Omita
New member
Before
Well... after 2 month flying the Fundango in G2 and flying my real Fundango around I had my first real crash.
In the past I have had 2 close calls. The first was just high winds... and the motor hit the ground on a poor landing. I modified the Fundango by using a much bigger screw to hold the motor mount to the shaft of the model.
2nd close call was the prop actually came loose mid-flight. So I lost almost all power and had to make an emergency landing. No damage.
Now... almost 10 flights later I purchased a nice Field Charger that could get me back up into the air in 30 minutes. Anyway... first flight of the day went smoothly. I had my longest flight time ever. Almost 10 minutes! Which was impressive because it was rather windy. Flight 2 for the day started normal pretty. The Fundango took off fine from the ground. After about 2 minutes in the air the engine turned off... but then started again. I thought that maybe this was due to the quick charge. So I kept flying. Then again the engine cut and started. I was getting concerned now and started coming back to where I was sitting on the hill. Then the engine cut again. I cut the throttle then increased it to see if the ESC causing the problem... but nothing happened. So I tried landing her. I wasn't sure if I was just out of control or if the wind and lack of power was causing all the normal flying characteristics to disappear. I had flown the Fundango a couple times with the engine cut… but this time she had the wind behind her. I couldn’t tell if I had any control over the fall but it was only a matter of seconds before she fell below the lip of the hill and I lost sight of her. A fraction of a second after losing sight of the plane I heard a pop. When I got up to see the damage I could already see some white Monocote flapping in the wind. I knew the Rudder was taken out (cause it’s the only part of the plane that was White). At first glance the only damage seemed to be the tail. I was cleanly ripped off. It looked like the joint had just ripped apart, no balsa had broken but the Monokote had blown open. I could not tell if there was any other damage in the tail because most of the balsa was still covered in Monokote. The rest of the plane seemed intact. It wasn't until I returned home and investigated some more that I noticed some missing balsa in the wing and some more slight cracks near the servo mounts. All the damage was isolated to the right wing… but it still meant I was going to have to rip off the existing monokote and re-monokote over half the wing if not the entire wing.
Now the part of the story I did not mention was that my Radio Transmitter had started beeping about a having low battery at the very end of my first flight. I figured the short batter life span of my Fundango wouldn't outlast the amount of juice left in the Transmitter. So on the second flight I ignored the little beeping noise and continued flying. I was wrong. So it ends up that... pilot skill, weather, nor malfunction happened. It was just a basic pilot stupidity. So now... I know that when the Transmitter beeps it means business and that I should land.
Oh well. I got off lucky this time considering the Fundango will be flying by the weekend. The downfall about the repairs will be re-monocoting the entire wing area and the tail. However... I can't complain... I might have had to purchase a whole new kit.
-Omita
Sorry... no after photo. But I will post the re-build photo later.
[This message was edited by Omita on 04-02-02 at .]
Well... after 2 month flying the Fundango in G2 and flying my real Fundango around I had my first real crash.
In the past I have had 2 close calls. The first was just high winds... and the motor hit the ground on a poor landing. I modified the Fundango by using a much bigger screw to hold the motor mount to the shaft of the model.
2nd close call was the prop actually came loose mid-flight. So I lost almost all power and had to make an emergency landing. No damage.
Now... almost 10 flights later I purchased a nice Field Charger that could get me back up into the air in 30 minutes. Anyway... first flight of the day went smoothly. I had my longest flight time ever. Almost 10 minutes! Which was impressive because it was rather windy. Flight 2 for the day started normal pretty. The Fundango took off fine from the ground. After about 2 minutes in the air the engine turned off... but then started again. I thought that maybe this was due to the quick charge. So I kept flying. Then again the engine cut and started. I was getting concerned now and started coming back to where I was sitting on the hill. Then the engine cut again. I cut the throttle then increased it to see if the ESC causing the problem... but nothing happened. So I tried landing her. I wasn't sure if I was just out of control or if the wind and lack of power was causing all the normal flying characteristics to disappear. I had flown the Fundango a couple times with the engine cut… but this time she had the wind behind her. I couldn’t tell if I had any control over the fall but it was only a matter of seconds before she fell below the lip of the hill and I lost sight of her. A fraction of a second after losing sight of the plane I heard a pop. When I got up to see the damage I could already see some white Monocote flapping in the wind. I knew the Rudder was taken out (cause it’s the only part of the plane that was White). At first glance the only damage seemed to be the tail. I was cleanly ripped off. It looked like the joint had just ripped apart, no balsa had broken but the Monokote had blown open. I could not tell if there was any other damage in the tail because most of the balsa was still covered in Monokote. The rest of the plane seemed intact. It wasn't until I returned home and investigated some more that I noticed some missing balsa in the wing and some more slight cracks near the servo mounts. All the damage was isolated to the right wing… but it still meant I was going to have to rip off the existing monokote and re-monokote over half the wing if not the entire wing.
Now the part of the story I did not mention was that my Radio Transmitter had started beeping about a having low battery at the very end of my first flight. I figured the short batter life span of my Fundango wouldn't outlast the amount of juice left in the Transmitter. So on the second flight I ignored the little beeping noise and continued flying. I was wrong. So it ends up that... pilot skill, weather, nor malfunction happened. It was just a basic pilot stupidity. So now... I know that when the Transmitter beeps it means business and that I should land.
Oh well. I got off lucky this time considering the Fundango will be flying by the weekend. The downfall about the repairs will be re-monocoting the entire wing area and the tail. However... I can't complain... I might have had to purchase a whole new kit. -Omita
Sorry... no after photo. But I will post the re-build photo later.
[This message was edited by Omita on 04-02-02 at .]