The death of my Freewing F-86.

[dkalwishky]

Before and after.

Flight 1 went well, this is my favorite plane.

Flight 2 went well until it didn't.
I had just performed a nice big loop and went into a slow roll, normally I roll very fast but this time I decided to start practicing slow rolls.

As the plane rolled upside down the nose dropped, I pulled a little up elevator (the wrong thing to do when inverted) and the nose pitched down further, I immediately corrected with some down elevator - problem solved.

I then relaxed the elevator (don't know why) and the nose pitched down again, this time I pulled full up and she went into the ground at full throttle, probably close to 85 miles per hour.

It was a rookie mistake but it happens. I'm sad that I crashed the plane but if you fly models long enough it will probably happen.

This sucks because I just got the plane last December and only had about 15 flights on it.
It's hard to see in the picture but the battery is compressed, it needs to be disposed of. That sucks because it's a $90 battery that has had 3 - 5 flights (it was new).

I will be buying another one, of the 10 flights I had with the plane it was my favorite, it handled very nice and sounds great with the 12 blade EDF..

I priced out the parts I think I need and came up to $180, for $220 I can buy the ARF which would be better than buying all the parts because I may have missed something. The other option is to buy the PNP version for $300.

As long as my electronics and EDF are damage free I think the ARF version would be the way to go.

[crxmanpat]

Yikes, that's hard to see. As they say, when flying inverted down is up and up is expensive.

Practice your slow rolls up high, feeding in a little down elevator as you roll to the inverted. I usually practice this with my warbirds before doing it on my jets. ;)

[dkalwishky]

Good advice, I should have practiced higher with the jet, I do them all the time with my Corsair, she looks good rolling slow.... I got a little cocky this time and I got bit.

[Loneflier]

Ouch. Sorry for the loss of your plane, but as you said, it will happen sometimes. Just have to pick it all up and keep on going.

[Addison]

I have always liked the"86" and really hate it when things like this happen. You seem to be taking it well and I hope to see you back in the saddle shortly. I am hoping to get one of these myself in the near future.

[dkalwishky]

Thanks everyone. It happens, I've crashed more planes in my lifetime than I can remember. :)

If the fear of crashing stresses you out then this is probably not the hobby for you.

Looking forward to replacing the plane, the F-86 is a beautiful flier.

[OsideRCflyer]

Did that with my Mustang. Been training myself to only roll out if inverted. I'd do the arf. The F-86 is a dream to fly and show stopper. Low passes are exciting too! Look forward to hearing about the "new" one flying again!

[urrl]

When ever I do inverted I remind myself "USE DOWN ELEVATOR" over and over mentally.
Here's Rick's recent crash. He's only had his jet a little while but has flown prop planes for years.

[dkalwishky]

I'm going to replace my F-86 that I buried last month when I had a brain fart and pulled on the elevator when I should have pushed. :(

I hit the ground darn near vertical wide open and about 85mph.

I tested the servos, ESC and EDF today and they seem to be fine. I can order the Kit Plus, the airframe is complete minus the servos, EDF and ESC.

Would you go this route or would you not trust the electronics and just buy the PNP version? I can save $80 by going the Kit Plus route but I don't want to jeopardize the new plane if the electronics are going to fail at some point.