When to cut your losses

[purduephigam]

Well after more success with the Hawksky and a repaired Bearcat, I found more confidence to give it another go today. The flight proved fatal in my opinion. I won't get into too much detail, but it behaved erratically from the second it left the ground. Despite the CG being correct on my balancer (3600 all the way forward), I'm not sure what went wrong. Regardless, fuse is destroyed, hatch, wings blown up. I'd have to replace nearly everything ($100+ in parts). As much as I'd love to tinker, I'd imagine tearing out all the wiring, servos, gear, etc would be a giant pain when I could just get a new bird for another $100. My question is, when do just pull the plug versus rebuilding the dead?

And fyi, I'll be halting the overeager warbird flying for a while and will be investing in another newb plane to get more experience and learn less the hard way.....

[xviper]

That depends on each individual's judgement of what's important to them and their financial situation. It depends on how much you like the plane and what it costs to just buy a new one compared to what it would cost to repair it. From my perspective, a HawkSky is not what I call an expensive plane but then, it might be for a beginner. Did you get the RTF with gyro? Perhaps you didn't set up the gyro properly. They call them "Ready to Fly" but they really aren't. You still need to do some due diligence before taking one up. The "erratic" behavior could be a result of the set up (gyro set up or too high rates, not enough expo) or it could be beginners "dumb thumbs".
I don't know which Bearcat you got so can't comment on its "value" but a Bearcat is not exactly a beginners plane (on the most part).
When starting out, going it alone may be very daunting. You might benefit from going to a flying club and getting a more experienced pilot and modeler to help you. Sometimes a repaired plane can actually fly better while other times, they don't fly worth crap.

[TiredIronGRB]

I would just get another Hawksky...are you working with an instructor?

[purduephigam]

That depends on each individual's judgement of what's important to them and their financial situation. It depends on how much you like the plane and what it costs to just buy a new one compared to what it would cost to repair it. From my perspective, a HawkSky is not what I call an expensive plane but then, it might be for a beginner. Did you get the RTF with gyro? Perhaps you didn't set up the gyro properly. They call them "Ready to Fly" but they really aren't. You still need to do some due diligence before taking one up. The "erratic" behavior could be a result of the set up (gyro set up or too high rates, not enough expo) or it could be beginners "dumb thumbs".
I don't know which Bearcat you got so can't comment on its "value" but a Bearcat is not exactly a beginners plane (on the most part).
When starting out, going it alone may be very daunting. You might benefit from going to a flying club and getting a more experienced pilot and modeler to help you. Sometimes a repaired plane can actually fly better while other times, they don't fly worth crap.

I'll just clarify, the Hawksky flies great and is in good shape. The Bearcat was the one with problems. Re-reviewed the flight with Motion and they agreed they felt it was tail-heavy behavior. My main concern here is that I used a balancing machine and still for some reason didn't get it right. I almost feel like I need someone to just check my balancing. And you're right I probably got too far ahead of myself with the Bearcat as it's too advanced for new thumbs. I also understand flight behaviors will be much more forgiving for planes like the hawksky and those that are analogous. But after so many successful flights with it, I figured it'd be worth a shot. Anyways, it was the FLRC Bearcat, so $200. Not cheap, but my first time ripping out and re-building essentially everything to save $30-60 pending on everything that needs replacement, I figured I'd just eventually get a new one. Hopefully this isn't my kryptonite, as I've been served royally by the Bearcat :Whew:

And no, I'm not currently working with an instructor. Unfortunately my office hours run into times where instructors are available. I will need to see if I can't reach out and possibly make arrangements with someone. Until then, I'll keep flying the Hawksky, and I'm looking into something like the Dynam Primo so I can actually use the fields near me as a runway and get away from the hand launch. Thanks for the input thus far everyone.

[xviper]

You don't necessarily need someone with "instructor" rating. You just need a person with good knowledge and experience in the hobby. Not all experienced people get instructor classification.

[fhhuber]

When to trash a model varies greatly with the person.

I've had one plane that by the time I gave up the only original parts to the airplane were the hand carved balsa wingtips. EVERYTHING else had been replaced at least twice. I still have the wingtips.

There is no such thing as an airplane that can't be repaired. Its possible to reassemble an EPS (beer cooler foam) foam plane that has turned into "snow" given time and patience.

So its really: How much effort do you want to put into it?
What is your time worth vs the cost of replacement parts? Those parts CAN be put back together.