A fitting end for an old friend
 

Well mama said there would be days like this. Started out Saturdy morning with 3 planes an lt-40 (dear old friend) a GP Cessna 182 and a Hanger 9 super stick. First flight of the morning at my flying buddy's field (been there before but not to familiar with) flying my lt-40. At end of the flight start my downward leg turn left level out turn left again an firmly plant my plane in the top of the tree at the end of the runway. Never looked like I was on the wrong side of the tree am almost positve the tree moved into my path at the last minute. Go down to the tree and suprisingly little damage probably still flyable if it wasn't 50 feet up in the top. Greg my buddy decides he will climb this tree and retrieve this plane. Does an admirable job in getting within about 10 feet of the plane. We find a pole that he is able to touch the plane with now if we can just get it to fall the right way. Well that didn't happen and down she comes and lands nose first and drives the engine back into the fuselage. Must admit at this point this firewall had a little extra epoxy in it from all the mods I had done to it while learning how to fly. Firewall was only part of fuselage left intact. That afternoon we went to his other field which by the way was an excellent field wide open,good people,great view. Put my stick in the air for 3 flights no problem whatsoever. Thought it was time to put the MAIDEN flight on my GP cessna 182. The plane took off with no problem adjusted 2 clicks of elevator and the plane was flying fantastic. Nice slow turns nothing foolish about half trottle. About 5 minuted into the flight making a left hand turn plane rolls over and spirals in from about 150 ft. Needless to say we no longer have the Cessna. I am not sure what happened as afterwards as I was checking all the servos were working/ battery was fully charged/ just can't quite figure out what went wrong. My thought is the elevator servo stripped but after removing all the salvageable parts from the plane I found no servos stripped. Oh well maybe it just wasn't my day. I piled everything up after stripping the 2 planes and had a little ceremony more so for my lt-40 as I had over 100 flights on her. I figured she would rather be burned as her ashes could soar back into the sky as opposed to letting her end up on top of a garbage dump somewhere in north Texas

another pic
 

another pic

another pic
 

#3

another pic
 

#3

A fitting end for an old friend
 

I don't know, but they sure looked repairable to me!
Dennis-

A fitting end for an old friend
 

Damn son didn't your mama teach you not to play with matches!!!!! I don't see any damage in the pix that I couldn't and haven't repaired....


SORRY BOUT YOU LUCK
EGOR

A fitting end for an old friend
 

OMG the humanity! Easy fixes. Wings looked more than repairable! Viking funerals are only allowed on planes with 1000+ flights! Boy, you just ticked off the balsa Gods! They're gonna git you! :)

pics
 

Guess I should have positioned the planes differently. Yes wings were fixable. And maybe even the lt40 fuse. But it had been repaired twice before, that epoxy does add to the flames don't it. The Cessna fuse was totally destroyed up front all the way back through the servo tray. Not sure how that could be repaired.

A fitting end for an old friend
 

I hate to say this !!!!!!!!! I won't.

A fitting end for an old friend
 

Ah Geez. Upon even further inspection, I've now noticed that the landing gear wasn't even removed. I hope to heck you saved all the rest of everything. And I mean EVERYTHING!! I even harvest blind nuts from my wreckage.

Some day, you will be working on a model, and need something. Then you'll say "ah damn, that part was in 'the fire' that I started and regret to this very day." It will always be referred to as 'the fire' from here on out. Hopefully, next time you won't be so hasty to roast marshmallows and wienies.

That's why I said that 'Viking Funerals' aren't allowed unless an aircraft has 1000+ flights on it.

Besides, after that many flights, it's bound to have more epoxy on it. Therefore it will burn better when you wait till the expiration date.

A fitting end for an old friend
 

To get back to your cessna accident you said you were making nice slow turns when it spiralled in, sounds to me you stalled it. The Cessna doesn't have the same lift as your LT 40 so when you banked in to the turn it slowed down even more and you lost your lift.

Stall?
 

I understand what you are saying but/ at half throttle with a saito 56 i don't believe i stalled it especially after several turns. Even so if that was the case and it dropped like a stone I should at some point been able to recover from that height with elevator which i had none. Elevator on that model is huge. That is what is puzzling to me.

Pat

A fitting end for an old friend
 

Man, I wouldn't have toasted them. Ya never know if you or a friend is gonna to have a need for a surviving component from a sister model. One wing looked very good, the other definitely repairable. And the tails looked good to.

But they're your planes, your money and your sweat. I hope you roasted some marshmellows or made S'mores.

And you have the pics...

A fitting end for an old friend
 

Man whot is wrong with you. Those wings look 85% good. What about those landing gear and the wheels? Dont waste plz or least give it away to those who need it.

A fitting end for an old friend
 

One mans junk is another mans treasure.

A fitting end for an old friend
 

You caused my GUT to retract about 2 pants sizes from those pics. I have a sparkling new Kadet all dressed and ready to party. NOT the kind of omen I need right now....LOL

Requiesat en pace
 

Well Pat, if you were looking for sympathy....I'm sorry for your loss(es).

Re: Stall?
 

A plane can stall at any speed. You said it flipped over and spiraled in even though you kept pulling elevator, classic speed stall and auger it in. You have to neutralize the controls and get the wing flying again before you slowly pull elevator but the natural reaction when it is heading in is to pull full elevator, which only makes it worse.

CG too far back and too much elevator and the wing can go beyond it's useful angle of attack at any speed you than loose lift and bam, over she goes.

I would NOT suggest a Cap for your next plane however, if you have a simulator try a big Cap on high rates and you can recreate this scenario and learn to recover from it.

A fitting end for an old friend
 

PBIRD, You rock! We burn them to. When you work all week for Sunday flying you do not want to spend 20 hours repairing a $100.00 bird. I've done many and 20 hours is an under-statement, more like 30-40. I'll repair broken gear, loose firewalls, tail feathers, and wing tips but when they go in head first and break everything, it's not worth it. Now if there is someone there who wants it, they strip it and take it otherwise it's Viking Funeral time. Here are some pictures of my last great repair job, and for what. They all crash, again.

20 hours later
 

Framed up.

10 hours later
 

Looking good.

20 minutes later
 

Yeah, I burn'em now.

A fitting end for an old friend
 

still looks repairable to me. :D
but hay, they your planes.

A fitting end for an old friend
 

Sorry two stroker but man, thats some funny ****, by the way, nie covering job, wish I even knew how to cover

A fitting end for an old friend
 

Maybe you should just light them on fire before you take off. The crash would be much more realistic!