesn't have to be YOUR plane that's wrecking, and you don't even have to be flying that day. In my case, I was lucky because I knew the guy from before has a chronic case of pure terror when he flies and kept a third eye on him as I was flying. But NOBODY in the pits yelled that the guy was out of control. It isn't hard to envision a case where Old Guy taxis out and floors it for takeoff, and Sunday Flier is concentrating on doing his snap rolls when the plane creams him.

#1 Head on a swivel!
#2 For god's sake YELL SOMETHING if something is going wrong, and it doesn't have to be you flying or your plane!
#3 If it's your plane and you know it has a chance of going out of control into the pits, as much as it hurts, you gotta ditch it. Believe me, while I was overseas, I had to do something similar to something a LOT more expensive (and something that my team and I had put a LOT of time into) than any model I will ever have because it might have taken someone out. If my first flight with my first 40% ends up screaming back at the pits at full throttle and no aileron or rudder control, I am planting that sucker without a second thought. That would completely *&#%*&#% suck, but that's part of that grand old thing we all practice, knowingly or unknowningly, called AIRMANSHIP.

Matt i like your flying site, compared to ours, yours is heaven. does you club have a rule about no turns towards the pits. Mine just mad that rule for there were like 5 people that kept making turns toward the pit and hit the trees inside the pit. Matt can quest fly at your club, for next year i am going to go out to california and i am hoping i can find some place to fly?

Hey Matt,

I know I'm off the topic, but where do you fly in Fresno? Back in the late 70's, I flew at a place called Woodward Park (I think)....my instructor was Bob Hanson of Bob's Village Hobbies in Fig Garden. And now I fly in Nova Scotia Canada...go figger!!!! I remember Bob was an ex USN pilot. PM me if you could fill me in on the happenings at Fresno's flying fields. Back to the subject, I augered in a Sig Kougar (when it first was marketed) on it's second flight at Woodward Park in 1979.....radio failure of a Micro Avioncs 5 ch set. Outstanding field with outstanding memories.

Kirk

Matt,

You have a good point. When I play golf, I yell "Four" if I hit a bad shot. We have quite an extensive rule book at our club. I don't believe we have any rule on yelling, "I don't have it", or something like that. We can all loose control of a plane. I'll bring it ups at the next club meeting.

Does anyone know what the AMA says about it?

Bill L

Matt

Thats one nice looking airpark you have there. Plane is nice too.
Glad everything was ok.

Had this happen to me sort of.

I was flying and the stab flew off (screaming 2 stroke 5ft away, so couldn't hear the flutter), killed the throttle, and lost a signal(or something?). Plane heading towards the pits, and my mate flying off to the side. It was heading for him, so I yelled "Watch It" (again screaming 2 stroke 5ft away) , grabbed him by the back of his shirt, and pulled him back about a second before the thing plowed about 1 ft from where he was. Lost his 1/4 Cub, but that was all, we are both fine, bit shaken but fine now.

At the field now, if planes are in the air, during start-up each flyer is allowed 2 5-second full throttle bursts, so if someone does yell something EVERYONE knows.

I was flying with an aircraft that was still in the break in phase. Anyway, I had my hands full with trimming it out as a very experiencd pilot was testing out a new students aircraft that was a high wing, I think it is called a parasol wing (looks like a bipe without the bottom wing). He was doing fine until he brought it in close for a slow flyby for a visual check on something. At the same time, a nasty gust of crosswing blew the model into the pilots stations. Fortunately, I had a guy helping me who happened to spot this as it happened. He is considerably larger than me, and very calmly put his hand on my back and said, "Bob, we're gonna move this direction real quick" and he gently shoved me to safety as I flew my plane. The very experienced pilot did not panick as many would have. Instead of cramming the thottle in an attempt to get out, he hit the throttle chop, and banked it into the run up stand about 30 inches from where I had been standing before I was ushered to safety. He did yell a warning, and apologized profusely. I certainly had no hard feelings. If you are wondering, the weight on the nose fell off, causing the plane to be extremely tail heavy. The flyby was an attempt to see what fell off just before landing.

Wow, I have read some interesting stories in this one. Some of you guys are really challenged. Rude guys who don't apologize for their mistakes, old guys flying planes who shouldn't be driving, crude flying sites, dogs and cats on buddy boxes with each other...LOL.
I'm 52 years young. My eyesight is still 20/20 w/o glasses and my reflexes are good enough to walk and chew gum simultaniously while rubbing my head and patting my belly. I fly Warbirds and love 'em. However, when there are more than four or five planes in the air, (with most of them being trainers) I take a break and let the newbies have the sky for a time. I watch to see who may have any bad habbits and offer my assistance. I always go to the field with a buddy box and chord in the back of the Jeep. When I go back up I know it's safe, and I'm back to loops, rolls and three foot off the deck fly bys. I do keep my perephrial vision active constantly.

"Keep 'Em Flying!"
Flak

Hi, I'm sorry I took so long to post, (I've been busy with school.) But anyways, I run at woodward park for cross country, but I haven't flown there... Our flying site is called Fresno Radio Modlers. Here is our website: http://www.frcm.org/ Thanks for all of the replies and complements... and add whatever you wish, its all up to you.

Matt

Good advice and help Flak, RC flying is like everything else, there's good and bad pilots from all age groups..... i find the worse is the fly 2-3 times a year guys and not the regular guys who are up to speed on the safety issues.. glad to hear no one got hurt.

Keep it safe and have fun...........

Denver Colorado, Lowry AFB 1993 - A guy planted a .40 nitro trainer 3ft behind me. STRAIGHT DOWN AND FULL THROTTLE. The concussion literally about knocked the wind out of me. Never said a word.

There are two types of airplanes I keep an EXTRA close eye on at the field. One is those POS .40 trainers, and the other is anything with a delta wing and a tuned pipe. The pilots of both usually dont know flip didly about safety.

I work in a Long term medical care facility . I have personally seen what not thinking just for a few seconds or being unsafe can do to a human body . Ive taken care of people with broken necks and spines . None from RC luckily but it could happen . Ild hate to be the guy that sentenced somebody to a life sentence of being paralized in a bed because I didnt take 5 seconds to make sure my servos arent reversed or my batteries were good . Or while attempting to save my plane lose a human life .Check, check ,check stuff And if you have to, ditch that plane . Itl be alot easier carrying that wrecked plane off of that field than it is carrying around the guilt of knowing you hurt or killed someone .

Interesting thread this one.

I've grown up around full size commerical aircraft (sort of family tradition ) as have most of the family friends. I've been modelling for about 15 years or so maybe? I was in the RAF for a while and currently hold a private pilots license in the UK and am building a full-size homebuilt aircraft for myself.

Here in Scotland I'm lucky that flying models isn't too popular. This means that flying sites are normally quiet. It's been said before on this thread by an experienced guy that why the sky gets busy he sits back. I do the same. When I'm flying scale models it's just not worth the stress. There's enough to think about without worrying about where other models are!

Pit areas and Pilot stations are a funny one though. Some clubs up here have them, mine doesn't. Sure, we have a pit area but it's quite informal. Pilots stand where it seems sensible. We're mostly fairly experienced though, but the newcomers tend to follow our lead. Peer pressure and friendly chats are enough to coach the newbies into adopting our unspoken procedures. The only trouble we get are from some helicopter owners who try to stand in the middle of the field to practive hovering. Very annoying and those people are not made welcome.

Another group of people who seem to bring trouble with them are the ARTF 'modellers'. I'm not on a vendeta here so please don't flame me, but as the ARTF is not labour intensive the owners of such models generally appear less conciencious. Newcommers with a new plans or kit built aircraft generally seem very keen to adopt good practice to protect their work and operate it as best they can, whereas the ARTF owners appear to treat them more like toys (ie without consequence)??? Again, just an observation.

Some clubs here tackle this by imposing a wannabe air traffic control system. This however doesn't suit everyone. It tends to be those who already have a healthy respect for aircraft who have no time for this, as good practice and calling landings etc is common courtesy to your fellow modellers.

Obviously, the larger the club, the less dependancy can be rested on good practice and common sense - one large club round here has paving slabs one the ground which the pilots must stand on..............