CRASH photos, and lessons learned...

[tdavis]

We all know we will crash. It's pretty much a given. Respecting the fact that model airplanes crash, sometimes makes it easier to handle when it finally does happen. Most of us do several points of inspection before each flight, whether it's a $35 electric parkflyer, or a several hundred or thousand dollar kit. We want to know that when our plane went down, it was from something that was absolutely beyond our control.
I'm posting these pictures of my best pilot buddy's crash (with his permission), in hopes that someone who didn't know before, knows afterwards, things NOT to do when flying. In this case, decending from high altitude. A pilot error caused this accident, admittedly, and it was a small general rule most of us already know, and think about almost instinctively. However, even the slightest lapse of thinking, is all it takes to bring your favorite plane down.
To all new pilots out there, remember one thing (along with the other tips of course!), when at a high altitude, take your time decending.
That being said, here's what happened.
He and I were at our favorite flying field. I was charging batteries in my Thunder Tiger Scooter 400, and my Aerial Photography setup Slow Stick. He was flying his Thunder Tiger Scooter - the glow version of the Sparky. After cruising around at roughly 350 feet AGL, he decided it was time to come down. Instead of the normal wide decending circles to loose altitude and airspeed, he nosed straight down to gain speed, so he could do a loop to loose the airspeed again. With that extra speed gained from the bottom of the loop, the left wing sheered off almost immediately. It fluttered off in one direction, while the bulk of the plane spiraled straight down. Full speed, nose straight down the whole way. An almost 4 inch hole was the obvious point of impact. Pieces of the plane were all fairly close together, with some smaller parts strewn out about 10 feet from the fuse.
Watch your speed, throttle down coming down from a loop, practice wide decending circles to lose altitude. Those were yesterday's lessons for people that already knew better.

Sorry this was so long. But I (we) hope it helps to keep someone else from making the same mistake. He really loved that plane, and plans to get another just like it in no time.

My name's Tre', and I approved this message!

(by the way moderators, the plane is labeled as a parkflyer, but if you think it should be moved, I understand, thanks!)

[p51flyer]

WOW that sucks... I wouldn't put that in the parkflyer forum either, but it is a lesson well learned for those people that are going to be moving up to gas sometime soon... ;)

[tdavis]

Yeah, like I said, it's labeled as a park flyer though.. 57" wingspan, .10 size motor. (though the kit comes with a .07)

Actually I think now it's a 34" wingspan... :(

[AirWarriorBelgy]

"G" force Kills.....nevermind the speed :eek:

sad to see it happen


too bad it wasn't a 3-D aerobat he mighta been able to do a knife edge landing :rolleyes:


my sorrows to the pilot :(

Chuck

[thunder1]

Is that a new kind of brushless motor on there? The battery looks kind of funny as well.

[Trogdor]

Ya, and get this, unlike lipos, that battery is supposed to burn! :)

[SCAT-R-D]

hmmmm, you have passed VNE..

Velocity Never Exceed.

For those who don't know the term it's the speed that you are not supposed to surpass because bad things happen. Controls lock, wings shear, strange vibes happen, and if it's a Huey, woof and poof.

[tahoecrest]

Thier is actually an easier way to destroy a nice plane. I attempted to fly my Alfa Corsair doing about 60+mph in a screaming dive, out in a unfamilar meadow I chose to fly in while camping, through a misjudged tall grove of aspen trees. It did make the most incredible sound as it dismantled going through the unforgiving branches. The main wing left the plane first and is still up somewhere in the top of the first tree. Without the wing the fuselage shot through the foilage systematically loosing the horizontal and vertical stabilizers as well as the elevator. About 1/2 way through the trees the front of the fuselage and battery tray came flying out and landed in the tall grass. Fortanatly for me it had the reciever and sticky antenna as well as the elevator servo Tanic 1550 3s still straped to the tray and the phoenix 25 and MP Red Outrunner still up front. So other than the plane all I lost was the wing servo and allot of pride. The more amazing thing was that it didn't even break the prop which says allot for those Aeronaut black carbon props. I now have a good exscuse to pickup the new Alfa Corsair with the modified paint theme when it comes out soon. I had more flights than I could count on her and certainly got my $$'s worth but what a shame to loose such a sweet flyer and one of my favorite planes, escpecially due to total pilot error. Like what has been said before in this hobby its not if you crash but when, LOL!!!
HAPPY FLYING!!!

[tdavis]

Is that a new kind of brushless motor on there? The battery looks kind of funny as well.

It's a fuel engine.. OS .10 So I think the thing that looks like the battery to you is actually the fuel tank. (still half a tank left in there too!)

[Basketcase]

I think Thunder was being sarcastic :rolleyes: since this is an odd place to post a glow plane accident.

I know, I know... it's "labeled" as a parkflyer. Just because the advertising writers think they can drum up a few more sales by calling it something it isn't doesn't make it a parkflyer. It's totally out of the range of what is normally regarded in the spirit of this forum as a parkflyer. I also think that Thuder Tiger is making a big mistake in calling any glow plane a parkflyer, as people flying these things in parks are going to get parkflying banned for everyone. The biggest complaint generator is noise, and even with that big muffler on there people are still going to object to the noise. Sometimes it only takes one complaint and then the "No Flying RC Planes" signs are posted.

I assume that you weren't flying in a park but that doesn't mean somebody else won't take Thunder Tigers advertising literally.

"Small Field Flyer" would be more like it. :)

[Hogster]

I had the wing rip off one of my electric gliders in a dive. See this video from ONBOARD the plane when it happened! :eek:

Death of the Early Bird (http://hogster.rchomepage.com/early_bird_death.mov)


Hey, if any of you guys would like there to be a new forum created, JUST FOR CRASHES, please vote appropriately in this POLL:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266514&page=1&pp=15

Cheers!! :D

[TheGarMan]

I hate crashes! This is my worst one : - P
-Gar

[Trogdor]

Those foam jets seem to split in the middle on hard hits... makes them look even more like a missile did it! :)

[Steve Guinn]

p51flyer,

moving up to gas ???

I think that should be moving over to gas (or glow). Electrics are beneath no other power source. ;)
.
.

"unusual weather we're havin, aint it?" C. Lyon

[pldaniels]

tdavis,

Wow, sounds just like what I did to my first plane. Admittingly, I was sort of getting bored of it, so I thought "Hey, let's do a stuka dive run". Same results :-D

[Martin Hunter]

I'm moving this to the crass discussion forum.

Martin

[PoudreDerf]

Hey GarMan. What caused the crash?
And, I gotta laugh at the previous posts about the battery and engine. I don't care which department it's in. Maybe parks come in different sizes.
We should be able to post some stuff up here to help others. I wish I knew about VNE before I did the "Dive O' Death" with my Beaver.
Now, as far as flying in the wind is concerned, I gotta admit that there's a certain thrill to flying in wind. Here in the Poudre Canyon in the Rocky Mountains, you can go from dead calm to a 50 mph gust in five seconds, and you've got to be able to fly it out. Heck, I had to land my DHC-2 last week at full throttle with a rollout of less than a foot. Then it did a backflip as the wind blew it backwards. No damage, but it's one of those things you want to have under your belt just in case.
Keep up with letting me know what not to do.

[Hogster]

Had a wing rip off on my 71" 'Early Bird' electric glider - the only footage/pictures of the crash was this video, taken from ONBOARD the doomed plane:

http://hogster.rchomepage.com/early_bird_death.mov

Sorry for the picture size - any bigger and the crappy video codec couldn't handle it! You can see a sudden jerk a short way in - that was the wing ripping off. :o

I've still got the wing that was attached to the plane (it's behind me at the moment actually!) ... since then I've NEVER made any steep descents with any of my models, unless that is, I know they can handle it.

The electric glider (which must have weighed about 1.5kg) came straight down at about an 80deg angle, with such force that it seriously crumpled the tough blow-moulded fuselage, and crushed the 7-cell 2Ah NiCd pack, shorting it out, making the plane rather 'warm' when I got to it. :eek: The wing ripped off about 150ft up.

Bloody dangerous things these planes when they've got no wings .....

[wired one]

years ago i had the carl goldberg eagle 2 63" wingspan, and it was a great trainer. flew it several times on a 40, the recommended engine size. then one day a guy i worked with said "hey i have an old rc engine you can have for 10 bucks". i got it, and put it on the eagle. only prob it was a os 60. with all the extra power the eagle was a speed demon, and on her last day i took to doing these radical climbs straight up, followed with a radical dive, then back up, then back down. went about 3 times, then on the last attempted pullup there was heard a mighty 'crack' at which point one entire half of the wing ripped off and started fluttering towards the next county, while the rest of the plane screamed straight into the ground. what i found of the plane was splinters mostly, and the engine was burried 6 inches in the wet ground. that was prolly the best wreck ive ever seen live, and certainly the best ive caused. live and learn. it was fun while it lasted!!!!

i recently dug the engine out of a box, and im looking at cleaning it up and making it work, for the hell of it. im totally into brushless and lipos and little foamies now, but you never know....

[wattsup_kz]

I'm moving this to the crass discussion forum.

Martin

I thought the crass discussions took place in LTU&P :)

[Steve Guinn]

HA...goodun :D