What did you crash today

[Burnhard]

Had a little mishap with my simple scout XL a week ago. On final approach I got the depth wrong and did not recognize that I had not passed the tree yet. Cut her loose the next day. Quite a bit of damage but she will live to fly another day.

The floats got stuck in the branches and one branch went through half the wing. Also the motor decals got completely smashed. Same for the motor mount.

 

[Inq]

Had a great day flying yesterday and posted in the good thread - https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/what-did-you-fly-today.57878/page-537#post-738128 I've worked up to a 50% success rate from ZERO. The other 50% goes in this bad thread.

The F-22 is too much of a leap for me no matter how slow it supposedly can fly based on the F-22 build/fly tread.

The first flight with the F-22 went so-so for about thirty seconds when it went into a dive and couldn't recover. It came down pretty softly and didn't have any damage at all. The nose had come off and the battery had come loose and was lying several feet away. To get the CG right the 1500 mAhr battery is actually fully in the main body and the nose/canopy is totally empty. I suspect the battery had come loose in flight and fallen forward into the nose driving the CG further forward than the elevators could compensate. The mushing, nose-down landing seems to indicate this.

The second flite was more just plain pilot error. The only difference between the top and bottom is the canopy painting. It wasn't enough and got disoriented and did a good ole face-plant. I wish I had gotten a photo of the sod still stuck to the nose. Surprisingly, the nose is completely unharmed, but the second station took the brunt of the impact probably because of the battery being driving back and up. Also, the foamboard wing took some serious creases.

Actually, I think this could be salvaged, the plastic could be fused back together and the foamboard bends straitened out. But... I think I'll just make another. One sheet of foamboard and 60¢ worth of plastic isn't too much to spend on a new plane. I'd also like to try ironing down the foam-board edges someone on the forum mentioned. I tried it on some scarp and I can get a near airfoil leading edge while hardening it up. Win-win.

 

[Mr NCT]

Had a great day flying yesterday and posted in the good thread - https://forum.flitetest.com/index.php?threads/what-did-you-fly-today.57878/page-537#post-738128 I've worked up to a 50% success rate from ZERO. The other 50% goes in this bad thread.

The F-22 is too much of a leap for me no matter how slow it supposedly can fly based on the F-22 build/fly tread.
View attachment 233742

The first flight with the F-22 went so-so for about thirty seconds when it went into a dive and couldn't recover. It came down pretty softly and didn't have any damage at all. The nose had come off and the battery had come loose and was lying several feet away. To get the CG right the 1500 mAhr battery is actually fully in the main body and the nose/canopy is totally empty. I suspect the battery had come loose in flight and fallen forward into the nose driving the CG further forward than the elevators could compensate. The mushing, nose-down landing seems to indicate this.

The second flite was more just plain pilot error. The only difference between the top and bottom is the canopy painting. It wasn't enough and got disoriented and did a good ole face-plant. I wish I had gotten a photo of the sod still stuck to the nose. Surprisingly, the nose is completely unharmed, but the second station took the brunt of the impact probably because of the battery being driving back and up. Also, the foamboard wing took some serious creases.

Actually, I think this could be salvaged, the plastic could be fused back together and the foamboard bends straitened out. But... I think I'll just make another. One sheet of foamboard and 60¢ worth of plastic isn't too much to spend on a new plane. I'd also like to try ironing down the foam-board edges someone on the forum mentioned. I tried it on some scarp and I can get a near airfoil leading edge while hardening it up. Win-win.

I had the same experience with CG, put the battery back as far as it would go. I ended up putting an Aura 5 in mine and had a blast with it. Used stabilization for launch and landing (you look like an expert) and then turned it off to fly.

 

[Inq]

you look like an expert

You must have me confused with someone else... I might have one full hour of flight time total under my belt among a dozen flights. As mentioned, yesterday was the first day I left the field with a still flyable plane... the Turbo Storch that is.

 

[Piotrsko]

Nose down and mush is odd and definitely unsurvivable. Battery being loose and adding too much up to full stall, maybe. The design does look to be intentionally twitchy

 

[Burnhard]

Had a little mishap with my simple scout XL a week ago. On final approach I got the depth wrong and did not recognize that I had not passed the tree yet. Cut her loose the next day. Quite a bit of damage but she will live to fly another day. View attachment 233328 View attachment 233329

The floats got stuck in the branches and one branch went through half the wing. Also the motor decals got completely smashed. Same for the motor mount.

Restoration under way.

 

[Burnhard]

Restoration under way.
View attachment 233792

And here we are, as good as new. Still need to get the dummy radial reprinted but that‘s about it.

 

[bisco]

beautiful, great work!

 

[Inq]

When the wind is blowing... stay on the ground.

Ever see the WW I movies where the hero gets shot and smoke starts coming out and the final death spiral? It happened today. At home now, I'm looking at our field's weather data, the gusts were only about 5 mph. I was up minding my own business and the wind comes up. The recorded peak was 18.3 mph. Guess what... I know exactly when that happened.

I was way down-wind about 300 yards. I had to use full throttle to make even small headway back toward me and the field. Then... the buzzard came out of the sun and shot our hero. Smoke is billowing out and flames are coming out and he's going down. I run to the our dead hero... he manages to land the plane without serious damage... saving it for the next novice aviator to take it up against our dreaded foe. But... alas... he is dead as a door nail.

 

[bisco]

LOL, you should be a writer in you spare time

 

[Inq]

LOL, you should be a writer in you spare time

Awfully kind of you, but taking English, lit, writing... in school was my Achilles heal. My wife is a writer and although having many awards, she couldn't feed herself being a writer. Much less keep me in the style of living I've grown accustomed. I got to have my toy planes!

 

[Scotto]

When the wind is blowing... stay on the ground.

Ever see the WW I movies where the hero gets shot and smoke starts coming out and the final death spiral? It happened today. At home now, I'm looking at our field's weather data, the gusts were only about 5 mph. I was up minding my own business and the wind comes up. The recorded peak was 18.3 mph. Guess what... I know exactly when that happened.

I was way down-wind about 300 yards. I had to use full throttle to make even small headway back toward me and the field. Then... the buzzard came out of the sun and shot our hero. Smoke is billowing out and flames are coming out and he's going down. I run to the our dead hero... he manages to land the plane without serious damage... saving it for the next novice aviator to take it up against our dreaded foe. But... alas... he is dead as a door nail.

View attachment 234071

Did the battery survive? I got sidetracked btw. I need to get back on building one.

 

[Inq]

Did the battery survive? I got sidetracked btw. I need to get back on building one.

Ah you have plenty of time. I remember you saying your Storch was for the spring and living above the artic circle or Mason-Dixon line (same difference) you could have all kinds of other interesting projects to attend to.

The ESC was the fire maker. The motor looks undamaged. The battery did get some fire damage... I actually pulled the receiver first and battery second out of the fire. All is in a box... thinking about itself while I'm still mulling the Storch's future. It's probably heading for the attic or garbage. I'll keep the wing which is undamaged. I haven't even looked at the components yet. Several at the club said it was a right off... to never trust the battery.

I was hoping to advance a little further out of beginner into intermediate piloting on the Storch, but this being the second time I've burned it up because of underpowering against head winds, I find I'm ready for something with a little more wind penetrating ability.

 

[Burnhard]

Had a little mishap with my Mozzi recently. I took of with flaps out but from the start had troubles gaining altitude. Had only little control and when I pulled the flaps up the Mozzi went into a straight dive in the cornfield nearby. Nose is gone as are both nacelles. Luckily neither the wing nor the tail suffered any damage.

So what happened? Well, I did a last minuted change on my radio at the field without thinking things through. On all my planes I have the flaps on a slider in pull configuration. The Mozzi was the only plane where that slider was reversed. That annoyed me so I changed it and it seemed to do as I want it. What I did not think about is that I had a mix for the elevator in place which was not reversed as well. So in the new up configuration, the mix told the aircraft to give full down elevator. As long as I had the the flaps half out, the down elevator was at least countered by the additional lift from the flaps but when I pulled the flaps in, the elevator went down and so did the Mozzi. Reminds me to not do changes at the field without thorough testing.

Luckily I created plans for the parts before building it the first time. She will live to fly another day. Spent my day today removing the damaged parts.

 

[danskis]

Ouch that hurts...my condolences.

While I did fly today I escaped having anything to contribute to this thread. :<)

 

[Mr NCT]

Glad you made plans before the build!

 

[Crazed Scout Pilot]

And here we are, as good as new. Still need to get the dummy radial reprinted but that‘s about it. View attachment 233939

Back in business!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Beautiful paint job!

 

[Crazed Scout Pilot]

Don't try to fly inverted with a plane that doesn't fly real well.

 

[Mr_Stripes]

Don't try to fly inverted with a plane that doesn't fly real well. View attachment 239525

Might as well go out in style

 

[akimbo]

I decided to fly in the morning for once with my new design and crashed because of the sun. I was forced to make it out of black foamboard which makes it difficult to see orientation from a distance. I ended up crashing it on the side of a hill that was covered in a dense layer of plants(see photo below). Since it was so early, I decided to hold off looking for the plane because I did not feel like getting bitten by a rattlesnake and because I had a 3 hour event to go to. I ended up coming back later with extendable trimmers and cut through the parts that I wasn’t able to squeeze though, not only was there these large bushes that were tied into each other, but there were a million different plants that had spiky branches and seed pods sticking out everywhere. It was a painful process that took at least 40 minutes. Thankfully I found the plane and it had sustained minor damage and was only missing a control horn.