What did you fly today?

[TiredIronGRB]

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[RCjetdude]

News flash! Breaking news in the crash of the EFlite P-47.

The NTSB has abruptly concluded its investigation of the crash of the EFlite P-47D on the afternoon of April 15, 2017, at Epps Airpark, in Huntsville, AL. Initial findings, based on eyewitness reports and a quick review of the onboard video footage (also corroborated by statements from the pilot himself), indicated that the pilot had dumb-thumbed his aircraft to death. However, after careful slow-motion review of the onboard footage, it is obvious that the left wing had failed at its wing root. The left wing can clearly be seen to be roughly parallel with the vertical stabilizer. Therefore, the NTSB has reduced the serious charge of dumb-thumbing his aircraft to death to the much lesser charge of flying his aircraft outside of its operational limits.

Seriously, one of the guys in the RCG EFlite P-47 forum had spotted the silhouette of the broken wing in the YouTube video. I then went back to the original video file and edited in some slow motion and freeze frames, which clearly show that the wing had broken. I had made peace with the fact that I had dumb-thumbed my plane, although it certainly didn't feel like it at the time of the crash (it all happened soooo fast). So, when I bank-and-yanked hard into the reversal turn, it was just too much for the foam wing (I was flying a 4S batt and Extra 300 prop, with 60A ESC). The wing broke about 1/4 - 1/2 through the turn. Then, no matter what I did with the controls, the plane was coming down hard.

Wow! Good catch. Sure enough that wing is folded. You have been exonerated from your self imposed charge of pilot error. I did not think that was because of your error as it acted like something let go.

[Oxotnik]

Wow! Good catch. Sure enough that wing is folded. You have been exonerated from your self imposed charge of pilot error. I did not think that was because of your error as it acted like something let go.

Thanks, Steve. One of the guys in the RCG P-47 Forum spotted the shadow. I knew that after the crash, I was completely perplexed and didn't think at all that I had dumb-thumbed the plane. I just couldn't come up with another explanation. The video never showed a radical change of course or anything, that might be indicative of a mechanical or electronic failure. I had finally come the conclusion that I was ignoring the obvious pilot-error scenario because of pride. I'm really relieved to have discovered that I didn't dumb-thumb it into the ground. I'm probably guilty of flying it too hard, for too long, on a 4S battery and a bigger prop, but at least I didn't simply fly it into the ground. :Cool:

[Lon]

Batteries charging...loading up to go fly:)

[Oxotnik]

Windy and rainy here for the next few days. So, my new F-86 is probably grounded.

[RCjetdude]

Batteries charging...loading up to go fly:)

I very much like the looks of that Sabre. I took off a couple hours early from work today and got to fly my Sabre and Stinger 90 between rain showers.

[Beeg]

Windy and rainy here for the next few days. So, my new F-86 is probably grounded.

Yeah, don't fly your Sabre on wet grassy area. With the intake on the bottom it will Hoover everything it passes over on takeoff. I made that mistake once...

[Shirty]

Well spotted. Great to find out what happened. It's the "dunno's" that get me. Of all the crashes, a dumb thumb I can handle best. Not too fond of equipment failures or the dunnos.... I'm impressed you took responsibility to start with. Most blokes at my club would say "radio lockout"... (Strange so many at my field have repeated radio problems, I've never had the dreaded lockout that seems to be the cause of most crashes at my club.. lol.)

gotta say, I really enjoy this thread and seeing what everyone gets up to with their rc adventures. (Or misadventures as it may be). ;)

[Oxotnik]

Well spotted. Great to find out what happened. It's the "dunno's" that get me. Of all the crashes, a dumb thumb I can handle best. Not too fond of equipment failures or the dunnos.... I'm impressed you took responsibility to start with. Most blokes at my club would say "radio lockout"... (Strange so many at my field have repeated radio problems, I've never had the dreaded lockout that seems to be the cause of most crashes at my club.. lol.)

gotta say, I really enjoy this thread and seeing what everyone gets up to with their rc adventures. (Or misadventures as it may be). ;)

Misadventures... I resemble that remark! :Whew:

Thanks for the kind words. I live my life by a couple axioms. One of them is to never take myself too seriously. If I screw the pooch, I'll own up to it. It may be embarrassing, but I'll own up to it. I've greatly appreciated the helpful thoughts both in this forum and in the RCG P-47 Forum, and on Facebook (RCJetDude on TI's facebook). Not once did I get a you're-an-idiot-and-don't-know-how-to-fly' remark, which can be extremely rare these days, more so on RCG than on the Squawk

[dkalwishky]

Last night I decided to maiden my TA 152 that I bought last Fall.

I about lost it several times on the maiden because it was so damn squirly. I landed after 1 minute and barely at that.

I set lower rates and added a little more expo and tried again. On takeoff one of the landing gear caught the grass and was torn out. No damage to the foam, some 5 minute epoxy and it'll be good as new.

On the one flight I did get I noticed the left rolling tendency when it left the runway, glad I was warned about that as I was ready for it. We've got rain and wind for the next few days so I won't get to try it again right away.

I wanted to post a follow up to this.

The last two nights we've had descent weather so I took the 152 out again. With 30% expo the plane handles like I'd expect, she is a nice flying plane. I found the new Admiral 3300 3S batter to be a good fit in both speed and flight time. I'll try a 4S again at some point but for my flying it's not needed.

The first couple of flights were on low rates, the last four were with the hi rates.

Landings were really nice, I find that wheel landings yield really nice scale looking landings and the plane is controllable. I also found that a good bit of right rudder at lift off really helps with the left rolling tendency on take off, that and advancing the throttle smoothly and slowly (not jamming it to full in 1 second).

It really looks nice on low passes and I got a number of compliments on my handing of the plane and the planes looks last night.

[RCjetdude]

I wanted to post a follow up to this.

The last two nights we've had descent weather so I took the 152 out again. With 30% expo the plane handles like I'd expect, she is a nice flying plane. I found the new Admiral 3300 3S batter to be a good fit in both speed and flight time. I'll try a 4S again at some point but for my flying it's not needed.

The first couple of flights were on low rates, the last four were with the hi rates.

Landings were really nice, I find that wheel landings yield really nice scale looking landings and the plane is controllable. I also found that a good bit of right rudder at lift off really helps with the left rolling tendency on take off, that and advancing the throttle smoothly and slowly (not jamming it to full in 1 second).

It really looks nice on low passes and I got a number of compliments on my handing of the plane and the planes looks last night.

Very nice. Thanks for the update DK.

[Oxotnik]

I haven't flown my Ta in a few months. I have trouble getting it off the grass runway (even with gear raked forward). It flies well and is quite speedy on 4S. This is the only warbird I have that has a strong proclivity for high-speed stalls, and it's made even worse because I have to run my battery back as far as I can, to avoid nose-overs on grass-field take offs. If the airspeed is too low when the Mains leave the ground, it will definitely torque roll.

[jackcutrone]

Ox - sorry about the RB - likely Horizon won't honor A warranty claim, but woirth a shot.
Jack

[jackcutrone]

Today I flew - - - a 1970 Ford tractor and a two ton steel roller to roll the field to get it ready for the season. Shhhh! Don't tell the FAA, there was a NOTAM creating a No-Fly TFR that covered the field due to the president flying into Milwaukee.

[Oxotnik]

Ox - sorry about the RB - likely Horizon won't honor A warranty claim, but woirth a shot.
Jack

Jack, thanks. I've been flying a battery/prop combination that was too much for the P-47. Plus, I've damaged it before. It has been a great plane, but I have flown it much harder than I should have. I wouldn't think of approaching a distributor for compensation. The only person I can blame is the person I see in the mirror when I shave each morning.

My wife! Yes!! It's her fault!! :Angry:

It's been a rainy day today, but just before dark, the skies cleared and the wind stopped. So, I pulled out some micros to fly at the house: P-51 (BL), P-47 (B), Easy Sky FW-190D9 (1S), Skywriter (1S, maiden flight actually)

[jackcutrone]

Well spotted. Great to find out what happened. It's the "dunno's" that get me. Of all the crashes, a dumb thumb I can handle best. Not too fond of equipment failures or the dunnos.... I'm impressed you took responsibility to start with. Most blokes at my club would say "radio lockout"... (Strange so many at my field have repeated radio problems, I've never had the dreaded lockout that seems to be the cause of most crashes at my club.. lol.)

gotta say, I really enjoy this thread and seeing what everyone gets up to with their rc adventures. (Or misadventures as it may be). ;)

When I first started, I crashed so much I lost count. I was flying a Parkzone Supercub. After a while the only original part left on the plane was the wire landing gear strut. (Since replaced - :LOL) It was a great relief to me when a crash really was caused by an equipment failure, an ESC that fried in mid-air. When it crashed, I saw smoke and thought lipo fire but when I ran up to the plane it was the ESC that had burnt to a crisp.

You're right though, radio failure is commonly heard when someone goes in. I have seen it happen though with some poor guy furiously working the sticks trying to correct but it goes in anyway.

I probably shouldn't be saying this, tempting fate, but I haven't crashed in a while. Had a close one the other day with my Somethin Extra. Took off and it rolled severly to the left, started going toward the ground. Somehow I managed to get it somewhat under control and was able to land it. Wasn't dumb thumbs that time - was dumb between the ears. When I attached the wing, one wing had the doll rod stuck in the proper hole in the wing root while on the other side, the wing was resting on top of the doll. So the angle of incidence was greatly different between the two wings causing it to roll. I was amazed that I was able to save it and I would say I was proud of my piloting but for the idiotic mistake that caused the problem. Now that is one mistake I will never make again, but there are a whole lot of others I am sure that I will make.

[Oxotnik]

A few months ago, we had three planes go into the trees, in roughly the same spot, which happened to be inline with some large antennae atop a hill in the distance. The Timber that I was buddy-boxing with my daughter was one of them. Everyone was speculating that the antennae were overpowering our own rf signals. After some quick investigations, I realized that my problem was that on my TX (the master), I had the throttle-cut switch turned on; so, when I tried to bail my daughter out of a tough situation, I didn't have any throttle, and into the trees it went. Another guy had a pushrod slip out of an EZ connector. Dont' remember what the third problem was. Anyway, sometimes coincidences are actually coincidences. LOL

[TiredIronGRB]

I crash at least once a month, mostly when I'm doing something crazy but flying everyday means flying in bad weather which has caused a few.

[crxmanpat]

Yeah, I crash once in a while too. But it's usually for something like what Goose said in Top Gun. "The Defense Department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid." :)

[jackcutrone]

Yeah, I crash once in a while too. But it's usually for something like what Goose said in Top Gun. "The Defense Department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid." :)

LMAO