What did you crash today

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
I have 2 crashes to describe, (sorry no Photos), the first was a case of severe brain fade when I took out my Ugly stick, plugged in the Ailerons and flaps, fitted the wing and a flight battery. Did a quick control surface dance listening for the servos as all of this time I was almost trying to answer the usual twenty questions of a newbie at our local club. Anyway I taxied out, opened the throttle and took off. Immediately it started a slow bank/roll to the right and nothing I could do was able to stop it. It climbed to about 20 metres as it slowly circled back towards a line of trees wherein it parked itself. After getting it down I found that I had plugged the aileron lead into the Rx incorrectly and so I had no ailerons. Anyway I refitted the aileron lead Properly, did a quick inspection and took off properly this time. ABSOLUTELY NO DAMAGE TO THE PLANE, my ego was the only casualty!

Second crash was with a Bixler 1.1 Clone which has been flying uneventfully for almost a year. I started by doing the usual climb and glide flying and got rather bored so I started chasing some of the faster planes in the sky and doing some extreme acrobatics. I performed a vertical, (full power), dive and an extreme "G" pull out without an issue and resumed chasing the plane I had just dived on. I threw it into a banked turn and suddenly the right wing just left the plane followed by a quick roll to the right and the left wing's departure. This was all done at full throttle and at height. Needless to say it landed quickly, (vertically). The wing foam has started to soften and the wings were not held in as well as they were when the model was new. It was repaired and flying the following day and now has velcro holding the wings together when inserted into the fuselage,

2 crashes one due to poor preflight and the other due to complacency. Even experienced pilots bite the turf occasionally!

Have fun!
 

donalson

Active member
a versa wing pusher that was making it's 2nd maiden (first only lasted about 15 ft... went though a pack that I landed twice... once was even a catch (note I'm a new pilot (2 months I think)... natrually the next pack I had to nose hard into the ground while goofing off inverted and stuff and playing with high rates that need dialed in... the quirky wind didn't help either... was enough to dent up the lipo but still looks ok...

then I had an even more fun crash... my bloody brit... I don't even recall how I crashed it... but I picked it up, tossed in another lipo and tossed her... for some reason I had no aleron control... I have it setup as a 3ch so no rudder... but somehow with the wind and how everything was setup it just did lazy turns... between the throttle and the elevator I was able to get it fairly close to me and set it up... seems the prior crash had done more than I thought... it broke the rear bbq skewer and somehow it shocked the aleron servo plug from the RX... I plugged the servo back in, popped in a new skewer (I carry a few as this is def not the first i've snapped)... so lesson learned... check control surfaces after every crash... and prob after every lipo change...
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
The first FT plane I ever build is the FT Simple Soarer. I built it about the time I started posting here. (I think) I have never flow it except across the yard.
I have recent had some odd glitch with my "A" motors. and I had only a few planes ready for the "C" pack I had functioning. the Simple soarer had been calling me as of late. so I fit a C pack in and though today's the day.
Due to obligations, I had run out of time before my obligation, but decided to go after to the field and see about maidening the plane I was looking to Motor it up high, glide and generally have fun. however at this point the winds picked up to about 6 knots. (bent at 2nd stripe?) with rain clouds on the horizon moving sideways and away. I had landing gear for ground take-offs.

I have only every done slope soaring maybe three times on the sim. only once with some success/enjoyment. but is was very white knuckle ride for me.
I will call this both a maiden for me and the plane. Full throttle up and away. it lifted and started to climb. and get pushed fast windward. The prop near full throttle was only causing high alpha and more push. :eek: I am used to 4 channel flying not 3 so I was trying to roll the craft to counter the wind induce roll out. Then I remembered - Rudder. Got things a bit under control, but now I'm looking back at the plane. trying to bring it through the wind as I fought a balance point behind the wing lift. after doing a few loops and twisting. I managed to nose it down to gain some forward distance, with heavy throttle control and hard sticking on the controls I was able to plop it down on the runway. I call that success. :cool:

I realized we hadn't filmed it :cry:, so I took this one after lining CG and lift better:

After the cartwheel landing, there was another string of maladies the just put a second decent flight off a while. (mount nuts vibrated off, prop collar with the prop spun right off the plane mid flight, and then the tape holding the firewall on (regular packing tape) gave out causing the motor and fire wall to loose from pod. Remember, this i MY FIRST build. You can see this plane is better suited to calmer winds. It was a fun challenge to slope soar at the local flat field, and a joy to watch and fly. I can't wait to give it a go under better conditions. :D
 

kilroy07

Legendary member
Any suggestions for solo launching the spear?... I've tried to maiden this one three times now...

First time I ripped off one of the winglets on first toss, ripped off second one and tried again... Had a "few" lateral stability issues...
Second time winged over (stall, torque roll?...) and shattered the 3D printed winglets....
Third time (side armed) just cartwheeled across the field... (I'm giving up on this build and ripping the electronics.)
 

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Tjhochha

Active member
I did a whole battery worth of crash and goes today. I still haven’t gotten this whole controlled landing thing down yet. The only damage was my 10” prop is now an 8” prop.
 

IanSR

Active member
This is a Sonicmodell ARWing, not a drone, but the tree still jumped out in front of me, honest...


It landed right in the middle of the biggest blackberry bush I've ever seen, about 200 meters from side to side, took an hour to cut our way through to it, no damage other than the foamboard wing tips being bent a bit.
 

lrussi750

Rogue Pilot
Mentor
What's the saying?... Video or it didn't happen. ;)

I'm tired of breaking the nose off, so I designed a 3D printed stiffener... I guess I'll "have" to crash it just to see if it helps any...
(For Science!) :p
Make sure you get video ;), interested to see the outcome as well!
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
I actually got to get out today and fly with friends who have trucks.

Was a day of small issues for everyone. We managed to coordinate working gear to get some chase footage.

MY 4th battery I crashed the Aliein and cut and esc wire. I flew Taz on 4s the one flight when the footage was shot. The last flight if the day was gonna be a 5s run to show them how much faster Taz was then the Alien.

No crashes at all on Taz in the last few weeks. I was shocked when I plugged in the 5s pack about 5 or so minutes after the 4s film run and one if the motors insta smoked for no obvious reason.

20181014_223448.jpg
 

mrjdstewart

Legendary member
mario cart anyone?

although all 3 suffered damage, all 3 still are in flyable shape. luigi broke both prop's on beginning of 3rd lap, mario was able to complete almost 2 before going in the bush, wonder woman came in 3rd with a wild 1 lap completed. regrettably 3 other competitors had fatal testing incidents prior to the race. but this does go to show, this can be done, and done pretty easily.

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video and article coming soon. ;)

laters,

me :cool:
 

d8veh

Elite member
I actually got to get out today and fly with friends who have trucks.

Was a day of small issues for everyone. We managed to coordinate working gear to get some chase footage.

MY 4th battery I crashed the Aliein and cut and esc wire. I flew Taz on 4s the one flight when the footage was shot. The last flight if the day was gonna be a 5s run to show them how much faster Taz was then the Alien.

No crashes at all on Taz in the last few weeks. I was shocked when I plugged in the 5s pack about 5 or so minutes after the 4s film run and one if the motors insta smoked for no obvious reason.

View attachment 116541
Looks like only one phase burnt, so must be a faulty phase wire connection, which has a similar affect as holding the propeller still while you give it power.