How often do you crash?

[PJaussie]

So far with tricopter I have had minor crash once, and a pretty major one just today when two of the props fell off for some reason. The collets don't seem to tighten up too good.

Photo isn't the best but a new rear boom and some cable ties, and should be good as new. Not sure what im going to do about securing the props from now on, how can I trust em again.

[/IMG]

 

[RichB]

The collets don't seem to tighten up too good.

I've never seen a problem with collets coming loose. Theya re usually rock solid.

I don't suppose it's possible that you have 1/8" collets (3.175mm) on 3mm shafts?


Anyway. I crash something almost every time I go out. Same for my brother. Here's a clip from a Flite Brothers episode we are working on:

That's what we call a good landing!

 

[Capt_Beavis]

I crash maybe 1 out of 5 times I got out. I have never broken a prop. My DR I have only put down hard a couple of times in high wind and once just donking around. I crashed the sport cub s once trying to fly inverted low. I crashed and aggressively landed the Pitts a few times when I was learning on it, but am pretty smooth now.

I basically follow the 2-3 mistakes high rule and it serves me pretty well.

Now, with my AS3Xtra I crash almost every time I fly it, but that is because I am doing stupid stuff close to the ground (like doing rolls until stalls out).

I don't know if this image does justice to exactly how ugly this AS3Xtra is but you can see the tape and CF repairs.

 

[bhursey]

So far this year 100% lol... I only flew once after not flying for 13 years. had my expos reversed, and a battery that went bad and ran for only 15 seconds. Yes I tested it before and got 5 min. Lost power and hard a hard landing stalling 1 foot off the ground. she is fixed with epoxy.

I bought a ft trainer I'm building and new electronics.. Switched to lipo's. They should be in the mail tomorrow.

 

[schrodingerslapdog]

Honestly, I don't crash much. Mostly just the first few times out with a plane it might happen, but I started flying in November, and my only crash since december was because of some would-be barnstorming, and I specifically knew a crash would be likely.(the joy of dtfb) It all depends on how adventurous you want to be.

 

[flyboy10]

I'm glad someone besides me asked this question - the guy I fly with and I usually crash at least every other battery. We've gone through a lot of hot glue...

 

[PJaussie]

I have found recently that using a Tx is like riding a bike. I have bought little RTF micro quads, choppers etc over last year or two, and have had trouble flying them without crashing most of the time.
So I found my old Tx the other day and discovered it was Mode1, where most cheap RC toys are Mode2.
So I ordered a Mode1 Turnigy 10channel, and it all came flooding back and has almost become instinctual again.

 

[krinaman]

I started flying micro heli's and crashing was pretty much constant till I got the hang of it. On airplanes it's pretty rare .

 

[SpaceWalker1992]

I have been on a roll lately. on my MG, my nose fell off, and when I landed (it would have been a perfect landing) it tipped over on the battery tray. 2 hops of a fence and a quick run thru a dog park and half a fish farm get my MG nose back, in perfect condition. I had a cartwheel when I wasn't using enough throttle hovering it 3 or 4 feet off the ground, that wrinkled the nose a bit. but, before I got these awesome value hobby motors, I was using some cheapo brand set of motors with a odd size prop saver. the props would always fly off the thing if the throttle was above 50%. it was figured how between me and some multirotor pilots that Zip ties would work. and they did. only problem was, as they flight went on, the zip ties would stretch, and the propeller would turn ( think a 5x20 prop) parallel to the prop savers. that burnt out a motor, so I turned to my tiny trainer using a 38 dollar Eflite motor ( way overpriced, if you ask me.) and then a soccer goal cam up and grabbed it by the wing, and after an impressive 3 rolls in the 8 feet journey too the ground, the motor shaft bent... that was a bad day for me. now the Tiny trainer is gone, but I still have a spare mini pod if I decide to make a mini speedster, or turn my MG into a ford trimo- hey thats a good idea! uhm.. sit tight, I got some planning to do.

 

[ZoomNBoom]

Depending on your definition, I havent really crashed any fixed wing plane since last year (knocks on wood). That last real crash was pretty stupid too: decided to test my failsafe settings on my DLG in flight; turned off my transmitter at what I thought was a relatively safe height (~50m) only to find it would nose over and dive straight down burying itself before I managed to turn back on my transmitter. That was an expensive mistake. These composite DLGs are not fixable by mere humans.

Of course I do plenty of rough/bad/borked landings, occasionally destroying props or bending gears. And since I mostly fly relatively large scale planes that are somewhat costly, I do tend to fly them far from my limits. I keep the high-risk low-altitude stuff for things like my Hacker 4D, which is nearly indestructible and will do cartwheel landings. Or even cartwheel touch and goes. Those arent crashes are they ? .

 

[TEAJR66]

I crash as often as I fly.

 

[rcwingman]

Well it depends,

if its a foam scratchbuild i try more risky stuff than on my expensive balsa builds.
I love to try different multirotordesigns like the twincopter for example.
My twincopter wasnt able to land clean till now so I can say that im crashing a lot.
The most expensive thing for me on crashing scratchbuilds are propellers.

 

[Montiey]

I was at my local field / club a couple weeks ago, and I was flying my sport cub s2 around, when something happened on the other side of the field, so I peep over there, but when I looked back a moment later, the cub had smaked the runway on its nose / gear, and bounced back up a little. the prop looked like spaghetti, and the red paint looked pretty bad. I used some tape on the inside of the cowling to fix cracks, as CA doesn't stick. (red sharpie was my friend with the paint)

 

[Frosty Kid]

I'm only 13 and love taking risks which isn't always a good thing. My flight club does cambat every Friday and I usually crash at least 3 times due to the fact I think that I can pull of almost anything but quickly realizing my plane is in two pieces. So how often do I crash? Every Friday.

 

[Gryf]

On a typical day, I usually go back home with what I brought. But now and then, things don't go so smoothly. I'm happy to say that rarely do I crash anymore because of "dumb thumbs." If I go in, it's generally because of wind or other factors. I'm working hard on building finesse and general competence, so if I try anything out of the ordinary (loops, rolls, inverted, etc.), it will be at a safe altitude.

But having said that, I took my FT Mustang out with some friends last Saturday. I'd crashed it a few times during maidens... just lost control for some reason... which turned out to be bad solder joints at the battery/ESC plug causing brownouts. SO - with all of that repaired, I took my slightly wrinkled Mustang up for its first real maiden, and it was amazing. Didn't even need to adjust trims, it was brilliant... and then cleverly flew it into my friend's house. Damage from that was actually minor, and I had it flying again shortly. Then a couple of flights later I launched it, then went for the TX... and missed the stick. The Mustang crashed hard, and is on my workbench as we speak, awaiting further fixes. That said, both of my friends also crashed hard the same day, mostly because we were all having a great time on a beautiful day, and were pushing the limits just a bit. ;-)

But yeah, under normal circumstances I can usually run through a few batteries with no crashes.

G

 

[Jimmyp]

Crashed twice last week. Good bye to the Storch and the RC powers Mig 29

 

[skypilot125]

Did your crash look anything like this?

 

[SpaceWalker1992]

Did your crash look anything like this?

nah. mine usually end up like this:

 

[airhawk]

lately for planes its been 80% for helis 15% thats cause im hovering for quads 55% i break a lot of props

 

[paulshort]

I made a VTOL it was a DLG it did vertical take offs and high speed vertical landings. I once threw the transmitter instead of the glider.