Today I was cleaning out my garage in preparation to start finishing up a 35% custom built Extra that I bought ARC.

Iwas cleaning up my garge so I moved my Genesis to a "safe" location on the ceiling where I normally hang my planes. The frame is made of PVC pipe, I holds my old Eagle so I figured it would hold this plane too.. I decided to sit it up there for just a minute so I could wipe down my work table. I thought it was sitting securely and as soon as I turned my back it was all over. The fuselage slipped off of the hangar and fell nose 1st 7' to the concrete. The fuselage cracked around the firewall and it buckled about halfway around on the left side. It didnt crinkle the paint but you can clearly see two pretty bad buckles right behind the canopy... Plus the stress caused the fuselage to split laterally right down the pipe tunnel floor. I can fis it but there is no way that it will ever be straight or <11 pounds again.. I am so terribly disappointed in myself... I thought I was being so careful, but in hindsight I should have known better. Several months of careful trimming and setup and a plane that was flying about as perfect as you can get and in 2 seconds its all over.

This is just a reminder to all of you to be careful and think about what you are doing.. With a composite airframe 1 mistake and you can cause irrepairable damage. Looking at the pictures it doesnt look too bad but it is, trust me.. I dont know if I am going to try to repair it or just order the kit version and start over. Basically, my season is over.

Mike

ouch [&o]

Mike that looks terrible!!! AAUUUGGGHHHHHH

Ed

Mike, I’m so sorry to hear of your accident, it makes me sick to hear that!

I think we’ve all done things where we look back and realize our actions were not the wisest. Sometimes they result in disastrous, such as yours, other times we get lucky.

Last week I was moving things around to clear a spot to work on trims on my plane and I momentarily set my 10X down on top of some towels sitting on top of a large cardboard box (putting it about 4 feet above the concrete floor). Then, like a fool, I started moving things around and bumped the box, I looked up and panicked as I saw my 10x precariously rocking back and forth. Luckily for me it didn’t fall. I immediately thought to myself how stupid that was and realized I was lucky not to be out for two or three weeks with the TX in the shop.

Again, I’m very sorry to hear about your misfortune. You’ve got a good group of guys down there in South Texas, maybe you come up with something to fly so you can at least participate this season.

Keith B

Mike, so sorry to hear what happened. I have a Genesis too and love it. Hope you can get back in the air as soon as possible.

Jayjay

That really sucks Mike, sorry for your loss... that's definitely something that I would do though, I feel your pain...

Tom

Mike,

Real sorry to hear of your misfortune.

Last Thursday, as I was taking my Astral out of the car, one hand on the front of the bellypan, the other on the aft section, a strong gust of cross wind whipped the tail around. As I was holding on to the plane, I heard a loud cracking sound. Apparently, I had put too much pressure on the back of the bellypan, I put a two inch crack on it. Even though, I fixed it with fiberglass cloth the same evening, I am still mad at myself for not being more careful.

Obviously, my mishep

Oops, sorry, hit the send button too soon.

Obviously, my mishap was nowhere as catastrophic as yours. However, as stated by Keith, we all have done some not so wise thing. Hopefully, we can all learn from our mistakes and won't repeat it in the future.

Adrian

AAGGGHH Mike that's horrible! Worst way to lose a plane [:@]

That sucks...tables....walls...stands...all bad for planes. Had a built up fuse on the table w/ rudder on trying on the engine....guess what happens when the engine comes off.....tail gets unbuilt.

Dont trash the fuse yet. Ive heard of some guys rebuilding surprisingly damaged composite planes. Put it out of site for awhile until you decide.

Thanks for the heads up. While you may feel dumb I assure you that these things happen to the best of us. I dropped a brand new plane off the work bench one time. I said swear words that I didn't know I knew. Brian is right I'll bet you can repair it but right now your too mad to consider it. I saw a guy in Ohio have his nose fly off on his brand new Electric Genesis the 1st time he fired up the motor. The thing was repaired. Mike I hope you find something to tide you over till you get a solution figured out. Mike

Hey Mike,
Did he say why the nose flew off?
Greg

Yep, curious about that nose flying off thing. I heard a guy in Tulsa had this happen on an EGenesis...unbalanced prop I heard....this was a bench run.

I didn't actually see the nose disentegrate but I saw the plane repaired without the new paint. It's a good pattern flyer who's 1st name is Robert from Ohio. He told me the the torque was just too much for the firewall structure to take. the Genesis's are real flimsy. I have one and it's the worst part about the plane.
--Mike

Putting all your eggs in one basket so to speak is a dumb move. Planes crash, tails hit doorways and crack, sorry to hear your one and only bird is trashed. I don't fly anything I cant repair or replace, because I make many dumb moves also.

Mike,

If it makes you feel any better, I'm enjoying a beautiful 80 degree, 5 mph wind day . . . in my garage repairing landing gear and wings. When I was installing little upgrades in my plane this winter I made the conscious decision to not reinstall two screws in the front of the landing gear block.
.
.
Apparently they really were necessary. . . .
.
.

Mike.. unlike everyone else, I knew you were an idiot.. but damn your LUCK SUCKS.. 2 great planes in 3 weeks.. i am glad to see you are handling it well.. although, i have made a call to your wife with concerns about the increase in alcohol consuption and the nervous rocking motion you never used to make. hang in there, you will get it all back together and we look forward to seeing you in Nederland!!!!


talk to you again soon.

Chuck

been there, dun that. got he shirt... argh!

I would blame myself as Mike did if it was me 10 years ago. Now, I will rather accept it because we are human being. You can minimize the risks, but never eliminate them all.

Probably that is why a redundent system works well for us.

--qc

Keith, I read about your misfortune.. Dude what was it like 5 grams of weight savings? You are worse than me!!

Chuck you are right and you know me better than I thought! Two planes in 2 weekends was a KILLER. However, its the 1st significant misfortune I have had since I got into the sport so Im trying to just be glad that this is all that has happened to me,,, so far.

Taildragger, I would rather have 1 totally awesome plane than two of a plane that flies like crap. Im not good enough to be competitive with a POS so I have to have an airplane that makes me look better than I actually am.

I hate to say it Mike, but it comes in threes

BUCKLE DOWN!!!!!!!!!

-Mike

PS just kidding....I hope...

Oh lord Mike, I sure hope you are wrong. Im building a new 35% Extra right now. All I need is another catastrophe with this one. That may push me over the edge.

Don't feel so bad. I had a friend and fellow pattern flier that lost 3 airplanes with in an hour, all pattern ships. One was a radio failure in round 2, the other two mid aired each other, in the same flight, in round three. He was flying one on Line A and on Line B his OFB was flying the other. Sucked to be him that day.

I know someone that had a worse run of luck than any of you. Not gonna mention his name, but...

First he planted his trusty pattern plane due to a bad switch position.

Then he planted one just like it due to pulling the snap switch on landing instead of the throttle kill.

Then he got a nomex typhoon 2000 and planted it due to elevator failure. Then, he got one from me, scratch built, and man it was pretty. it was my best work up until that point. he had the first run of the "new and perfectly safe" Duralites) way back before we found out they have some safety issues, and apparently something went wrong in the fail safe circuitry and it burned his house down. he had it in his posession less than 12 hours.

Then, after the dust settled, I rebuilt a ZN Hydeaway for him, and on the way home from here, someone stole it out of the back of his truck.

Then, he built a brand new QQ Yak and the stab came lose and it drilled in with very few flights on it.

THEN he built another QQ Yak, and it got mid aired at the local club...also very little time on it.

I might add that all of this was in a very short period of time. And that's some of the worst luck I've yet seen in this game.

Consider yourself lucky

-Mike

That sounds more like some sick curse than bad luck Mike Kudos for his perseverance....I would have given up after the burned down house!

Man that is horrible. Yikes.

[8D]
This is turning into a pretty interesting "who has had the worst luck thread"