Today I took out a group of my planes, and had a blast with the group of guys that I normally fly with. Now after not flying for an hour and getting ready to pack up I said one more flight, lets do a little dog fighting to a buddy. I grabbed my Flyzone FW190, and him his P51 and up we went. Now it was a little cold around 22 with light winds and some snow falling but not enough to worry me about getting stuff wet. The plane flew great I stayed in a kill position almost from the get go, and was feeling good (usually I lose).

Now coming in on landing I was a little hot and decided to go around, so I added full throttle was climbing out good with plenty of speed so I pulled the gear and raised the flaps, all in quick turn, as I hit the flaps from the full down to full up skipping over the midpoint the nose dipped slightly, I added some up elevator and the plane went into a full on nose dive at full throttle from 12- 15 feet up. As it hit the ground the gear had fully retracted and the flaps were only half way up.

I was flying with my DX8, with both the Gear and Flaps slowed down for more scale effects, just a little bit of a mix between flaps and elevator to prevent ballooning when the flaps deployed. An AR7010 with satellite, The stock motor, and ESC which have given me zero issues in the last year, so many flights I can't remember. Lets say 50 in the last 6 months alone. A fully charged 2200mah 30c 3cell I had flown for 6 minutes on the pack usually can get around 7-8 from a pack with this type of flying in 50 degree weather. so the pack was close to being low. Showed 11.4v and 3.8amp 3.7 amps 3.8 amps for the three cells after the crash.

As it was my last flight and had to head to work this evening. I haven't had a chance to inspect the damage extensively. This is the first crash that I feel I can 100% rule out pilot error, I am looking for feedback, did I burn up the BEC? was a doing too much at once? Why did the elevator go full down when the mix should have if anything locked to full up as the added down elevator mixed to the flaps was relieved? I'm currently at a loss, and am now turning to you with more experience and expertise.

Originally Posted by Cphipps0826

3.8amp 3.7 amps 3.8 amps for the three cells after the crash.

If that one cell was below 3.7 it might have caused LVC and shut down. I always charge twice in cold weather. Initial charge then let the pack sit a minute or two then a top off charge. Cold weather makes packs behave funny.

That is a possibility, I have since rebuilt and tested everything and it seems to work fine, I'm now without the flaps after the crash they were unable to be salvaged, and until I have time to make another set I'm just going to do without. Tomorrow will be the first flight since the rebuild, hopefully everything works as I hope it will and I wont have issues again.

It could also be, with a spectrum radio it may have browned out. I have seen it happen a number of times at my home field. The batt may have been a little low, and then when you started to run all of those servo's at the same time it just made it worse. when a spectrum browns out I believe it takes 2-3 seconds to reboot, but you would have to check that. Any time is too much!

On another note, never say one last flight, your asking for trouble.

Originally Posted by G A WHITE

It could also be, with a spectrum radio it may have browned out. I have seen it happen a number of times at my home field. The batt may have been a little low, and then when you started to run all of those servo's at the same time it just made it worse. when a spectrum browns out I believe it takes 2-3 seconds to reboot, but you would have to check that. Any time is too much!

On another note, never say one last flight, your asking for trouble.

Yes it is 2 - 3 seconds reboot time.

And a very big yes on that last statement. 2 things in this hobby that are very bad juju, saying "one last flight", and painting a plane.

If it was a 'brown out', then you need to think why it happened, as I assume it never happened before.

I would guess, you perhaps have never operated the retracts, flaps, and possibly elevator all at the same time ?. It the ESC is a stock one with a 3A linear BEC, then I would suspect it isn't really capable of that sort of load.

I doubt very much it was the 3s Lipos, as a BEC can still happily run off a 2s.

eflightray: You are correct in your assumption that I have never operated everything with in such a quick time period. I am still running the stock ESC, but I have been looking at swapping it for a eflite 40amp switching esc.

I've never experienced a brownout with a larger plane. One of the places I fly my micros has caused brownouts on numerous occasions. They never lock down a servo like this did I was adding up elevator and it locked in the down position at full deflection. As I've never experienced a brownout with a larger plane is it possible for it to lock out a servo like that?