laganm21

I just got back for my flying feild with a destoryed plane, and the cause of the crash is the stock servo that came in my 4 week old hanger 9 alpha 40, the servo is a s-300 it was on the elevator, well it just decided it wanted to lock up on me in the down position and well you know the rest of the story , I would not be mad at all if I was the one that wreck the plane, but a servo man that tickes me off , the whole reason I got the plane is for a good rep hanger 9 has, well They can just take me off there list , mas what a feeling watching your plane head to the ground and you can do nothing about it

dmesecher

It happens to all of us at some time.. Looks like a easy fix.

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

Was there any binding in the servo linkage??? Was the servo new or used??? There were a lot of things that could have caused this.

Bob

laganm21

the plane is to far gone the engine block is cracked and the inside fuse is all pushed foward it destoryed the RX , fuel tank , firewall , riped the wing servo out, and i counted more than 10 wing ribs broke

laganm21

The plane is 4 weeks old , i bought it brand new, this was my 8th flight so, no used parts or any mods done to the plane

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

No doubt, all of us, I suspect, share your pain. Hate to see anyone lose one so soon, especially due to simple mechanical failure.

laganm21

I can see what you are saying, but when I first got the plane I went to the flying field with a instructor and he took me up and trimmed out the plane for me, he was bringing the plane in for a landing nice a smooth, and the front nose wheel fell off, I mean he is a trainer and he taught me how to fly, and when he lands picture perfect the plane's nose gear breaks, I mean something is not right here. after we fixed this problem, he finished teaching me how to fly, i took to it very easy and flying solo in an hour, so from day one the plane had issues from the factory, do you think i can call hanger 9 and ask them about it ?

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

We all feel about that bad when a plane goes in. I smashed a 100" power glider with night lights on the fourth flight do to a bad battery.
However your trainer IS quite fixable. As said before KEEP EVERY LITTLE SCRAP OF WOOD. Empty the tank, remove the battery and give it some time. I am rebuilding my LT 40 for the 3rd time. I tend to push the envelope with it...pushed into the fence, the tree, the fence again... well it happens. Its my every day "knock around plane" and it gets knocked around. Trainers get beat up "." Trash bags are standard equipment.
Even if the case on your motor is broken KEEP IT. A cheap worn out Ebay motor of the same make WILL have a perfectly good case. Or a club member may have one. ITs fixable! Reciever is a bummer though. It MAY be ok even if it has a cracked case. Range check it then recheck it in a plane with the engine running.
Next time you place a rx in the fuse put it in a block of soft foam. It is the same principle as the old egg drop science experiment where they drop eggs from a ladder or window and they survive impact. PAD IT WELL.

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

ARF planes need to be built by the owner not just assembled. My favorite plane is the Hanger 9 Ultra Stick 60 but it required several mods to be a good plane. Most ARF trainer do as well.
Things to check on an ARF. Firewall, wing hold downs, landing gear plate and MOST IMPORTANT is the control rods. With the radio ON flex the rudder and elevator. There should be ZERO flex or slop in the rods. Many a new trainer at our field has had surgery thru the bottom to place extra support for floppy rods.....NO ONE LIKES A FLOPPY ROD ya know This will cause the exact same flight effect as a bad servo by the way. Your servo moves but the control surface will not so in flight it is as if the servo did not move. This will only happen when the rod is under compression or pushing the control suface. The plane may have flown ok until the surface was pushed a little harder such as in a correction or dive or just flown faster. A preflight should always check for adequate stiffness in the rudder and elevator rods.

Oh yeah, a well rebuilt plane is OFTEN superior to the original[8D]

Mr67Stang

First, sorry about your experience. We all understand and have been there. To add to what has already been said, these things happen to all makes and models of R/C aircraft. You are or where angry and wanted to target someone to blame. So you aimed straight for the manufacturer, Hanger 9. That's fine, and I'm not saying your wrong. I'm just saying this could have easily happened with a Hobbico or any other brand trainer as well. Now I want to give you a senario. I'm not saying this is what happened, but I want you to concider other possibilities.

Let's just imagine you are getting your plane ready to get to the field. As you load the plane in your vehicle you bump the elevator against the inside of your car/truck. You look at the elevator and see it has no aparent damage. you gently realign the control surface that was moved by the bump and proceed to the feild. Okay, the gears in these servos are nylon. if they did not break they could have cracked. Now you add the vibration of the running engine and servo use in flight. The nylon cogs in the servo fail from the previous bump in the car. Now it apears in flight that your servo has failed or "locked up".

Either way, getting mad is easy. Overcomming obsticles can be the challenge.

Korps

Sorry for your loss, but like others have said that looks repairable. Damn I flew into a tree a year ago and I thought - no way the plane is a goner. Took it to the smart people and way behold it's more than a year ago and it still flies after the repairs. Like someone once said on the forums here - every plane gets build from sticks (well something in that manner).

I do however think giving someone else the blame so suddenly is uncalled for. There are just TOO many variables which could play a role in what really happened.

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

Absolutely. What's the worst thing that can happen? They say "Hey, yeah. sorry about that, but we can't be sure you didn't do something wrong, so, no replacement."

If that happens...so be it...rebuild (or not) and move on.

Either way, you've learned a few things here...

1) You took to flying easily, and enjoyed it. You've found a hobby you're going to enjoy, and likely excel at. Stay with it.

2) There's a REASON so many folks go over new airplanes...ARF, RTF, whatever...with a fine toothed comb. Remember...you're airplane was "built" by some dude on an assembly line that's never going to fly it, and frankly couldn't care less about it so long as he gets his paycheck. That's not a Hangar 9 thing, it's a "sport/fun" ARF thing.

3) You've got a chance to see another side of this hobby with a rebuild. Nothing says you HAVE to rebuild, but don't overlook the idea. yes, it takes time, and patience, and skills you haven't yet developed...but it's also quite rewarding, and valuable.

============

WORST case scenerio here, you take the receiver, the working servos, the battery, the unbroken parts of the motor, the control horns, the wheels...all that jazz out of this airplane, and you've got $100 or so of "stuff" you don't need to buy for the next one. And, on the next one, you'll apply the "Wow...check everything every time" lesson a little bit more thoroughly. *heh*

Remember...those of us who are full scale pilots ALSO "check everything" every time we go fly. It doesn't matter if it's a plane we've been up in for many hours, or through many cycles...we STILL check that right aileron to make sure it's not binding. it's just part of aviation.

laganm21

Ok ive had some time to cool off and went to the plane to really look at the damage, it will be cheaper just to buy a nother , the only reason I say this is because of the wing, to replace the alpha 40 wing is in the 80 dollar range, so I was getting broad with the plane any ways, so it will just give me the reason to buy a better plane for me IE faster, better quailty, BOLT ON WING, i hate the rubber bands , what do you guy thank would be the best plane for a 2nd and in a good price range

laganm21

Sorry that i sounded so negitive at frist, but i have been in the rc game for a while racing 1/5th scale car and truck , and I know what happen when you buy cheap stuff, this is the reason I got a hanger 9 because I thought it would not be good quality stuff, but I do understand that do-do occurs, but you cant blame me for not wanting to get another hanger9 product any time in the future,

kitman09

dolphin sport 40 from phoenix models, 99.95. low wing trainer, just put one together and it flys great. wayne at daniells can get you one, he ordered mine for me. looks like a sig 4star 40 execpt for landing gear.

laganm21

Yeah that is where I bought the plane at

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

Holy cow...I'm unobservant as all heck. I JUST now realized you're in Hendersonville.

Bit of a hike, I know, but if you'd like to make a trip down to Rutherford county next nice weekend we have, I'll make ya a multi-part offer.

1) Bring the Alpha. We'll toss it on my build table, see what pieces/parts/templates/wood/covering/etc I might have, see if we can't get it fixed up for ya cheap. I've rebuilt everything from a telemaster .40 to my 100cc 102" Edge recently, so chances are pretty good we can figure something out.

2) We'll swing by the LHS down here, PAC RC, and let you meet the Dunphys. great people, fantastic LHS, and by golly, if it's wreckable, Mike's probably fixed it. He can offer some great insight if we run into a problem, and he's just a fantastic guy to boot.

3) Bring anything else ya got, and we'll head to Middle Point and do some flying. If you don't have anything else to fly, I got a big Senior Telemaster you're welcome to tool around on, couple of friends have some other birds they'd probably give ya a turn on, and heck, I'll even buddy box you on my 50cc Edge, just for the heck of it.

The price for all this? Eh...bring a 12-pack of sodas and we'll call it good.

How's that for an offer?

laganm21

That sounds awsome Ill go back to the flying feild today after work to see if I can find any more parts I might of missed I know I did not bring the left alerion back i threw in the the trash can I hope they trash man did not pick up today, so If i can get that back Ill have all the parts

Mr67Stang

Helluva nice guy there! Good deal. I hope he takes you up on the offer. I bet you have some aileron stock on hand and white covering as well if needed.

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

Sounds like a winner. I'll drop you a PM and we can figure out details.

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

Oh, bah...don't go spreading rumors. *heh*

Eh...I'm just "paying forward" a small fraction of the help I've ever gotten in this hobby. heck, maybe we'll turn laganm21 into a builder, and 5 yrs down the road, he'll loan some newbie the repaired Alpha while he helps the guy repair his $TrainerArfOfTheDay

*heh*

Nah, but we can probably make something work. *heh*

Ayup

laganm21

Thanks for the Help, I am very Mechanically Inclined I do all the work on my 1/5th scale rc truck and car's , I just resently started modding nitro engines for some people for some extra cash , but the one thing I have not worked with is WOOD, i dont dought I cant figure it out I just need some guidence, and thanks (gboulton) for the offered help, Im not Afraid to admit when I have no Idea on how to work on something, hopefully you can show me the way, and thanks to everyone for the help on here ( PS Yaw are way nicer than the Rc Car fourm on here) LOL

Mr67Stang

The fact that most of us are bit (15-60 yrs) older may have something to do with that

gpgt90

My Feedback: (8)

Both Danielle's and PAC RC are great places to shop. You can't go wrong at either place. I love H9 and have had many of their planes. But, another option for your second plane is the Great Planes Escapade. It's $99 and is a fantastic "inexpensive" sport plane.

fly24-7

It's great that someone in your area can help you with the rebuild. You'll learn alot from the process and you'll have confidence the next time you will need to do repairs (and there will be a next time. There's a next time for us all).

You should contact Horizon Hobby and see if they'll do anything for you. They'll want you to at least send in the suspect servo for inspection. If they find that it failed as a result of a defect, I believe they'd do right by you. Trust me when I say there is a long line of manufacturers that manufacture aeromodeling products that are inferior to Horizon's. Horizon doesn't distribute garbage product.

I personally know people at Horizon and with the Hangar 9 brand. They're good people and the company is committed to building quality products. Show me a mass-produced product of any kind that has a zero defect rate. That would be a first in the history of man.