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Have you ever "Got a free one"
This is reserved for stories where the Pilot Messed up via flying or preperation or a situation where S%!t just happened and some how thru it all, the plane managed to survive. This should be fun!
I was out flying Handlaunch one day.. I had thrown about 15 times. It was pretty windy and as I flew twards myself fora handcatch, "eeennnnnt" servors went dead and I snatched it out of the air a moment later.... Back at the bench.. Batterys DEAD.... stupid on my part, but also very luck! Also, a few contest ago, I saw an unlimited ship get launched with the RX turned off. IT was unbelievable how it recovered from a normal launch into a BIG left hand circle.. IT landed pretty much unharmed in the next field. A really good one was a friend of mine who Bought a Zieneth. Very nce very Strong airplane... He launched it but had forgotten to hook up the ball links on the V tail! It did some funny things and then went strait in at VERY high speed ( this plane is massive as well) Steve as well as everyone else thought it was going to be jello, but upon inspection, only the servo arms were broken... They said it sounded like a freight train going off the empire state building! He wont ever for get to hook up the v tail again thats for usre... Aside from these I have seen several DLG's lawn dart only to be unharmed. I DS-ed a modified Enigma DLG wing on a Monarch fuse into the ground at about 80-90 MPh and picked it up and threw it again... Abotu 3 minuites later I flew it into the ground again at similar speeds and did not hurt the wing, the fuse broke in a previously repaired location.... pretty unbelievable. Any other good stories? |
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Last edited by AustinTatious; Aug 21, 2004 at 07:37 PM.
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I was with my father who was flying an old playboy electric thermal plane at a school yard in the mid 1980's. Upon launch my, fathers thumb slid by the radios on/off switch turning the plane off while the motor was on full with a complete charge( we now mount the switches with the on direction twards the tail of the plane). Well off the plane went. We tried to follow in the pickup but lost sight of the plane. My father flyered the neiborhood only hoping to possibly recover the gear inside. A few days later a kidnigarden teacher called saying she had the plane and it was in perfect condition. This plane was a complete stick build covered in transparent monocote. It was a masterpiece and a labor of love. My father had posted a reward in the flyer but hadn't listed what the reward was going to be. He brought $250 dolars to give the to the lady. When we arrived at the womans house we could see the plane on her coffe table in absoluly perfect condition. It was perfectly balanced and trimmed and had landed itself in the kindergargens playground.
The lady walked over to retrieve the plane and tripped. Her overwieght frame crushed the plane to smitherenes before our very eyes. My father gave the woman a tweny dolar reward and prompty left for home. It was almost a freeby |
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I was out flying with my scratch built, carbon skinned, own-design 3-meter sailplane. Same one in my Avatar. The plane was on final for a practice landing. The plane was 2 ft of altitute and about 20 ft from the end of the tape. I pushed down to get the nose on the ground just before the target on the ground. The nose would not drop. I finally had to jump out of the way, as the plane sailed a 20 feet past me and settled on the ground. I looked down at the TX, and I had pushed the elevator stick all the way down, and still no nose drop.
Turns out, somewhere in those last few seconds of flight, the elevator servo chose to die. It was toast. I count that a great blessing. |
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Last CRRC contest my antenna caught the retriever line on launch, 3m moulded plane popped off. Just as I finished the loop and leveled off the retriever guy hit the switch. My TX gets yanked out of my hands and bounces down the field. I ran down to my TX still tangled in the line and landed the plane. Broke the battery cover on the TX.
Does that count at two free ones ? MDM |
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My First Flight was a "Free One..."
Some of you have heard this story - but for those of you that haven't, here goes...
I first tried RC sailplanes back in 1990 after a very short foray into RC glo power some twenty years ago. I bought an Airtronics Olympic 650 kit and after a careful build I proudly displayed it at the local club on student training day. The club members checked it over and after a few compliments on the covering job (pretty good for a newbie) they gave it a hand toss for a trim adjustment. So far so good, it needed very little adjustment and glided quite well for quite a ways. So, the most experienced instructor, (this was a senior flier with impressive credentials and an enviable LSF rating) puts it on the winch and up it goes........with the receiver turned OFF. After he proclaimed "I don't have it!" we watched it sail away at the top of the launch, straight towards the horizon. The polyhedral wing tip must've caught a breeze as it did gentle turn and then it doubled back towards us, glided over our heads and into the woods behind us, where it noisly collided with a number of branches at the top of a sixty foot tree. The field was also a farm, and the owner's son liked both heavy metal and shooting guns. We pravailed upon him to get out his 22 and a fully loaded bannana clip, and we spent the rest of the afternoon watching him shoot limbs out from under the Oly 650. He was a pretty good shot, eventually it fell from limb to limb until it worked itself to about 15 feet in height above us, whereupon one last goood shot sent it dropping nose first toards the ground until we caught it. It had very little damage except for a few bullet holes in the monokote. I went on to learn to fly with the Oly, and I still fly it today - as it eventually became my entry into electric sailplanes (minus the nose block and a Master Airscrew flight pack added). |
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Last edited by AllThumbs; Aug 25, 2004 at 09:31 PM.
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Art Hobby planes are tough. I always get info from people on RCgroups here telling me to beef up the fuse with carbon tow and such. I just went ahead and built the planes as per instructions. Both Falco-V and the Timon 2M. The falco I've ds'd into the hill and it only broke a wing bolt. That's the worste crash I've had with that. Recently I had a accident with a combat wing and split one wing panel in half. End of that, replacement later. bought me a Timon 2m instead of a replacement wing and this thing flies even better. A few days ago, I was out flying in some decent lift, a storm was comin and the wind kicked in. I was flying to the right of the slope and I guess the wind gust caught my wingtip and fliped the plane inverted. I tried to correct but I hesitated and it lawn darted into the hill about 20-30 feet up. Sunk into the ground abot 2 inches. The plane lawn darted and got stuck like it was a dart sticking into a dart board. Didn't even move. It was stuck like 80 degrees. Neither wingtips were touching the ground. Everyone thought it was the end of it. The wing bolt didn't break, the wings are 3 peices and one of the wing tips fell off, I just taped it back on as usual. Check the controls, Tossed it out and everyone looked at me wierd. "Didn't you just crash that plane?" I was like, "Yeah!" but I still wanna fly it!
-Tomi |
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Aug 27, 2004, 04:38 AM | |
Warren2008 | |
A moderator felt this post violated the following rule: Redacted Content.
It is temporarily hidden while Warren2008
edits it.
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I bought the tail end and wings of a 1/4 scale cub, rebuilt the front , flew it , elevators came loose ...just flapping behind , landed that using engine speed as my elevator
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Was at Dockweiler beach in L.A., flying my Boomerang combat wing off the 20-30 foot high sand berm at the back of the beach. Just before my second flight I got a bit distracted. As I launched and the plane left my hand, I realized I hadn't connected the battery! That combat wing must have been well trimmed, because it flew absolutely straight...right towards the ocean. I ran like madman down the berm and across the beach chasing it. The Boomerang just kept flying straight ahead. At around the high tide line, there was a small berm where the beach dipped down another 3 or 4 feet, and the plane disappeared behind it as it continued its relatively flat glide. As I jumped down the berm I started thinking about whether I'd need to be taking a swim. But when I arrived at the waters edge...the plane washed up in a wave right at my feet!
In the end I replaced the battery connector and extension wires, as they seemed to have corroded almost instantly, but that was it. Went on to fly that thing for a long while after. |
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Earlier today I removed and replaced a rudder servo that failed mid flight.
I was over the trees and turning and I noticed that the plane wasn't responding rather well and I am flying a Pulsar REF. Thank goodness the flaps are mixed, and are acting like ailerons on the right stick, so I was able to turn it a bit. I got it headed straight for me, and then dropped the flaps and used elevator to bring it straight down... It's still drifted with the wind and landed 30 m away... unharmed. Here's the servo, it is located in the rudder. |
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Once had a model snagged in the retriever line. I was yelling at rhe guy on the retriever to stop, but everyone else was yelling for him to keep going. Somehow the model came down in a level attitude with no damage other than some wear on the paint from the retriever line.
Of course, for every story like this there's one that went the other way. |
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