A true crash fest

FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist
I've flown every type of model airplane except control line and turbines, and since that includes rocket power, I've shredded and crashed a lot of different types of planes. So here's a video compilation of a few of the more interesting crashes for your viewing pleasure, learning, and hopefully encouragement, that even those of us who are successful in competitions still mess up, really, really badly, sometimes. And yes, there will be another installment in the future.


Notice this video includes THREE crashes of iterative designs of the SAME airplane, and there were at least two other crashes in addition to these, and that aircraft still made it into commercial production as a successful plane. Lesson: pick up ALL of the pieces, analyze what went wrong, and NEVER give up.

Another item you'll notice here: I have very few crashes at public flying events because I do the testing in isolated areas. This is one of the reasons we bought a house in the country: we wanted a safe, convenient place to make whatever mistakes are required to build successful airplanes. Bottom line: find a safe place to test your airplanes so they crash in private, frustrate you as much as necessary, etc, so that when you fly with friends, you aren't a safety risk.

Flip side of the above: there's a thread over in Flite School entitled "You are never good enough to fly in neighborhoods." That's not true. What you need to do is fly things appropriate for the venue that you have the skills to fly in that venue. It's absolutely possible to safely fly a UMX plane in your front yard. Just use common sense and don't go out there buzzing cars, pets, and neighbor's front yards, or you'll get what you deserve. It's simply a matter of common sense, but we've got a bunch of safety nuts who have gone the other direction, and that's just as destructive as the crowd who are recklessly flying quads into airport approach paths.
 

JTarmstr

Elite member
Just curious, do you ever fly model rockets? I have designed a few rockets of my own, but have always been to scared to get into gliders, its hard for me to watch them shred.
 

foamtest

Toothpick glider kid
Just curious, do you ever fly model rockets? I have designed a few rockets of my own, but have always been to scared to get into gliders, its hard for me to watch them shred.
Just build it out of foam board and pray the glue doesn't melt. If it does then you're out a dollar or two, but then you can have some s'mores!

The best part about foam board rocket gliders is that the air frame tends to cost less than the one time use rocket!
 

JTarmstr

Elite member
Well I fly reusable rockets, some of them have made up to 5 flights! They could fly more but that point they have proved themselves and get to retire to the hall of fame. Also I dont know if foamboard can stand up to the acceleration extended and the folding mechanism would be hard to put on it so at that point balsa seems the way to go.
 

foamtest

Toothpick glider kid
Also I dont know if foamboard can stand up to the acceleration extended and the folding mechanism would be hard to put on it so at that point balsa seems the way to go.
Challenge accepted, well maybe not the folding wing part YET but the foam board one definitely.
 

foamtest

Toothpick glider kid
Just remind me every now and then, I will most likely get busy and forget so give it a week or two then I'll randomly have time and bust out a prototype in a night.
 

JTarmstr

Elite member
Just remind me every now and then, I will most likely get busy and forget so give it a week or two then I'll randomly have time and bust out a prototype in a night.

My schedule runs like that too. I will try to post reminders, maybe on another thread though, I dont want to steal @FAI-F1D 's thread.
 

FAI-F1D

Free Flight Indoorist
Steal away. This is good stuff. Also, there have been several foamboard rocket gliders already, and I'm in the process of building one of my own over in Mad Scratchbuilders for next year's community challenge. Also, check out Dynasoar Rocketry's line of depron-based rockets. :)