In this week's installment of What the Heck Wednesday, we have this awesome Airbus A-330-300 model jet crash. It's beautiful and looks to be flying perfectly fine in most of the video. On one pass, the plane looks to be slowing down to set up for a landing. The left wing drops down during a turn and the rest follows into a spectacular spiraling nose in crash.
You can pretty much write the whole thing off with maybe a few usable parts surviving the brutal plummet back to earth. The aftermath cleanup likely took some time, but what I really want to know is what the heck happened? Was it as simple as a pilot error tip stall or did something else contribute to the cause. Give the video a watch below and then reply to this thread to let me know what you think happened.
Skip ahead to around the 3:55 minute mark to see the action.
Thread Tools |
|
|
|
Kinda' looked like he was turning into a dead motor/engine without rudder compensation. Either the engine/motor died while he was turning or he turned into the dead engine/motor.
I'm watching with no sound so I don't know how the model was powered but that's what it looked like to me. |
|
||
|
Quote:
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I noticed that too. On top of that he had just lowered his gear which would have given more drag. I think it just didn't have enough airspeed and stalled ( due to the motor issues likely)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Watch the nose up slow down at 3:49.... Short stall before the turn? just a quick change in pitch?
|
|
|
|
|
|
High bank angle, slow airspeed, highly swept wing, narrow wing tips. Classic stall and spin.
|
Latest blog entry: Assembling a Spandau kit.
|
|
|
|
|
Well the first thing I noticed at about the 40 second mark, was that when he did the flight control check, the left elevator went up and the right elevator went down. Also, the right side inboard flap went down a bit.
These could be contributing factors but the real cause was pilot error. I never saw him make one coordinated turn and every shot from the tail as he went around, the model skidding not turning. Then there is the full scale pattern; downwind, base, final. I USED to do that will all my models being a full scale pilot. Then an Elite Aerosports Shockwave taught me the error of my ways with the model doing exactly what this one did on the base to final turn. As noted, steep bank angle, slow airspeed, too much elevator into that last turn and the slick swept, tapered wing had just had enough. Tip stall. But just for giggles, check the elevator deflections at about 40 seconds and see what you think? |
|
|
|
|||
|
Honestly I think this was another case of someone who didn't really know what they were doing flying an extremely expensive model that was beyond their abilities with inevitable results when things got sketchy. You see that in a lot of these "scale flyin" type videos. Guys that need a lot more stick time on a high-wing trainer flying multi-thousand dollar giant scale airplanes. Yeah most of the time the plane comes down in mostly one piece (after it goes bouncing down the runway, especially with any hint of a crosswind..) but you can tell all through the flight that the airplane wasn't happy being handled the way it was.
I actually just saw a video a few days ago of a pair of giant scale Beech 18s and one of the guys is overcontrolling the airplane throughout the entire flight.
Watch the red plane. I don't mean to judge but it's like the guy is banging the sticks around and a couple times in the video I think the only thing that saved the airplane was a gross overabundance of power.. I hate to be the guy that pretends to know more than someone with a beautifully-built model like this but when I'm seeing things during the flight that I learned to avoid on a basic trainer you have to wonder.. Altitude, airspeed, brains. You need 2 of the three to survive. And that airliner didn't have 2 of the 3 apparently. |
||
|
|
|
I'm a rookie at R/C but not at flying full scale. That plane spent most of its time in uncoordinated flight. He skidded through turns and over-banked over and over again. I thought it was coming down long before it actually did!
|
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | |||||
Category | Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Article | What the Heck Wednesday - RC Helicopter Crash | Jason Cole | Electric Heli Talk | 26 | Sep 15, 2020 09:43 AM |
Discussion | what the heck is this ??? | macnoodle | Multirotor Drone Talk | 10 | Nov 11, 2017 06:07 PM |
Discussion | Wait! That's not what I fly! What the heck???? | Tucci | Model Aircraft & Drone Advocacy | 17 | Mar 19, 2016 07:21 PM |
Freak crash, what the heck happined?? | Thomas Manson | Parkflyers | 45 | Aug 02, 2004 09:57 PM |