Is there a way that someone could be "at fault" for causing a mid-air collision? I guess if someone called "landing" and someone strayed into the landing pattern.....

But what about two planes that collide way out in the flying area? My 27% Extra 330 recently fell victim to just that......head on with a 1/4 scale Futana. The Futana sliced right through the middle 1/3 of my right wing......that piece AND the servo is still missing. Here's the picture of my airplane....

It just seems to me that no one could really be at fault. Ironically there were only two aircraft in the air at the time.
PT

No one should really be at fault in that case. Do you fly at the street patterns near Melbourne?

Oh NOOOOOOooooooo....not another responsibility thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!
'Run away...run away....run away

LMAO! "zxcv11" i hear ya m8,


///////////MOVE ALONG PEOPLE NOTHING TO SEE HERE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

only joking "ptebbe" just we have 2 very heated debates running right now

(being shot down)
(Great Planes pitts su2 crash)

most of us have been at it hard for over a weak and we are feeling the stress now

Back on topic, i think your mid-air was nasty bit of bad luck, sometimes it just happens, i lost me sopwith pup on maiden due to a collision with P51, no ones fault but my plane was in ribons, i did manage to repair it after a LOT of hard work and still flys today as good as new...


sorry about your los though its never easy on a collision, the only good collision i have seen is were a club member had a cam on the top of his wing and colided with another club member, the video carryed on rolling all the way to ground, i still have the vid somewere ill try and dig it up

damn scary when you see the other plane comming right for ya at god knows what speed

i've had 2 mid airs, one a couple of years back when my Outlaw delta hit a Ganster head on at a closing speed of 180 MPH, i burried my wing tip in his wing only his wire UC save his wing being severed totaly, i also took his firewall out and the tail on the way through. when we both landed safe, i took the tip out of his wing, and glued it back on.
second was two weeks ago, me and a friend are prophanging close together, hes still a bit new to it and fell out right into me cutting through the rudder and elevator servos. he fired up and flew again. i spent 3 hours fixing the damage that night and it's fine.

unless one of the guys is doing something totaly stupid, mid airs are a $h*t happens event. you can also choose not to fly with some pilots that seem to fly in a very ramdom way

yeah philly, sorry bout that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

youll know if someone is TRYING to hit you, theyll be following you around everywhere, its very very difficult to hit another model on purpose.

i dont think theres any blame or responsibility in this case, as with 99.9% of all the other midair reports on rcuniverse.

i am sure the guy with the funtana was just as upset and looking for someone to blame, just put it down to experience, it will likely happen to you again- but thats the risk we take when we fly our models.

the most you can do is say 'oh well' and let it go..........

of course, he would say that as he only nicked the tip of his prop LOL

LOL

I feel everyone is equal if they are all flying the pattern. What does get me is when you have one fish trying to swim upstream and runs into an oncomming plane. Then I feel the one going against the established pattern should be at fault.

I have been at fun-flys where fault was placed on the person flying against the pattern.

But then again, why make life complicated, go fly combat and have fun.

I could see maybe if there is a pattern in effect. Of course this is usually only found at fly-ins or contests.

I remember the first Joe Nall I went to back in the early 90's. Chip Hyde was practicing for the "half-time" show and pulled up with his airplane as someone with a stick type was coming across the field in the opposite direction...both went in...in parts.

Go have a beer, rebuild and go fly!!

Yes, but it tends to not be very common. To be at fault, you would have to be violating some rule... e.g. let's say the club has rule that states that landing aircraft have priority over takeoffs, and then person X clearly calls "Landing", and yet person Y still heads out and does a downwind takeoff right into X's aircraft as it was just about to touch down... well then Y is at fault.

The majority of mid-airs tend to be no-fault issues though - no-one busting a rule, just bad luck. Using a "spotter" can held reduce the likliood to some extent, as long as you can remind your spotter that he is supposed to watch for other traffic, rather than just stare at your plane

That seems to be common. We had a discussion about that at the club a while back... only thing we could think of to explain it, is that when there's more planes in the air at the same time, people tend to pay more attention and stick to predictable flight patterns (and maybe take a spotter along), than when there are just 2 of you out there.

Gordon

In 14 years of flying RC, I've only seen one mid air.

thats because your meant to fly with your eyes open.
i've seen some crackers! large 22cc Titan going through a Limbo would probably be the best. the Limbo was totaly shredded by the 22" prop, the Titan landed, taxied back to his box, stoped the engine, the firewall then fell off

Are you counting the Sheep as a mid air ?

LOL
well the planes flying at the time, counts dunnit?
Cartman can count a cow or two

Someone is allways at fault.

Question is are the liable.
And no I won't open that can of worms. But if you want a good read try the being shootdown thread!

At the fields I've flown in, "the pattern", by which I mean, over the runway into the wind, and away from the runway with the wind, is not really enforced, or even advertised in any way. Still, if you are flying a quick little plane all over the sky, and you hit a lumbering big plane that is flying ovals with the pattern, I can tell you who almost everybody at the field will say is at fault.

This actually happened last Sunday at a gathering (non-competitive) event at the field. Since the little plane (and just about everything in it) was destroyed, and the big plane only scratched, there was no discussion of liability, but the consensus was that justice had been done.

you don't fly these small fast ones then hey Mike?
here when the quickies go up the lumbers are normally smart enough to wait 5 mins or stay the hell out of dodge. when those are up the patten suddenly becomes a vertical U shape with all passes sub 20' over the patch.
everyone else stays in the center of the huge U and theres never been a fast job midair. however, a Rapier did once hit a sport plane taking off, the sport plane took off in the wrong direction ( cross wind ) and also didn't allow for the low pass the Rapier was already on over the far side of the patch ( on purpose as he was low enough to hit anyhting on the patch and he knew the sport was sitting there so went wide to try and avoid ) the Rapier was bits, the sport climbed out stuck at half throttle with bits of Rapier hanging everywhere. another pilot took control did a low pass which ended in a fast landing in long grass.
Nothing came of it, but in this case it was the sport pilot at fault as he hadn't waited and took off in the wrong direction.

mine the other day is just what happens if your gonna prophang as close as you can to someone who only really got the hang of it the same day, good reason for SPA3D's

here fast planes arnt persecuted just because they have different needs and flight pattern. bit of a waste if your only going to do fast passes upwind and 50' up in an oval.

Cartman can count a cow or two
--------------------------------

uhhhhhhhh, make that 3 now!
i hit another earlier with the tail whilst 'aerial cowherding'! dislodged the tail but landed fine-just sssssslllloooowwwwwllllyyyy!!!

Thanks for your replies. I guess it's just time to move onto another project.
Sad thing is, this airplane was less than 9 months old and had less than 100 flights on it!
Sadder yet.....I liked the way it flew!
PT

I once saw a midair between a heli and a 1/4 scale. It looked like the plane went through a cuisinart and confetti came out the other end. The heli was over the end of the runway and I think it was his fault.

I was in the pattern the other day and another plane came up on me and took my wing off. Fortunatly he had no damage and my engine and radio were ok. He wanted to buy me another kit he felt so bad but I told him it was no problem because midairs are part of the game and not anyones fault.

I don't think the pattern helps at all in fact it multiplies the time your planes are near each other.

Lets just hope Jonkoppish doesn't find this thread and fill up our mailboxes with endless posts!

Getting a laugh at my expense basinbum? <g>

Jon

Midairs just happen. There are a few instances I can think of where a person could be responsible, but every club I have flown at had unwritten rules that midairs were no ones fault.

Shooting someone down though is a completely different animal.

Todd

I've had 5 mid-airs in the past two years. Most occured with 2-3 planes in the air and none involved landing patterns, just bad luck. In all cases, I never saw it comming so there was no chance for avoidance. I also feel that nobody is to blame.

Tom