oscillator
Jul 06, 2008, 09:45 PM
The warning signs were all there - should have just gone home, but I pressed on.
After struggling to fly my Espada R (took 3 tries to get a decent flight) and ground looping my Yak by landing in a ditch, I decided to fly my Escape.
I hadn't flown the Escape in several months. Putting her together and holding her on the winch line was like saying hello to an old friend. I had forgotten how much I liked this plane - she last flew at the Fresno classic. While at the contest I assembled the Espada R, maidened her after the contest, and hadn't flown the Escape since.
I had removed the bar graph volt meter from the Escape some time back and installed a Spektrum data link (displays digital voltage). This would prove fatal. As part of the preflight I checked the voltage - 5.2V. Humm....was this a 4 cell or a 5 cell setup?....a quick peak and I convinced myself that it was a 4 cell (it wasn't).
Well, you can guess the rest from here....launch was beautiful, flew like a dream for a few min, and then....well....she started behaving erratic. At first I thought I had hit some real big air. By the time I realized that was not the case, it was too late (prob couldn't have got her down at that point anyway). At one point she did a huge outside loop - while I was holding full aft stick! There are these little moments of denial - "Oh, maybe I just lost orientation and dumb thumbed it." No stupid, you are just a spectator. Turn off the transmitter and go home. Thank you for playing. :mad: :( :censored:
She went straight in from several hundred feet and impacted pavement. Thank god no people or property were hit. The nose was completely gone. I found the RX and servos back in the tail! :eek: Wings skins are all mushy, but the spar is amazingly still solid. Tail boom is fine, but the tail feathers sheared off.
Basically it is a write off. Servos and RX are fine. Battery is gone. Airframe is gone. I know most people have a story or two like this one, so it was bound to happen sooner or later - but it just irks me to loose such a nice plane to such a stupid mistake.
-Mark
After struggling to fly my Espada R (took 3 tries to get a decent flight) and ground looping my Yak by landing in a ditch, I decided to fly my Escape.
I hadn't flown the Escape in several months. Putting her together and holding her on the winch line was like saying hello to an old friend. I had forgotten how much I liked this plane - she last flew at the Fresno classic. While at the contest I assembled the Espada R, maidened her after the contest, and hadn't flown the Escape since.
I had removed the bar graph volt meter from the Escape some time back and installed a Spektrum data link (displays digital voltage). This would prove fatal. As part of the preflight I checked the voltage - 5.2V. Humm....was this a 4 cell or a 5 cell setup?....a quick peak and I convinced myself that it was a 4 cell (it wasn't).
Well, you can guess the rest from here....launch was beautiful, flew like a dream for a few min, and then....well....she started behaving erratic. At first I thought I had hit some real big air. By the time I realized that was not the case, it was too late (prob couldn't have got her down at that point anyway). At one point she did a huge outside loop - while I was holding full aft stick! There are these little moments of denial - "Oh, maybe I just lost orientation and dumb thumbed it." No stupid, you are just a spectator. Turn off the transmitter and go home. Thank you for playing. :mad: :( :censored:
She went straight in from several hundred feet and impacted pavement. Thank god no people or property were hit. The nose was completely gone. I found the RX and servos back in the tail! :eek: Wings skins are all mushy, but the spar is amazingly still solid. Tail boom is fine, but the tail feathers sheared off.
Basically it is a write off. Servos and RX are fine. Battery is gone. Airframe is gone. I know most people have a story or two like this one, so it was bound to happen sooner or later - but it just irks me to loose such a nice plane to such a stupid mistake.
-Mark