Steve Landron

Just thought I would share a post one of my great saves, and hope others will post thiers. I just had one tonight while flying the old Cubby!

Just got off work tonight and needed my flying fix. I decided tonight was the night to dust off my old Goldberg Cub and get out the cob-webs . I did a preflight, cycled battery’s, replaced my fuel lines, I checked the rudder, aileron, elevator, and throttle for the proper direction, connections etc. and I finished with a great range check.

The first few passes went pretty good, made a few circuits around the turn-up patch with no problems, checked trim etc while taking it easy, I then decided to bring her in as I greased in a nice landing. Every thing looked good so I took the Cubby back up for another go around. Did a few more passes and she still flew great and that’s when it happened, the throttle jammed WOT (Wide Open Throttle). At first I thought someone was on my channel and I had been hit, but no one was at the field but me and all other controls worked fine. I tried sliding the throttle up and down to possibly clear the stuck linkage without success. Man, I started shaking, and seriously considered ditching my plane of 15 years. Nope wouldn’t be prudent! I gathered my thoughts and decided my only solution was to fly her till the fuel ran out. Well the old O.S .46 finally shut off, I ran her out of fuel and I dead sticked the Cubby right in. Shew! what an eternity, the longest flight I have had in recent memory!

After I got my composure, I pulled the cowl and found the old soldered connection had let go on my throttle linkage, guess I'll replace that this weekend when I get home.

What a hobby, I love it!

Steve

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

GP Twinstar. Did some modifications to it, dual aileron servos, wider ailerons, replaced all the plastic on the wing with wood (tips and nacells), and glassed the wing center section. During the second maiden, the left engine died, pulled throttle back and nothing happened. The right engine was stuck at full throttle. Had to fly out the tank single engine and dead stick in. That says more about the design than my flying skills.
Edwin

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Once I was flying a P-38 powered by two OS 70's

The cheap fuel line provided by the manufacturer had split inside the tank.

I went up and over to do a split-S when suddenly the plane just sort of rolled out of it. I thought, "What the hell was that?"

Then I suddenly realized that one engine had quit! This is your worst fear when flying a twin!

Well, I was way out to one side of the field, but I was high, so I throttled back and tried to bring her in. Halfway over the runway I saw that I was nicely lined up, but too high. I had to make a quick decision: Do I set her down and let her plow into the weeds/sticks/grass at the end of the runway, or do I go around with one engine?

I decided on the latter. I increased throttle and fed right rudder at the same time. I had to maintain using the throttle/rudder combination throughout the circuit pushing and pulling the throttle stick diagonally: more throttle = more rudder - and balance with ailerons as well.

I finally got her around and set her down safely - Then I sat down for about a half-hour till my heart rate went back down to normal!

Mr67Stang

Can't compete with a twin with a flame out but. I had just got a new Saito 1.25 and this was break in day for it. It was performing great when after 5min 40sec the engine quits and I am flying down wind over the runway near the end of it. That thirsty Saito sucked the tank dry in 5min 40sec!!! So, I have to decide, glide straight out into the monocoat shredding bean feild with the stiff tail wind or try to get turned around and land into the wind...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1ix35mT_Ws [/youtube]

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Sweet!

ChuckW

I had the stuck throttle a few years ago on my first low wing airplane. I just stayed high doing gentle circles with a violent maneuver now and then to try and get the engine to quit. It never died so I kept flying it until the tank was dry. It seemed like forever. I got to make my first dead-stick landing that day and it went very well.

Just recently I was lining my P-47 up on the runway to take off. I went to hit my rate switch and somehow grabbed the retract switch instead (serious brain fart). I quickly realized it and flipped the switch back. The Lado retracts were about half way retracted but didn't quite have the power to lift the plane back up. It just sat there half squatted. Amazingly the prop never touched the asphalt. I ran out, lifted the plane, made sure the gear went down, ran back to the pilot station and took off.

I had another incident that wasn't really a good save but it was funny to watch. I was flying my GP 27% extra and the 50cc engine suddenly sounded funny. I throttled back but the engine wouldn't idle. I managed to land it but I couldn't slow it down or shut it off. I just kept it on the runway doing doughnuts while another guy was chasing the airplane trying to grab the tail. He was a rather "large" guy and watching him trying to catch the plane was hilarious. He did manage to grab it by the tail eventually and shut off the ignition. Turns out the muffler had come off. That somehow let it suck air in and keep running, even with the carb closed.

What's really impressive is to see a really good pilot manage to land an airplane that's missing part of the tail or a control surface. I've witnessed it a few times but never had to do it myself. I guess I will try if it ever happens, hopefully it won't.

Steve Landron

Man some great posts and even better saves!

I had one worth mentioning a few years back while flying close formation with my buddy Mark. He was flying his Great planes P-51 and I was flying my World Models T-34. We were making a left had turn in the pattern, with my T-34 being the lower plane, that's when things went wrong. Marks P-51 turned and came down right on top of my T-34 ripping off the right half of my stabilizer. My T-34 immediately went into a spin, some how I managed to think to cut the throttle and immediately regained control and was able to land. A good thing was the attachment for the elevator was on the left side. Marks P-51 had no damage! Crazy day!

Steve

[8D]

Steve Landron

Since no one is looking! The last great save I had a few years back while flying in San Diego! Once again I was flying my trusty old T-34 and another pilot had his PT-40 trainer up. I was focusing on my plane got tired and brought it in. As I taxied back and shut my plane down, the other pilot looked like he was having difficulties. I asked him if I could help and he said yes. He could not find his plane! He asked me to take over the controls and I did. Took me a minute but I found his plane, it looked like it was at least 1/4 mile away or more, and worse yet I did not hear the engine. I quickly figured out the planes orientation and started back towards the field. I dead sticked his plane back to the field from at least a quarter of a mile away, greasing in a perfect landing. What a cool day!
Anyway I thought it was cool!

Me

biam

Steve, WOW![X(]I also had the half stabilizer gone landing a few years back on a super star trainer, everything turned out well, even a good landing! It made me look like a much better pilot than i actually am!

HighPlains

My Feedback: (1)

Maintaining your composure, ignoring distractions, and not giving up on flying the airplane is key to making a great save. If you fly long enough, you will see many strange things and experience many first hand.

I was training a pilot that had a mid-air collision with another smaller trainer, both airplanes stuck together with the second airplane having it's fuselage aligned with the first, but it's wings were vertical. The instructor for the other guy was Ken Willard (of RCM), and we found that if he held full down elevator on his airplane, I could fly the other with good control-ability. Unfortunately, nobody at the field had a camera, but we flew the combo around for 5 minutes trying to break them free while waiting for the other airplanes to land. Landing went well with the wing of the second airplane coming off when it touched the ground on landing.

I've successfully landed five times with non functional elevator control, three times without ailerons, lack of rudder or engine control is a non issue once you do dead stick landings.

Steve Landron

HighPlanes hit the nail on the head! Composure is the key and getting over the initial response to freak out. That Ken Willard save, [X(] I'm impressed! Just amaizing what one can do in a given situation.

I love this Hobby!

Thanks

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

I took off a friends G-62 powered Giant Stinger this spring. He had just installed a 10C radio so me and two other guys looked it over. We all screwed up and the Ailes were reversed. So it gets 10' in the air and rolls left. i correct and it's inverted before you know it. So I pushed it out and gained about 300'. Luckily I have a 9C and knew a little about how the programing was set up. We also got lucky his ailes were on a Y. It took about 8 minutes to fly this thing and get the radio changed. I am a thumb flyer, and I know this sounds stupid, but I flew it with the end of my index finger while all this was going on. I still went the the wrong way a few times, but my index finger had no muscle memory and it made it easier to control. The 10C has a knob and a toggle on the right where the 9C only has the knob. This made for some tense moments as I was having a little trouble navigating the menu with my hind end puckered up. Not to mention flying the plane with reversed ailes. The guys were all telling me just to land it reversed. As long as it was running I could not see doing that. I knew it would run 20 minutes at 1/3 throttle. So I finally get them reversed and landing the thing.
I have never told this story before. Because even though it was a great save, it was my dumba** fault they were reversed to start with. At least my flying buddies see it as a save.

david

Mr67Stang

You should have you moderator status revoked for that!

ChuckW

We had a guy take off his Revolver withe his 72mHz antenna down. Another guy kept yelling for him to pull his antenna up but he was so busy concentrating on his hard to control airplane (it was going out of range) that he didn't pay attention. I ran over and pulled the antenna out and he regained control, flying and landing the plane in one piece. I still give him a hard time for it.

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

There are days that would be a blessing.

David

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

I had a .40 sized sport plane fail to rev up after doing a touch and go and the model ended up in a drainage ditch about 100 feet from the runway. I collapsed the antenna, put my head down and went out to retrieve it. Just as I arrived at the ditch, the model revved up and flew out of the swampy grass like a scared pheasant. I simply pulled out the antenna and continued to fly it.
Thankfully, there were a few witnesses......

buzzard bait

That's about as bizarre as they come.

Test flying a 1/5 scale Thomas Morse Scout in low evening light it fell into a spin not much above the tree line. I couldn't tell which way it was spinning, so didn't try to correct. But the prop tips were painted in my usual way, which is about 1/2 the length of the blade. Suddenly I saw the white prop disk which told me the orientation and I brought it out right at tree top level, the plane just missing the branches.

My Jr. Kadet lost its elevator connection one day. Flew it in the old RO style and brought it in on a curved path, then straightened before landing. It kind of flared. Still a hot landing, but no damage.

Jim

Cogburn

I was putting around with an 3 channel Trenton Terror old timer and decided to do a couple loops. On the last one it came out at about a 45° down angle even with full up elevator.

As it approached the ground I did an outside loop and landed on the field. The timing of the loop was perfect... luckily. Good thing it is a SLOW airplane...LOL.

The loops had overstressed the lightly built trailing edge of the wing and the rubber bands broke through changing the wing incidence a bunch. Up elevator was no good but it had LOTS of down elevator authority thankfully. I built the model in 1991 and still fly it so I was very happy to get it back in one piece.

http://www.itctel.com/kkostas/aeroma...os/7.28.07.wmv

RVman

Had one similar to the first post. Throttle got stuck at WOT and because it was a aerobatic type with larger control surfaces I could hear them flutter/buzz badly. The only way to stop the flutter was to do continuous rolls or wave the wings back and forth to slow it down a bit. I flew like that for 5 min or so before it ran out of fuel.

Back on the ground, I had bent the aileron pushrods, the rudder was cracked and the stab root also was cracked. The throttle servo was jammed. Another minute or two and that plane was done for.

Steve Landron

Thanks for all the great posts! I thought this was a great Idea! I was just reminded tonight of a save I had years ago flying my ¼ scale Tequila Bi-plane. This plane is scratch built, and fly’s with a Super Tiger S2000, and is covered in metallic green Super Monocote with orange starbursts.

It was a sunny summer day in Northern California and my wife Molly had come along for the ride and was patiently reading her magazines in the car, while I played. The field I was a clover field with a road adjacent to it, and directly across the street was a corn field which had grown to about 7 ft tall.

The flight went pretty good and I made a few passes around the field when the engine started to sputter and died. Unfortunately I was too low and the wind was not in my favor, the only choice I had was to land straight ahead right into the corn field. I quickly lost site of my plane as it entered the abyss and I had to imagine landing the plane without seeing it. All I could do was cringe as I heard the loud snapping and cracking sounds the splintering wood from my plane and corn stalks made as my plane came to a halt.

I thought I had a good bead on the plane as it entered the field but I was mistaken, I could not find my plane. I had to start to a grid pattern search. Unbeknownst to me, my wife who was still reading her magazine, finally noticed I was missing and she started her own search for me while I was lost in the corn field searching for my plane!

It had a happy ending, with the help of my wife Molly, we found my plane and it only took two hours to find it, and even better the plane came out of the corn field without a scratch. What a day!

[8D]

Steve

Srewinkel

I have had a few saves, as any decent pilot has over the years.  A few was as I was taking of my GP rapture I did a tail wag, and thought the rudder looked funny.  gave it right rudder, and off it came.. plane turned sharply, used ailerons and elevetor to get it pointing straight up.  cut power to ditch plane, and suddenly had a moderate level of control, brought it down with no other damage..

Took a 40 size trainer of with ailerons reversed, as posted by someone else, was able to go thru programming on my 7c. and fix them in flight.  thought about trying to land, but figured it would be difficult to control my mind and remember the reversal on landing.

The best one might be this last weekend.  A guy at the field was doing a maiden on a new plane.  wasn't familier with programing his radio and programed 90% neg expo on elevator, and only 25% throw on ailerons.  He nearly crashed on take off, going straight up, then straight down, then up again.  Plane was a touch tail heavy, so it was even more reactive on elevator input. I talked him thru getting altitude, and do some minor trim, he handed control to me to land, i was able to get it down without a scratch. had to move stick to extreme to get the plane to bank, but very little elevator input would make it jump.

One of the best shows was flying low inverted along runway, missed it by 1/4 inch. tip of rudder hit ground driving nose down.  Ripped rudder off the plane, was able to roll plane over and land.  

Steve Landron

Very Cool!

ceecrb1

Just last weekend, I managed to set up my (rather new) GP Extra 300SP... started her up.. got everything done... taxied and took off..
The INSTANT it took off.. it wanted to roll to the right.. nothing too violent... more like it was doing a normal turn.. I couldnt work it out, TX trims were in their place..
So I locked to full left trim and still had to hold it a little to keep it straight...

Obviously I instantly called out I needed the runway and had problems, and was left to work it out by other pilots....
First landing attempt, it came in really fast.. I couldnt get it to slow... 2nd was the same, 3rd also but managed to touch down but a very long runout...

Cause.... SOMEHOW I'd forgotten to connect the right aileron servo and the aileron was set high of its centre line..... Also, rarely, didnt do a pre-flight.....
Leason learned!!

Didnt even stop the engine.. reconnected and took off to finnish off the tank...

rambler53

My Feedback: (494)

Not the great save...but it was interesting to see my Telemaster turn into a sailplane today. Landing gear fell off in flight. The whole block was missing, wondering if the battery would be dangling by the end of the flight. These are such slow landing planes, I headed for the tall grass and cut throttle. I threw in a new landing gear and block today and it's ready to go again.

Teymour

My Feedback: (15)

The field I fly at has a bad spot for my freq. It is at the north end of the runway at about a 45% angle. Usually it is not a problem as I take off, turn, level out the plane and fly thru it. Usually it isn't that bad..the plane will flutter for just a split second and it is over. Well one day I was flying my Twist and did the usual things upon takeoff. On this day unfortunatly the bad spot was a little bigger than normal. As I entered the dead spot the Twist went vertical and the throttle opened up. I stayed on the sticks and tried to regain control. I finally got elevator control back, but that was all. I got the plane back to level and then the ailerons decided that the plane looked better inverted. I lost elevator control again and this time the plane was headed for the ground at full throttle, from about 75 feet. At about 10 feet off the ground I regained elevator control and managed to level it out again. I try to gain altitude and get her back up for a little breathing room. Then ," wash , rinse and repeate" I thought no way , not again. anyways before it was over I had 5 saves with in 10 feet of the ground in about 20 seconds ( atleast it seemed that fast). I finally flew thru the bad spot and immediatly landed the plane, didn't even worry aboput the runway, grass was good enough this time. I finally figured out that it was only happening on my hitech recievers. Needless to say, I only have JR pcm receivers now. Well untill I get all of my planes switched over to 2.4.