wessman

Hi!

Has there been any fire due to the crashes when using the petrol engines? I´m a little bit worried about this thing - it could be quite expensive to burn the whole jungle if the fire occurs after a crash.......[:@]

Many thanks for your reply.

BR, Reggae man

Kweasel

My Feedback: (29)

I have witnessed an few giant scale crashes and seen at least a dozen crashed engines and none burned. I did see one gas turbine crash and it started a large grass fire.

Bass1

I plan all my crashes to occur over dirt or cement so as not to cause a spreadable fire. If you must crash over a jungle just make sure you do so after a significant rainfall!

rcbill

My Feedback: (1)

When flying gas I make sure I have my fire extinguisher handy. I have not seen any gasser burn as of yet but gasser's are not as common at my field as glow. Bill

NeoGenesis

My Feedback: (27)

I would suppose it would happen if you rautured a fuel tank, but I can truthfully say I've never seen one crack or even rupture from a wreck. Not only would that have to happen, you would need a seconday ignition source. They are very safe.......just don't plan on wrecking




Neo Out!!!

Supermod56

My Feedback: (36)

I have crashed more than I care to remember, and no fires, fortunately. The turbines on the other hand, usually catch on fire when they hit the ground

beepee

I witnessed a large aerobat come in HARD on our paved runway. The gear caught the lip edge and ripped off. The nose hit hard enough to knock the carb off the bottom of the engine (twin cylinder), with significant metal scraping to follow. No fire.

As much gasser flying as I have done and watched without the slightest hint of a fire, I would not rate the hazard very high. Probably more hazard from the extingusher rolling around in the back of my SUV and damaging the airframe.

but that is just me.

Bedford

DKjens

My Feedback: (50)

Yep, as already reported, gasoline really doesn't ignite very easily, meaning that certain parameters need to be right. 1. There has to be a combustable air/gas mixture, 2. There has to be an ignitor. Gasoline in the tank, or even leaking from the tank, does not constitute a combustable mixture, and a hot engine/headers/exhaust, does not constitute an ignitor. I've never seen a gas model catch fire.

DKjens

famousdave

My Feedback: (61)

I have seen 4 spectacular GS crashes in the past 3 years....

1> 40% Comp-Arf + 35% Carden - midair and resulting crash into very dry desert brush... .fuel everywhere but no fire
2> 40% Comp-Arf straight down at full throttle - crater in ground, many parts unrecognizable .. but no fire
3> 31% Extra planted when wing separated at high speed... crash into brush but no fire
4> BVM jet at 300 MPH hit runway during a high speed power dive... engine was found 1/4 mile from impact... no fire

I did see one jet burn up on the pad... but the extinguisher put it out before it hurt anyone...

Crashes are somewhat rare in GS planes due to the extensive preflights and maintenance we all do . but when they go - they go big. I would say fire danger is not something one has to worry too much about. I would be much more concerned with keeping them away from personnel or property like cars, ramadas, etc. when things go wrong...

DP

CHM

My Feedback: (28)

There was a funny moment at the Tucson Shootout a couple years back. I think it was 2003. Jason was about to fly, and "the mouth of the South" noticed a black plume of smoke just north of the site. He said, "Don't let that worry you Jason". Years ago at the TOC Jason put one in, and a similar column of smoke was the result. Not too many people in the crowd caught the joke, but there was some laughter in the pit area.

I've seen a few minor crashes, and two or three total wrecks. I never saw fire personally. I carry a fire extinguisher to the pits with me.

Chuck

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

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I have seen/heard of more injuries of people when inadvertently sprayed in the face with fuel while tanking up.

A fire extinguisher is great to have when flying any type of powered model, not just gassers.

Ruddermayhemcom

My Feedback: (23)

To do it rite you need a large 40%TOC airplane that was built strate and true by a profesional custom builder.You must make sure that you have taken hours to perfect your setup to be geometricly corect. You must make sure you spend the time to program and mach all your didgital sevoes in perfect sincronisation so that there is no BINDING!Make sure you have redundancy on your baterys,recivers,and switches.Also some KS tuned pipes are mandatory to get that extra edge on power. When all of this is done, your plane is balaced and moter is runing like a top fuel dragster you are all ready for the madin flighit !!!!Now you aproach the flight line knowing you have done your home work and spent countless dolars and hours on constructing a TOC compitition plane and you cant help but think about the 2000 pionts of failure as every one is comenting on the craftsmenship of it!!After your plane is all trimed out ,You must make sure what you are going to do is premeditated before you do it.Remember It always leaves a good impreshion to do this in the midst of a power manuver like in the botom of a knife edge loop :tip ,its more impressive at full throtle and make sure your moter is under proped to get maximum prop rip and make shure smoke is on!!Now ,make sure that the point of impact is at the botom of the knife edge loop and is centered directly over a paved runwayRemember you only got one shot at this!If you screw this up now everything you have done up to this point will be all for nothing.When done in this fashion with great precision it can leave quite an impression!!![sm=thumbup.gif]
After you pull this off walk up to ground zero ,neel one knee down,craydal the carnage in your arms,and look into the air with an authentic ,dignified thousand mile stare as if you are great!And dont let a sigle thaught enter your head like "Should I have used 8411s with mach boxes instead of Hitecs?[sm=rolleyes.gif]Just baith in the result of what you have done and know it was worth it![sm=thumbup.gif]
[sm=rolleyes.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]

famousdave

My Feedback: (61)

Sounds like we need some spelling and grammar lessons too...

DP

Meschmidt

My Feedback: (15)

If you worry about crashing, you shouldn't fly, drive, or leave the house. Find another hobby, like sewing, but you could stick yourself. Maybe coin collecting, but you might drop the jar on your toe. Maybe flower arranging classes, but you can catch allergies or get stung by bees. Get the picture? Just gas it up and have fun in a positive attitude! P.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Are gassers safe when crashing them?

YES, provided your not standing in the way when it hits.[X(]

wessman

If you worry about crashing, you shouldn't fly, drive, or leave the house. Find another hobby, like sewing, but you could stick yourself. Maybe coin collecting, but you might drop the jar on your toe. Maybe flower arranging classes, but you can catch allergies or get stung by bees. Get the picture? Just gas it up and have fun in a positive attitude! P.

Well, I was worried since if I burn the jungle that I do not own with my gasser, that could cost me millions in this country (they think that all foreigers have as much money as Michael Jackson........). But I´m happy to hear that no reported fires have occured in the history, so now I can get one - I mean the gas engines. Thanks for your replies, friends.

BR, Reggae man

MustangFan

I crash them all the time .... havn't had a problem yet !

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

I think I should take great solace in all this talk and experience in crashing, and apply all my will and ability to go beyond where all have gone before to create the most spectacular crash possible. Beats the dickens out of the average, everyday successful flight and landing.

sillyness

My Feedback: (25)

I'm not sure if I should tell this story or not, but her goes...

I saw a guy crash a 40% Edge into a house several years ago... TX battery went bad. We just watched it fly away at cruise throttle and slowly nose over into a row of houses.

Here's the NTSB... It actually hit the driveway first about 45 degrees nose down. The carcass then slid toward the garage doors... it clipped the post between the two garages and spun into one of the doors. It broke the garage door off the rollers, which then swung into the car doing a small amount of damage. The pieces then slid under the car and imbedded in the wall between the garage and the kitchen. Husband was upstairs napping and thought a bomb went off. Wife was in the kitchen. When she heard the crash she ran into the garage to find a battery lying in a large puddle of gasoline shooting sparks. She kicked it out of the gas and there was no further incident.

Plane was obviously a total loss... both jugs broke off, all servos bad, etc..... just kindling.

Luckily the home owner was the only guy in the row that was a club member. He lost nothing.. insurance and AMA covered all expenses. Had it been any other house in the row we would likely have lost the field.

rcbill

My Feedback: (1)

I've been flying 9 years and my flying is only mediocre, but when I call upon my dumb thumbs, they can pretend that I've been crashing for many years beyond my experience. Bill

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Anybody can land it on the runway.

It takes a REAL man to cartwheel it in and splatter it all over the field. Parts flying, engine overrevving, servos exploding, batteries catching fire, fuel spewing out all over the place, etc...

Now THAT takes a kind of talent that most of us can only dream of.

ME? I'm workin' on it. I've come close several times--only to be outdone-- a paltry 5 minutes later by someone else.[:@]

rcbill

My Feedback: (1)

That's where I come in......[sm=bananahead.gif]

2slow2matter

My Feedback: (1)

No plane is safe when it's crashing!
That's inherent in the definition of a "crash."

Buzzard Dave

uh, gassers do sometimes and have caught fire upon crashing. i was at the last TOC in vegas. Jason Schulman's extra went in (he later admitted he thought he was in high rate, when in fact he was in low rate) trying to do an abrupt pullout and not making it.

by the time everyone ran over to it, it was a burning, melting pile of junk....


David S. Tampa, Fl

3D Joy

Li-pos can ignite when hit hard enough.