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Post by JG on Jan 22, 2014 20:46:10 GMT
Hello Everyone.
Right down the flying field one Sunday morning as usual with the guys at the flying club, i had my 100" Tracker with me. I turned the transmitter on, tested the movements and found the elevator working the wrong way round. I went in the menus to change, and changed it, only to find it was the wrong model i had it on, back out the menus and set it to the right model and away i went, no problems and i thought i would change the other setting back when i get home.
Week or 2 had passed and up the field we meet again ready to fly, transmitter out of the box down the field, switched transmitter on and glider yep all working correct model, gave it to the winchman, i said give it a good 1 ... ok is all i heard back ... go i said .. away we went launch flap in, launch flap out .. oooo it was heading to the ground on launch i applied up elevator only to find it was down elevator by the time i realised it was too late. Wrote off centre section, 1 wing tip, the elevator & fuselage and dug it self in the ground by about 3 inchs maybe 4.
Why ....
I never double checked the movements, checked transmitter only to find i never changed the elevator setting back from the last time i use it .....
ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK BEFORE LAUNCHING YOUR MODEL, GET YOUR FRIEND TO REMIND YOUR BEFORE YOU LAUNCH, i do now.
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steadykev
Junior Pilot
.....of course it`ll fly....
Posts: 166 
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Post by steadykev on Jan 22, 2014 21:53:50 GMT
Many years ago, me and a mate where flying from our then local slope. Good weather, good lift, we were having a ball. Now my mate loved doing fast low passes along the slope, indeed, we both did (there was only us two there). However, he misjudged one particular pass and his model (thankfully an epp) hit me on the side of the head which caused me to drop my transmitter and fall to the ground. At this point, my model (a fast 60" mouldie from FVK) is high, inverted and out from the slope. I`m now lying on the ground, not concerned about my bleeding head, just thinking about where my Tx is so I can land my model. By the time i gather myself and Tx, the sky is empty. Scanning around, up and down, but alas, no sign. My `mate`, bless him is distraught and more concerned about me. "i`m fine" I said, "I have to find my plane". We start walking down the slope....it`s a long, long walk. Made longer because we had no idea where the plane had ended up. Well, long story short. We did find it. No, we found bits of it, scattered over a large area. Apart from the port wing and the V tail, the rest was just small pieces. By the look of it, it had hit rocks, tree`s and goodness knows what else. To be fair he bought me a replacement and he always flew with a lot more room for error. You live and learn. By the way, later that day I had to go to A&E and had 20+ stitches in my head. It makes you realize how dangerous the hobby can be. I was lucky. Take care everyone and always think of others when you`re flying.  |
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Post by Jef on Jan 23, 2014 18:22:50 GMT
Worst Crash? Maybe not, but my best story associated with crashing.
Model "AboGoJo" 2m rudder elevator model.
Launched from bungee, to about 100m. Weather dead calm. Big white cloud directly overhead. Not another cloud in the sky. Flew around field and flew over trees on way to landing approach. Noticed a bump in the landing approach and decided to risk a turn over the trees. Quite a brave thing for a glider pilot with very little flying time. The model lost a little height in the turn, but still a few feet above the top branches, so bit the bullet and went round again. And again. No loss of height on the third turn!
Then a Kestrel came over to the air near my model, and my model started to slowly climb with it away from the tree tops. Phew!
For the first time ever, I had found a thermal and was gaining height in it. The Kestrel left when I had gone with it back up to launch height. Not knowing anything about thermal soaring, this was a very steep learning curve. Several minutes into the flight (my first flight of more than a couple of minutes) that big cloud overhead had turned black, and my model disappeared into it. Crikey I hadn't got a plan, but if I had had, that wouldn't have been on it!
Wiggling the sticks all over the place seemed to be a good tactic, after all, using the sticks very gingerly is what I had needed to do to get the model up there...
The AboGoJo reappeared so I did a succession of loops which had the model appearing and disappearing rhythmically. Still a bit unnerved, I decided a better idea would be to fly away from the black cloud and fly into the blue.
The frail model fluttered and the starboard wing broke into two parts. Both parts were now coming down. The rudder and elevator were both still having an effect on the flight path of the bigger bit, which was coming down faster.
After a little experimenting, I found a happy medium of just enough 'up' elevator and 'left' rudder to give a fairly flat, quite fast circular flight, in a right turn.
Fortunately the flight had all been virtually directly over the flying field and the model descended in the right area! As it landed, I gave the model some more up elevator (to flare out / slow it down) and the balance of control was lost, tipping the left wing up and the nose down for a cartwheel finish! That was 16 minutes after the launch.
The 700mm remainder panel of starboard wing which had been rotating axially then landed, next to it, gently, without a sound.
That was me hooked!
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