inevitable happed
 

the inevitable happend. i got her finished last saturday night and i was stoked. this was after a small mishap. i go to the field the next day and i get her ready and tune the engine. i take off beautifully and i start doing mild aerobatics. i let my friend ryan have the box to mess around with it while i go get some water. i came back and heard him add two clicks of trim after it had already been flying great so i thought that was odd. he said it was flying funny and by the time that came out of my mouth it was getting ugly. i told him let me have it ill put her on the ground and he said no i got it. he turned it in on the final and it never came out of the turn. my best guess is the cooky flying was coming from an engine bolt that came out. the crash came from im thinking a ball link breaking but im not sure. i also have a hunch that there may have been some piloting error but not positive. anyway hear it is. I am currently saving for a new plane and im in the ****ter right now. Its funny how so much plane can fit into a small trash bag. i have crashed a few times before but none have costed me this much or made me feel this bad after all the hours building and tweaking. i hope i have enough to buy a new plane by the end of the season. in the group is a pic off the origonal. any thoughts on a new plane?

RE: inevitable happed
 

isn't this the second time you crashed this plane ? if it is sorry again, but a little words of wisdom. I would suggest you don't let your buddies fly unless they are chipping in with the loot to buy your new planes. GL

RE: inevitable happed
 

yes you are correct this is the second time i crashed. looks like my fixes held up but other things didnt lol. hes my flying freind and prob better at flying then i am so i trust him and hold him in no way responsible for this. however he is a nice friend and offered to pay half.

RE: inevitable happed
 

Sorry about the plane. Over the years, I've been allowed to fly other planes and have had other fly my planes. A couple have gone in (either me flying or someone flying mine)- all were from mechnical problems or flame outs. The crash happend, but it ended in a "sorry about the plane", but not "pony up some money to pay for the repairs because you put it into the ground". Usually the offer will come up to help fix it, but it is not you will pay for half the fix. My biggest thing is, especially test flying a plane (whether first flight or a repair flight), is the understanding that if it goes in - for some reason other than pilot error, sorry dude. Planes crash. Now if its pilot error, I'll offer to pay up or fix my mistake. I know from experience, that even if I'm flying someone else's plane that is supposedly perfectly trimmed, that I will make trim adjustments while flying - sort of like adjusting the mirrors in a car when you are driving. Just my $.02

RE: inevitable happed
 

yeh i understand i told him i dont want his money but both him and his mom(im good friends with) insisted on paying like 100 or w.e half is! i think he could have possibly tipp stalled it in a turn because he had it at idle, full up ele full right rudder and full left aileron! I just dont know but he is a good friend so even if it was pilot error i wouldnt want him paying. Im currently looking into testing a prototype or buying a omp profile or an ultra rc giles!

RE: inevitable happed
 

I see you are in Mayland...
What field are you flying from?

RE: inevitable happed
 

i am flying at the Dc-RC. it is in montgomery county or boyds md. dc-rc.org! well i was flying there but not anymore :D

RE: inevitable happed
 

To hell with these "Ball LINKS"!!! I really hate them. I had a ball link in my topflite mustang and it came lose on the second flight. Im so pissed. Guess what? i totaled her. i understand how you feel, its very sad to crash a expensive and nice plane on the first or second flight...

sorry for your loss

RE: inevitable happed
 

i had 15-20 flights on her but ive had two crashes (rebuilt firewall) and one mishap with it. its all a learning process which i know now what to do and what not to do but one thing is for sure glow planes are so much easier than gassers but i wouldnt trade mine for the world! man i went throught three props and two spinners and a new hub and supersonic muffler and this engine is still a beast!

RE: inevitable happed
 

update...engine checks out still lookin for a new plane!

RE: inevitable happed
 

That's good. Looking at the plane it was nose in - tail up (here it's called 'lawn dart', in Poland is's called 'a carrot':D). For such crash I would expect that the engine is damaged.
Did you recover all radio? The ARF is the least expensive part in RTF. In my 180 dollars PLH Edge I have over 1k dollars of stuff.

So far I've seen only one crash that totalled everything. It was a quicky that went 150mph into asphalt making a big dent in it. The engine pieces were spread all over the runway and surrounding grass. Next day we found the battery pack 50 yards away from the runway.

RysiuM

RE: inevitable happed
 

only servos and rec were ok everything else was trash...two batterys, two switches, a lot of extensions and one Y.

RE: inevitable happed
 

I wouldn't trust the receiver without factory checking. Send it to service for checking. With a little crack in the circuit board receiver may work now, but after some time it will loose connection, and then you have another 'nose in'.

RysiuM

RE: inevitable happed
 

you are right...but i will check it myself. the rec was wraped in foam so i suspect its fine!

RE: inevitable happed
 

If possible, open the case and look at the board for cracks and loose (cracked) components. Don't forget to verify crystal. Run the ranche check tapping on the receiver with pencil. You should have solid reception and no jumping servos.


I use 1/2 inch foam to make a full box around the receiver (masking tape holds all together very well, so only the connectors are exposed. This way all my gas planes I pass range check without problems. Like the one on the picture:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/upfi...22/Om32628.jpg


In case of crash, the receiver must be squished between parts to get damaged.

RysiuM

RE: inevitable happed
 

you layout is very clean! te crash sucks but i hope i can get a new plane soon!

RE: inevitable happed
 

Another PLH Edge? - If so, you already have some spare parts:D

I I looked at my LHS for that size of Edge and I found only one, but I've been told to stay away from it - piece of junk. It's kind of difficult to find anything decent for 3D with that size engine.

RysiuM

RE: inevitable happed
 

well u din here this from me but the rep jclark is sending me a prototype plane...i cant say any details but idk yet i need a plane quick and its taking forever lol! ive learns alot from my first edge and i hope i can get into imac!

RE: inevitable happed
 

I hear nothing, I see nothing :D
Pm me with info when You get there.

And I'm still waiting for the new wing info from him.[:@]

RysiuM

RE: inevitable happed
 

as far as i know hes been super busy but still working with gene. he doesnt know when the wings will be done i guess there still in the designing stage. ill give you a hint it will be EXTRA good for a 50 cc engine

RE: inevitable happed
 

Hmm... I'm limited with my planes to 6ft bed with camper shell. That's the reason I couldn't get GP Patty Wagstaff Extra 300 - fuselage to long. The max I can fit must be shorter than 70 inches. I hate my H9 Edge 1 piece wing - it must go across the bed not leaving much space for anything else.

50cc may be to big for my truck[:o]

RysiuM

RE: inevitable happed
 

I had the very same thing happen to me, TWICE!!!

My Edge tipped stalled on final a couple of years ago. I was having trouble with my engine idling too high when I tried to land and was attempting to bring her in as slow as possible. As soon as I turned to final it snapped straight down ( I was going to side slip her in).

I had rebuilt her and installed a different engine (both were Moki 1.8's). This time I had the Moki running beautifully (HA). I was throwing the plane around the sky and she performed amazingly. However, the engine started sounding off. I was coming to land and as I turned to final she snapped into the ground. A write off!!!

I was aware of the speed issues and had the nose down and when I tried to throttle up as I turned there was NO response from the engine. I am now looking for a nice Ultimate or Pitts.

RE: inevitable happed
 

most of my landings were ugly because it would come in at 20 and then stall

RE: inevitable happed
 

Believe me or not, we managed to tip stall even SIG KADAT LT 40 :D. All you need is: slow speed, up elevator and when wing drops try to correct it with ailerons. Tip stall guaranteed. :)

What happens when the wing stalls and drops on very slow speed lowering that aileron just makes things worse. The wing profile changes causing more drag and less lift. The only recovery (we tested it) is to use rudder only. Yaw makes the stalling wing to move just a bit faster and recover (stalling the other wing) to level. On bank turn the lower wing is moving slower than uppoer wing so it stalls first, and you can not rise it with ailerons because as I descrivbd above, it just makes things worse.

When you have a snappy plane the worse position is flying slow, nose down knife edge. The only recovery I found so far is to add power and opposite rudder trying to fly it out with knife edge. Aileron or elevator will make that thing just snap and snap.

Fo the landing approach the last turn should be way above the stall speed so you don't take sharp turn at low speed and high angle of attack. Blend the speed when wings are leveled - when the recovery from the tip stall is the easiest (with the rudder). Every new plane I try flying a harier to see how much I can push the limit on the angle of attack and how the plane behaves on stall. This knowledge halps a lot on the first landing.

PLH actually does harier quite well as long as you keep her level. She rocks the wing a little but that doesn't even need any correction. I just don't allow them to drop more than 30 degrees. This characteristic really makes easy landings: on final approach with the speed a little over stall with low angle of attack (descenting rate controlled by the throttle, not the elevator). I aim to be about 2 ft above the ground at the treshold. Than I level out (small flare - not to much otherwise she will baloon), lower the throttle and let her stall at half ft or less above the runway. I tested stock LG and it can easy take 2 ft drop (yes I stalled her once at 2 ft) without braking anything.

Happy flying

RysiuM