Post about the first time you lost a model (crash or flyaway--whatever)

[joshuabardwell]

When I was 15, in 1990, I visited my uncle, and in his basement, he had an RC plane. Old school--nitro, balsa, 72 MHz, etc... I expressed an interest and he gave it to me. It was about a 5' wing span, so figuring out how to ship it home was tricky. I had to send it freight, and drove down to the terminal with my dad to pick it up.

I hooked up with some friendly folks at the local flying field and started learning to fly. At some point, somehow, I broke my antenna. I knew that the length of the antenna was important, but I didn't understand how antennas actually worked, so I just soldered it back together and away I went. The plane passed range check, but on the first flight, I lost control momentarily, and a more experienced flyer landed the plane. I checked everything out again, and it seemed fine, so I took it back up again. At some point, I lost control, and I watched the plane spiral down, down, down into the trees. We went and looked for it, but it was hopeless.

And I never flew again until a few months ago when a friend brought his Phantom over to my house and reminded me how much fun RC flight is.

Moral of the story: antennas are not "just wires" and DC is not the same as high-frequency AC. Also, I bet you a nickle that my range check was inadequate even though I thought I was doing it fine.

 

[TTMR]

I'll play, I folded the wings on my GWS "cub" getting a little to aggressive with my loops. It wasn't my first crash but it was my first write off. Second was the maiden flight of a Tensor 4d, I put too much motor on it and pulled the nose off.

 

[Sahara54]

My first crash was a Herr trainer that I bought from an older member of my group. I brought all my stuff to the field and put it together in about 45 mins. The little Norvel .061 fired right up and off I went. Trimmed it out and pulled a loop and the wingtips touched. I had my antenna collapsed and started the walk before it ever hit the ground.

 

[COSkies]

A Thanksgiving Day story of loss

Thankgiving day, 2014: Just returned from a fruitless search of the neighborhood adjacent to my adopted flying field. I broke the rule about flying upwind so any mistakes bring the plane back to the pilot. The afternoon seemed calm enough for my Horizon Champ, and I was excited to share the controls with a friend's son. No buddy box link to help control the Champ once it climbed into the sky. The wind began to blow from behind and by the time I got the transformer back I into my hands the little Champ was beyond return. The real kicker on this Turkey Day is I had not put my name and phone number on my diminutive orange buddy! Lesson learned at the cost of one micro rc!

 

[nerdnic]

February this year on my first flight ever. I built a FT Spit and after about an hour in a sim I decided I was ready. I went to an ama field and a nice guy helped me make sure my control surfaces were correct.

He yelled out to others that a first time flyer was about to go up and they all landed their planes so I could walk out on the field and hand launch. There was about 20 people there and I was already nervous, talk about pressure. All eyes were on me.

I stepped out and asked my wife to take pics:

Launching was easier than I expected but she was faster than I anticipated. At full stick I took to the air:

..only to crash from about 80 feet up 30 seconds later. On gravel.

My control surfaces were backward.

 

[joshuabardwell]

My control surfaces were backward.

LOL. Rookie mistake.

The spit was lovely, though.

 

[Balu]

Rookie mistake? What about the "nice guy" who helped him check the surfaces?

I hope he at least offered you a Mountain Dew afterwards

 

[joshuabardwell]

Rookie mistake? What about the "nice guy" who helped him check the surfaces?
I hope he at least offered you a Mountain Dew afterwards

Sorry--I missed that part of the story. Still, that guy must have been a rookie too, to miss that. Or just not paying attention.

I didn't mean it in a mean way, though, and I hope it wasn't taken that way. We all make rookie mistakes... when we're rookies!

 

[nerdnic]

It wasn't taken the wrong way no worries

I was pretty bummed after picking up my ruined plane to hear someone from the sideline ask to check my surfaces, "yep they are reversed"

The next day I took my delta and dusty out to a different park (after ensuring my surfaces were correct) and flew fine on my first toss.

 

[SOOFLY]

My dad and I first got into the hobby about 20 years ago when I was 10-11 years old. I had an interest in flight, so my dad found a local RC club and some of the members let us buddy box their trainers a few times. After a couple weeks, we joined the club (WCRC Skyhawks) and AMA. My dad bought a used Eagle Scout 2 trainer from one of the members. It was a large, 5ft wing span, made of balsa, red, with an O.S. 46 engine and came with a 4 channel 72mhz Futaba transmitter. One of the seasoned members (a guy named Jeff... can't remember his last name) befriended us and met my dad and I out at the field almost every weekend for a year straight to train us. My dad offered to pay him for his services more then once, but he would never take any money.

So we had purchased the Eagle Scout 2 trainer and met the instructor out at the field the following week to fly the plane for the first time. The trainer used nylon bolts to secure the wing to the fuselage. We buddy boxed the plane and the instructor took me up. He gave me control and I a flew around for a couple minutes as he kept taking back control to recover the plane from crashing. We were flying the plane toward us, about 100 ft above the runway when the wing popped off the plane. The fuselage nose dived into the runway about 50ft in front of us and the wing slowly flipped to the ground. I remember the instructor telling me he only had enough time to throttle back and that was it. The plane exploded in so many pieces. You couldn't even tell it was a plane. We paid another member that was good at building to scratch build a new fuselage for us and we were able to reuse the components and wing. He rebuilt the plane to use rubber bands to hold the wing on instead of the nylon bolts and matched the red monokote almost perfectly.

The plane flew great after the rebuild and we both ended up soloing on the trainer. I can still remember the day I soloed. It was a really big deal for somebody to take off, fly around and land by them self. It took us several months buddy boxing to finally solo. You actually weren't allowed to fly by yourself at the field until a seasoned member signed off that you had soloed. Back then everything was gas, balsa and took months to build, so crashing was a huge deal. Unfortunately, after soling we only stayed in the hobby for 2-3 years. I think I decided chasing girls was more interesting then flying planes and my dad was busy with work.

20 years later, I'm married with a 9 year old son of my own. I got back into the hobby a couple years back and everything had changed completely. I'm now flying and building foam planes. It's crazy how much easier and cheaper the hobby has become. I haven't joined a club yet, so I fly at a large field at a school on the weekends. I still have all my dads old RC stuff... the red trainer is sitting in the attic right now waiting to be fired up. I put some snake oil in the motor a couple months ago and the motor still turns smoothly. I've thought about converting it to electric and use it to train my son, but he's more interested in video games at the moment. The WCRC club is still very active and has a webpage that I've checked out a few times. It would be cool to revive a 20 year old gasser and take it back to the RC club I first soloed at. I bet it would fly great with a strong low KV electric setup.

 

[MrClean]

I was flying a little 1/2 A racer, I think a Hornet or something like that. I had the rx switch in the wrong place though and when I threw it I turned off the receiver. Little thing took 3 minutes of climbing in a circle till it hit the low cloud base, had another 5 minutes of fuel on board. Walked under the sound of the plane till it shut off then started scanning the skies. A herd of cattle started running not far from me and I walked over in that direction figuring they'd run over it or it had landed in em, but it wasn't there. I looked up to see about where I was and I saw the plane sitting up in a tree. Went running towards it, jumped a small creek down into some weeds that surrounded the tree for a good 75 yards and when I was about there I realized my legs were stinging. The weeds were Stingin Needles and I was in shorts with sock less and tennis shoes. The plane was about 30 feet up this tree, a Honey Locust, female, with 3 to 6 inch thorns all the way up. It took a lot of careful climbing, cutting off thorns till I got to the plane, pulled it out and with no safe way down had to toss it towards a clear patch. It actually made it through unscathed. My legs were a mess for about a week then the scabs were gone in another two. Dang those are not fun weeds to run through.
When I got back to the field they were relieved to see me, I had been gone about 2 hours. One of the guys said they'd just had let it go and built another plane BUT it was my only flight pack, I was 17 and replacement costs at 2.35 an hour was just too much to replace.

Lets not count the times I had to go looking for my monocopters. Man could I lose and find an monocopter.

Oh, I flew it the next day and till i wore it out after installing a switch guard.

 

[joshuabardwell]

The next day I took my delta and dusty out to a different park (after ensuring my surfaces were correct) and flew fine on my first toss.

Control surface check is a standard part of pre-flight, but honestly, I have heard of even some experienced pilots who have omitted it, or just cruised through it not really noticing that the surfaces are reversed. It happens to everybody.

I have screw-style push-rod holders on one of my planes. Even when tightened down as hard as you can, the push-rods will still slip if you press hard on the control surface. IMO, this is actually a good thing, as I have had some hard "landings" that resulted in the control surface moving--I bet that the servo gears would have been stripped if the screw hadn't let the push rod slip. Anyway, I had flown one battery this afternoon, and I was about to launch for my second one when I double-checked the control surfaces one more time, for no reason. It turned out that one of the elevons had been bumped on the ground and was sticking way up. If I had launched, I would surely have spiraled into the ground pretty much no matter what I did.

 

[earthsciteach]

I can't remember the specifics of my first crash. I do know that it was several flights into my first airplane - a Horizon Super Cub. I can't even remember if it was before or after upgrading to 4 channel and a brushless motor. I do know that I've had PLENTY of crashes with that plane, since. All are due to pushing the limit too far. Too low for a maneuver, mostly just having a good time.

I clearly remember the first and only time I've lost an aircraft. It was my Bat Bone, mid-August 2012. It flew away one dark and scary evening, never to be seen again.

I sure remember my last crash. I stuffed my Maxford USA Stearman into the ground real good.

 

[mjmccarron]

My first crash was in May of 1976. Goldberg Falcon 56 MkII with a Fox .36RC. My first plane and first flight. After working all summer the previous year I saved up enough for the plane, engine and an Ace RC digital commander KIT. I spent fall and winter building. That day, my dad spent no less than 2 hours helping me get the engine to run (by hand. no electric starter back then). It flew for around 12 seconds before I stalled it into the ground. Damage was light and we were back at it the following weekend. I lost count of the crashes and repairs to that plane but I still have it and in spite of the fact that it is made up of epoxy and patches, it still flies. I have since gotten better. Crashes are further apart now.

I don't want to talk about my last crash. It involves a Bloody Wonder, the ground, high speed and two dumb thumbs. That one ended up retired and a new one built in its place.

Mike

 

[brian79cj]

I can't remember the specifics of my first crash. I do know that it was several flights into my first airplane - a Horizon Super Cub. I can't even remember if it was before or after upgrading to 4 channel and a brushless motor. I do know that I've had PLENTY of crashes with that plane, since. All are due to pushing the limit too far. Too low for a maneuver, mostly just having a good time.

I clearly remember the first and only time I've lost an aircraft. It was my Bat Bone, mid-August 2012. It flew away one dark and scary evening, never to be seen again.

I sure remember my last crash. I stuffed my Maxford USA Stearman into the ground real good.

I think I just learned a lesson from your video.......Take an empty box to the flight field.

 

[Jimmyp]

First Flight First Crash

Last June was my first forte into the RC hobby. I went on a RV camping trip and thought it would be fun to take a toy with me. I went and bought a small plane which was toy grade not hobby grade and took it with me on the trip to the finger lakes. There was a nice field at the of the RV park and I flew my plane around until I lost it in the top of a tree. It stayed up there for a couple of days until a big wind came. But this is actually where the story starts. The fellow in the camper beside us came had about 5 RC planes in his camper and started to fly at the field in the back and he had a Hobby Zone Super cub which was hopped up with a park 480 motor and other mods. Watching him fly that got me hooked. He told us about a hobby store in the next town down and I went and talked to them and sure enough they recommended the super cub to me for the first plane. All excited to fly I took it back to the field and tried to fly it. About 4 seconds into the flight I nose dived it and broke the gear box. Two weeks to get a new part when I got home from the trip. i realize now that I moved the stick ahead which in the way I was holding the controller looked to me to be up. When it didn't go up I pushed the stick farther in the wrong direction until it hit the ground. Too many video games with kids where you push the stick ahead to make the thing go up on the screen. I had to un learn that.

By the way I still have the same Super Cub. Now it is hopped up with a park 480 motor and other mods. It has been fixed and rebuilt many times during my learning process.

 

[fjschuler]

I've really only had one bad crash...and it figures that it would involve the last plane I would want to see go down. A few years ago, I pulled a partially-completed Telemaster 40 out of my closet that I had started building 20+ years ago at the age of 14 (didn't have the money to complete it back then). Anyway, I finished the build and headed to the field to try it out. The first flight went perfectly. On the second flight, I made a slow pass over the runway at an altitude of 30 feet, or so, and the controls just went dead. The plane rolled slowly to the right, buried the Saito 50 into the dirt and puked the rest of the guts out of the hole where the firewall used to be. I replaced the front 30% of the fuselage and fixed some minor damage to the wing and she flew again.

 

[joshuabardwell]

On the second flight, I made a slow pass over the runway at an altitude of 30 feet, or so, and the controls just went dead.

Did you ever figure out what the cause was?

 

[Balsa]

My first crash was during the 2001 Foot and Mouth epidemic. I was around about 14 and had my pride and joy of a .40 sized Chinese take-away ARTF trainer and a Futaba SkySport 6 radio. As I was was only 14 and as such could not drive, I relied on my mother providing me with a lift to the local flying club (CDMAC in Carlisle, Cumbria at the time) which was about a good forty minutes drive from the house. The particular summers' day was an especially excellent one the wind was light and the sun blazing (rare for Cumbria) and I was eager to go.

We got to the field at around 1200hrs and I unpacked my gear from the car and waved of my mother. There were already flyers there and I walked to the chap who had been training me and made small talk (well, as much as one does when a child conversing with a grown man). There was another bloke to whom my instructor had also been speaking who turned out to work for DEFRA (environmental agency) and had been sent up here on a months long sojourn whilst the farmers of Cumbria tried to sort out the mess a rather inconsiderate Dutchman had caused. Anyway, I filled her up and, buddy lead attached, took off and flew...and flew again...and again. The chap from DEFRA then asked if he could fly her as he had had to leave all his models at home in the south due to the short term nature of his posting, having gotten quite friendly with him at this point I agreed and we filled her up once more and off she went. He tore her through the skies, loops, bunts, rolls all impossible to my adolescent fingers and I watched in amazement as...she went in to a tight spiral at 50 and straight in to the grass in an explosion of poor quality balsa and poplar.

You see, such was my excitement at flying the next day that though I'd put my Tx on charge I hadn't actually switched it on at the wall and as such had gone to the field with half charged Tx battery. Of course 14 year old me vehemently denied that anything like this should have come to pass and so the nice man from DEFRA wrote an angry letter to Futaba telling me that I should send that letter and the 'offending' Tx back to them. I never did, nor did I ever return to the club. Some time later I bought an Hobbyzone Aerobird 3 (the one with the improved control surfaces) which I lost a year later after letting it get too far down wind. But that's a less interesting story.

 

[FAI-F1D]

My first model loss was a rocket glider, probably around age 13. I still remember seeing it circling with the vultures and then disappearing in the distance behind a tree line. Looked for it for a long time but never found it. My first real OOS (out of sight) was around age 15 when I caught my first real thermal, this time with a rubber model. It climbed away to astounding altitude and vanished into the distance--never saw it get to the ground.

Most spectacular losses are these two:
1. Lost a 1940 Ed Lidgard Hi-Ho to an unseated wing (not enough rubber bands holding it down). This is an ultra high-powered rubber model that probably climbs faster than most of the electrics out there. I had let it take off from the roof of my car, right into obvious lift. About 30' into the air, that wing started coming unseated, and the model nosed down to the right. The speed built up and as soon as it hit nose level, the wing spar snapped, leaving two wing halved tumbling through the air, while the fuselage, complete with 16x20 prop and fully wound rubber motor, speared into the ground and completely disintegrated. The one wing panel, tumbling in lift, landed a quarter of a mile downwind. The other continued out of sight, still climbing ever higher!

2. At the same field, I was out flying an tiny 8" catapult glider and decided to do some hand launching. Being so light, the model wasn't easy to throw to any significant altitude. I was very pleased with myself for being able to throw it 30' up. I was less pleased when it didn't stop going up. I timed it for 7 or 8 minutes, by which time it vanished into a cumulus cloud that had formed straight above me. It never drifted at all during the observed flight--stayed directly above me the entire time.