Yorkman Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 Flew dad's Bombay a couple of times today.The field I fly from locally has a patch of short grass about the size of a tennis court-plenty for the Bombay to ROG, but landings usually end up in the tussocks and thistles so tend to be rather abrupt. After the second takeoff I decided to land again and move the battery forward (it's still in the 'proving' stage), so after another carrier-style landing, off we went again. It was immediately obvious something was seriously wrong-despite all my efforts, it was determined to turn hard left. Initially I thought I had lost a prop/motor as when I reduced power I got some directional control back, but then as I throttled back further, it started to turn irresistibly the other way. I was by now fighting to hold on to it-increasing power gave some directional control but needed loads of down elevator to keep the thing level, roll and yaw control was marginal, to say the least. Priority 1-get it back on the ground! I managed to coax it around until it was pointing towards the field, but as I reduced power, it started turning right, towards the road...and hedge. It was no good, I had to abort before she spiralled into the tarmac or hawthorn. Power on and she leapfrogged the hedge, with me barely in control-I thoght for a moment I would lose her in the next field. Managed to hang on and get her turned back-this time towards the 'fat' part of the field, and with huge control inputs and much juggling of the throttles thumped her down in the thistles. As you can see, the port fin had detached itself from the tailplane, and was laying over causing the rudder to act as an elevator and giving who-knows-what kind of yaw input! Just happy to have saved her, with a couple of minor repairs, to live another day...with scale, structural fin bracing struts fitted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat (rActive) Harbord Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 Great save, it's odd when we get them back down and see the problem, we know exactly what inputs were required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CARBON_ROD Posted October 26, 2010 Share Posted October 26, 2010 Congrats are in order . That looked a bit airy, glad you got it down OK .TD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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