7 Pilots, 3 Fields. 20 Planes Left...14 Returned....

Posted on 10/26/2009 6:01:29 PM
Author: Chip

Sunday, although windy, turned out to be a fun flying day. Between the Burlington RC field, the 495th Squadron field and Mitre, it was easily the most I have ever traveled to fly RC planes.

It was also the first time in a while I had a flight incident, and of course I had to do it flying Scott's brand new Tri (or as I was corrected by Skylar, QUAD) wing plane! The flight started off hairy, with almost full left aileron trim needed to keep the plane level. And even with what looked like 4 ounces of lead weight on the front, it still needed about 8 clicks of down elevator to keep it from violently pitching nose up. But once it was all sorted out, it turned into a real screamer. I'd say 45mph+. It had a high center of gravity which required constant aileron control input, but not so much that I'd call it squirrely. As I did a low pass fly-by to allow Sue to grab some photos of it, I over banked the turn back around and instead of doing a 180, I did more of a 270, pointing the nose of the airplane right toward where we were standing.


Not a problem, it was still some 25 meters away or so. I did a gradual right hand turn and followed the plane with my eyes until I realized I had done something stupid...I flew the plane right into the sun! :(. I kept the power on, took my right hand off the control, save for a little up elevator, hoping to see the plane pull out of the shining sun, however, when it reappeared from the glare, it was pointing straight down at the ground, at about 10 meters and spiraling.

Having seen that posture before, I knew gravity had won the battle and just cut power, figuring if nothing else, Scott wouldn’t need a new propeller. No dice. It went nose in. Hard. Broken prop, broken motor mount. 2 of the 2 top wing stabilizers broke off. One of the aileron control surfaces cracked.

And oh, some very damaged ego.




Comments

Fettah on 10/26/2009 9:03:36 PM wrote:
Oh no! I didn't even get to see it fly. Snif, snif. Will it ever come out of coma and live a second life, Dr. Scott?


rafe on 10/26/2009 9:18:00 PM wrote:
Who did the artwork? Precious!!!! Please don't tell me you cribbed it off google images.


Alex on 10/26/2009 10:52:18 PM wrote:
Nice report Chip! You do have a promising career as a writer and artist if your aspirations of turning pro in 3D flying don't pan out.


Sue Sinclair on 10/27/2009 1:16:25 AM wrote:
Hey all. I have to say that Sunday was a blast. The group getting together both in Burlington and heading off to Tewksbury was awesome. Scott had a tough day and I have to say is sad about it all. He will recove though. He is a good pilot and just needs to tughten the reins and continue to enjoy. No regrets. It is all a learning experiences as far as I am concerned. I had the flight of my life at Mitre. I was unable to fly in Tewksbury because I am not a member yet. But, Once we got to Mitre, Scott got the Super Cub up in the air and handed me the controls and my god what a feeling. I don't understand why everyone doesn't want to do this. It is so exhilerating. I was proud of myself having not flown for weeks due to the weather, wind, rain and lack of time. Thanks for everyones support. Thank you Scott for your guidance and asistance. I couldn't be the pilot I am without your help. Your the best my wild man.

Sue


Chip on 10/27/2009 10:49:02 AM wrote:
Ha, no, no cribbing here, that is a Chip MS Paint original :).


rafe on 10/27/2009 7:43:51 PM wrote:
Chip: You are familiar, I presume, with the story of Icarus?
Awesome drawing. Really!!! How do we embed images in blog entries?


Chip on 10/27/2009 8:04:13 PM wrote:
Taxing my memory a bit, but I remember something about wings of wax and flying too close to the sun.

I should have paid more attention to Greek mythology in school. I never would have crashed!


Chip on 10/27/2009 8:08:03 PM wrote:
To add an image to a blog post, there's a couple of options.

1) You can click on the icon that looks like a mountain with a sun above it, and that will open a window where you can upload a photo and it will place it into the editor, which you can then move around with your mouse.

2) You can click on the icon on the top right of the editor that looks like a sheet of paper. That will show you a list of available templates and the top one is a standard article with one photo template. You can use that window to upload or choose the photo as well.

3) You can hand edit the HTML by clicking on the "Source" icon if you already have the file uploaded to one of the galleries. A bit more advanced, but more powerful for you HTMLers.


rafe on 10/27/2009 8:47:03 PM wrote:
Hmmm... I see where the icons are available for the initial blog post, but not for follow-on comments. Do I have that right?


Chip on 10/27/2009 8:57:52 PM wrote:
The comments don't have a mechanism for HTML and images I don't think. I'll enable it for certain things (links and images), give me a few.


scott on 10/27/2009 9:46:41 PM wrote:
well chip i love it!!! funny i thought of the same greek myth,, lmfao no shit i did. its all good, hows your ego lol!! it was a tuffff day for me i felt like a first timer but sue gave me the pep talk and iam back have a plane (used)eflite bipe 3d like tiger moth but beefy nice plane 7 flites as of tonight .


Chip on 10/27/2009 10:21:54 PM wrote:
Ok, you should be able to put images in comments now. just wrap the image URL in image tags, like:

[img]http://www.aerojunkies.com/users/360/Rafe-s-Junk/preflight1.jpg[ /img]

and you'll get:



Chip-





After you submit your post, an email with a verification link will be sent to you to activate your email address. You will only have to do this once. Your post(s) will not show up until you click this link.


Display Name:
Email Address: (not displayed)

Comments:
Use [img]URL[/img] to embed an image in your post.