OK Who Crashed today ? Besides me :)

[Fly Time]

Flew my E-Flite Sea Fury for the first time in many months last night after replacing the retract servos and making some other minor repairs. While re-adjusting the retract servo programming, I accidentally reset all of my sub-trim settings. At the time I thought "no big deal", I will just re-trim it in the air.

So last night, I go to the local high school where there is a nice big field with a wide running track only to find that the track and field are ripped up, and there is heavy machinery parked everywhere. Definately a no-fly situation. So I got back in the car and drove to a nearby middle school. It's actually a better flying field except there is not as much hard surface for take offs and landings with the fragile retractable landing gear of the Sea Fury. It is also starting to get dark.

So I do a quick pre-flight check and take off only to find that my elevator is so badly out of trim that it takes considerable down force on the elevator stick to keep it level. Adjusting trim to full down only made it a little better. I don't mind so much having to keep some back pressure on the stick to keep it level, but down pressure is much harder! My brain keeps thinking I'm flying inverted so I go to pull up a little and instinctively want to push the stick forward!

Well I managed to avoid a couple near crashes just setting up for a landing and finally got it approximately lined up with the sprinting track to bring her down. The plane was all over the place on final approach! Up, down, banking toward the chain link fence and then level again, then finally on the ground, but REALLY hard! Then back in the air! Crap!!! Then down again, even harder, over on its nose Without question the ugliest landing I have ever made

Actually, it could have been much worse. One of the gear is loose in the foam, and the other is just badly bent. It will take some work to get the retracts operating again, but it is fixable. Everything else seems fine.

[birdDog]

Competing in a fun fly yesterday, had to do some stuff in the air (spins etc.) followed by a vertical downline and stop the clock when your wheels touch the grass for landing.
Held the downline a little too far, pulled level about 2 feet off the deck, fast, 150' of field left. Hyperion Extra 240 40e was going to overshoot the field so I gave a bit of down elevator. Well, this plane goes EXACTLY where you point it. Stopped the clock to take first place by 1.5 seconds! Blew the landing gear plate out, turned the 13" prop into a 3", bashed the rear fuse pretty good where she cammed over the tumbling landing gear.

A couple corner blocks here and there, epoxy this, epoxy that....new spar here, maybee here. She looks pretty worthy again but the cowl is pathetic. GREAT PLANE THOUGH!

[MadMonkey]

I bought a Parkzone T-28 from a dude on RCUniverse a week or so ago... got it in a couple of days ago, threw an AR6100e into it, and took it to the field.

I took off, and it was flying perfectly. I was keeping it in close intentionally because I knew the 6100 isn't a full-range receiver, even though one works just fine at long range in my P3 F-16.

Anyway, a couple of times I glitched, which I thought was odd. Once I landed after a minute or two, I convinced myself that because it was windy and bumpy (and because I hadn't flown in a couple of weeks) I might have mistake turbulence for a glitch.

Stupidly, I took back off.

I made a couple of circuits, and was suddenly locked out when the plane was about 150' from me. It spiraled down, out of control, and hit pretty hard, bending the motor mount, knocking the wing off, and cracking the cowl. Easily fixable, but annoying.

Then I got control back right after it hit. @#$%^!!!!

I know people use the AR6100 (I used it because that's all I had on hand... and it was brand new) in this plane, so I thought it odd that I had issues. Like I said, it works fine in my F-16 and they both range check at about the same distance.

I guess I'm buying AR500's for my smaller planes now

On a happier note, one of my friends gave me a PZ Corsair that he no longer flew, and it had a successful maiden today. I used an AR7000... learned my lesson...

[groundrushesup]

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

I bought a Parkzone T-28 from a dude on RCUniverse a week or so ago... got it in a couple of days ago, threw an AR6100e into it, and took it to the field.

I took off, and it was flying perfectly. I was keeping it in close intentionally because I knew the 6100 isn't a full-range receiver, even though one works just fine at long range in my P3 F-16.

Anyway, a couple of times I glitched, which I thought was odd. Once I landed after a minute or two, I convinced myself that because it was windy and bumpy (and because I hadn't flown in a couple of weeks) I might have mistake turbulence for a glitch.

Stupidly, I took back off.

I made a couple of circuits, and was suddenly locked out when the plane was about 150' from me. It spiraled down, out of control, and hit pretty hard, bending the motor mount, knocking the wing off, and cracking the cowl. Easily fixable, but annoying.

Then I got control back right after it hit. @#$%^!!!!

I know people use the AR6100 (I used it because that's all I had on hand... and it was brand new) in this plane, so I thought it odd that I had issues. Like I said, it works fine in my F-16 and they both range check at about the same distance.

I guess I'm buying AR500's for my smaller planes now

On a happier note, one of my friends gave me a PZ Corsair that he no longer flew, and it had a successful maiden today. I used an AR7000... learned my lesson...

Very odd. I have never had an issue with an AR6100 or an AR61600e in any of my Trojans, and the one I fly now is powerful enough that I can speck it in 30 or so seconds if I want to - and I have done so.

Does this Trojan have the hard-cased E-flite 25A ESC or the shrinked-wrapped 30A version?

If it is the former, I would look at the digital servos in the tail for any stall conditions that may have led to a brownout. Worth checking with a wattmeter because even a 7000 will fail under these conditions.

Cheers,
GRU

[anthony7820]

i was flying my formosa today and it was pretty windy so i decided to land it closer to the building where people stand cause it was only me at the field.....so i waited for a calm spot in the wind and came in for a landing...i was about 4 feet off the ground and the wind picked up again causing my airplane to go right into the pilot box......broke the fuselage in half.....it was pretty easy to fix though

[CHELLIE]

I had fun today at the Flying Field, I was flirting with mother earth, with my profile foamy Mavrick, flying 2 to 4 feet off the deck, doing barrel rolls and loops, and trying to drag the tail on the ground and mother Earth SMITTEN me With Gravity Oh Well, just broke a prop, wrinkled a wing a little, and popped off the wire guides for the control wire, 5 min fix That was an Adrenaline Rush Take care and have fun, Chellie

[MadMonkey]

Originally Posted by groundrushesup

Very odd. I have never had an issue with an AR6100 or an AR61600e in any of my Trojans, and the one I fly now is powerful enough that I can speck it in 30 or so seconds if I want to - and I have done so.

Does this Trojan have the hard-cased E-flite 25A ESC or the shrinked-wrapped 30A version?

If it is the former, I would look at the digital servos in the tail for any stall conditions that may have led to a brownout. Worth checking with a wattmeter because even a 7000 will fail under these conditions.

Cheers,
GRU

The ESC has glue on it so I'm not sure. I'll try to peel it off so I can see. If all else fails, I have a Turnigy 40a I can use... man that ticked me off though. Brand new (to me) plane

I heard about the brownout issues with those ESCs, but would that cause intermittent loss of control (for split seconds at a time) without a brownout?

[groundrushesup]

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

The ESC has glue on it so I'm not sure. I'll try to peel it off so I can see. If all else fails, I have a Turnigy 40a I can use... man that ticked me off though. Brand new (to me) plane

I heard about the brownout issues with those ESCs, but would that cause intermittent loss of control (for split seconds at a time) without a brownout?

The older 25A is easily recognizable because it has a square plastic case with an exposed blue heatsink on it. The 30A has a switch-mode BEC and thus no honkin' heatsink for the FETs.

yeah - about the intermittent control - you got me. A brownout and a reboot takes 3-4 seconds, IIRC. Used to be 12 lol but they fixed that

[CHELLIE]

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

The ESC has glue on it so I'm not sure. I'll try to peel it off so I can see. If all else fails, I have a Turnigy 40a I can use... man that ticked me off though. Brand new (to me) plane

I heard about the brownout issues with those ESCs, but would that cause intermittent loss of control (for split seconds at a time) without a brownout?

It sounds like a brown out to me, your lipo was getting weak, then you took off again, the voltage dropped to low, the receiver went into a brown out, it takes 3 sec to reboot, not enough time to recover, use a ubec with a spectrum, dont use the bec built into the ESC, with a 3 to 10 amp ubec, you will always have enough voltage to prevent a brown out of the receiver, you will go into LVC of the motor first, before a brown out, Hope that helps, Chellie

[MadMonkey]

Originally Posted by CHELLIE

It sounds like a brown out to me, your lipo was getting weak, then you took off again, the voltage dropped to low, the receiver went into a brown out, it takes 3 sec to reboot, not enough time to recover, use a ubec with a spectrum, dont use the bec built into the ESC, with a 3 to 10 amp ubec, you will always have enough voltage to prevent a brown out of the receiver, you will go into LVC of the motor first, before a brown out, Hope that helps, Chellie

My plane was spiraling for at least 10 seconds with no control until after I hit the ground...

When I plugged the battery in to charge it afterward, I was showing 12.09 volts.

GAH I hate UBECs and anything else that involves more work/modifying on a perfectly good RTF plane. You'd think after 16 years of RC I'd be a little more used to this

[Numbthumbs]

I took my T-28 out today, and I think she saw her last flight. I was doing Knife Edges about three feet off the ground and had a brain-fart and planted her into the ground. The only thing that broke was the motor (2nd damn cheap Parkzone motor that went bad on me within a month, both times after light crashes---only hobby city motors from now on) and the mount of course. She had about 70 flights in her, and now I think it is time to order a new one. The firewall is completely shot, it was only staying together with popsicle sticks and hot glue, the wing was warped, and only stayed on with tape.
The financier gave me the blessing to order another one after she saw just how much glue, tape and prayers were holding the old one together. Oh well, at least I have some spare servos.

[HeliScRapYard]

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

I bought a Parkzone T-28 from a dude on RCUniverse a week or so ago... got it in a couple of days ago, threw an AR6100e into it, and took it to the field.

I took off, and it was flying perfectly. I was keeping it in close intentionally because I knew the 6100 isn't a full-range receiver, even though one works just fine at long range in my P3 F-16.

Anyway, a couple of times I glitched, which I thought was odd. Once I landed after a minute or two, I convinced myself that because it was windy and bumpy (and because I hadn't flown in a couple of weeks) I might have mistake turbulence for a glitch.

Stupidly, I took back off.

I made a couple of circuits, and was suddenly locked out when the plane was about 150' from me. It spiraled down, out of control, and hit pretty hard, bending the motor mount, knocking the wing off, and cracking the cowl. Easily fixable, but annoying.

Then I got control back right after it hit. @#$%^!!!!

I know people use the AR6100 (I used it because that's all I had on hand... and it was brand new) in this plane, so I thought it odd that I had issues. Like I said, it works fine in my F-16 and they both range check at about the same distance.

I guess I'm buying AR500's for my smaller planes now

On a happier note, one of my friends gave me a PZ Corsair that he no longer flew, and it had a successful maiden today. I used an AR7000... learned my lesson...

Brother-in-law uses Ar6100e's and is always complaining about some sort of glitch or another. I Like my 72mhz, Glitch Free

[MadMonkey]

Originally Posted by HeliScRapYard

Brother-in-law uses Ar6100e's and is always complaining about some sort of glitch or another. I Like my 72mhz, Glitch Free

Ironically that's why I bought the 2.4, I crashed my F-16 about 4 times with three different receivers because of glitching on 72.

[firemanbill]

OK, Not technically an electric... well not an electric at all, but my buddy had an issue with his landing gear recently upon setting his 1/4 scale cub down in the grass. The left tire rolled off the hub and the gear tweaked the wrong way. When it did it casused the springs to come loose resulting in total collapse of the gear.

Between the two of us we had her repaired in about 15 minutes and he was air born again.

[CHELLIE]

Originally Posted by HeliScRapYard

Brother-in-law uses Ar6100e's and is always complaining about some sort of glitch or another. I Like my 72mhz, Glitch Free

I love my JR 72MHz comp. radio, with a berg receiver, for me its been solid and glitch free

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

Ironically that's why I bought the 2.4, I crashed my F-16 about 4 times with three different receivers because of glitching on 72.

98% of the time a Berg receiver will be glitch free with 72MHz, but it depends a lot on where you are flying at, sometimes you need to use a 2.4 in a area that has a lot of RFI, Take care and have fun, Chellie

[MadMonkey]

Originally Posted by CHELLIE

98% of the time a Berg receiver will be glitch free with 72MHz, but it depends a lot on where you are flying at, sometimes you need to use a 2.4 in a area that has a lot of RFI, Take care and have fun, Chellie

All three were Bergs :o

[Gofer303]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKmBQFUdrTw
Does this prop shaft look bent?
Went out to attempt to fly this plane (I am re naming to POS) and there was a rare occurence no wind,daylight left and a place that was empty enough to fly in!
Unloaded plane turned on controler, turned on plane and checked operation of all controls. everything appeared to be all systems go. I advanced the throttle to 2/3 and one last check of wind speed direction looked good went full throttle with a tad of up rudder on the trim and threw that sucker in a perfectly level and straight line . It started to rise and about 15 feet up 25 feet out the motor stopped and every thing went dead I could only watch as the plane crashed and broke the top wing at the body and other than that and a possible bent prop shaft it looked like minor damage . After getting back home and doing a tear down I finally found that the on / off switch would vibrate and lose contact cutting off power.
I will eliminate the damn switch and repair the wing and see if I can get the plane to finally fly!
I am also thinking about seriously converting this into a Auto Gyro ! Any suggestions on how to do this will be appreciated!!!

[Alpea42]

Convert that POS "toy airplane" into the trash can. Get sumthin outta EPP or P Z z foam and a real radio. Super Cub, P Z Trojan w/ DX5 or DX6I or similar.

[HeliScRapYard]

Put a brushless motor on my typhoon. and flew it for a while. was extremely tail heavy, but got it from a friend for free so cant complain. The Extra Went down because i forgot my sunglasses. tryed taping it up a few times, but it eventually gave in.

[Octavius]

Lost my XB-70 to the Palm Tree Gods this morning. Time to make a bigger, better one.

[Alpea42]

Oh too bad about the XB-70 I was watching ( in awe) your video the other day.

[Gofer303]

Originally Posted by Alpea42

Convert that POS "toy airplane" into the trash can. Get sumthin outta EPP or P Z z foam and a real radio. Super Cub, P Z Trojan w/ DX5 or DX6I or similar.

Any suggestions??? I wont throw it out but will make a autogyro out of it and an old honey bee FP heli! gotta have somthing to do this winter!!!

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by CHELLIE

Ok ,Who crashed their Aircraft today, and what caused the Crash, FAA crash Investigation Not needed to Determine cause In under 100 words, better less than 10, Explain the best you Can the nature of the cause

Was it,

1. Pilot Error
2. Dumb Thumbs, not considered pilot Error
3. Mechanical failure
4. Looking at Cute Girl walking By
5. looking at Cute Guy walking By
6. looking at Cute Girl and Cute Guy walking By
7.UFO used particle Beam weapon and fried Receiver and lipo and caused other Damages
8. Builder Error
9. None of the Above

Got an old "E3D" by Aero Model, had a perfectly good flight, perfectly good landing, was taxiing back to the pit area.

Wind got under the wing panel, flipped the model over and cart wheeled it. Broke off fuse just behind the back edge of the wing.

First time I ever damaged a model while taxiing! It will fly again, model is mostly fixed right now, and ready to add to my stable of five models ready to fly.

[philipa_240sx]

Flew my (used) PZ Slo-V plane into a pole... or was that a basketball backboard? Anyway, I was approaching for a landing... I knew there was too much wind but tried anyway. Aborted, pulled up and hit the pole! Doh!

The plane is fixed, however the stock brushed motor is down on power. Time for a new motor or perhaps a new plane.

[wblacker]

MEEEEE!!! lost my Gee Bee today...I was showing a friend how the plane gets into stalls and with a 300w motor is just did not have enough thrust to power out of a nose high...went into a bad stall then into a spin....I nuetrualized the controls, power off, stabalized, power back on and started to pull from the dive. But the ground interrupted the recovery. Dawg gone it. broke the cowl off, messed up the engine mount pretty bad and snapped the gear off with multiple parts of the wing. I am not sure if I will repair it. It is still in the car, I just did not want to look at it tonight.