The WORST plane you ever had?

[Flanker .]

Ahhhh the Snipe! Mik Reeves it twas. I had one with an os 10 up front. Learnt to fly on it in fact (by myself) Not stally as i remember, just crap. The wings used to fold unpredictably at unpredictable places. Lol ,the thing had more fiber glass bandage across wing breaks than solar film. And the wing joiner - do not get me started on that. Always used to feel that the wings were over folding and try a loop every few flights ..... Still got the nose bit I sawed off to fit the .10  F Bought a Tiger Trainer after that n nevver looked back.

F 

[Steve Murray]

Back in the eighties I built a DB Dalotel. Made a really nice job with foam veneer wings, Fiberglass cowl, and sprayed with really shiney epoxy paint. It looked beautiful, but it flew like a pig. It would lift off the patch without any pilot input, but any control movement was taken as an insult and it flick rolled into the ground. Even the club experts gave up after a few tries, and declared it unflyable. I kept it as an ornament for a few years, then gave it away.

[Steve Murray]

Forgot to mention, the Dalotel was fitted with one of the early OS40 four strokes. Even new, it was not exactly bursting with power so that was probably 90% of the problem perhaps

[Neil Byrne]

Worse model I've had the unfortunate pleasure of was a Seagull models "Mehari"
Sure it looked the part sat on the ground... Tried to fly it with a DLE 20 with the c of g where the instructions said, that first flight one circuit of battling a very rearward c of g, flicking on any slight control movement, 2nd flight with c of g a good 40mm further forward , took nearly full length of field to take off, anything below full power resulted in it descending, 3rd flight now with a DLE30 , performance was adequate .... until dead stick .... that was it's final flight thank god!!

Edited By Neil Byrne on 17/02/2018 13:16:17

Edited By Neil Byrne on 17/02/2018 13:17:03

Edited By Neil Byrne on 17/02/2018 13:27:40

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[David Davis]

Posted by Slopetrashuk on 19/01/2008 16:43:00:

I'll second that for the Kamco Kadet but this thread is about crap models so I'm going to go again with MFA New Yammamoto.......Not a patch on the original.

Andy

I'll second the MFA New Yamamoto, the one which looked like a Cessna and had a fibre glass body. Too heavy and too fast. I soon got rid of mine!

[Don Fry]

An Avimodeli Storch. Expensive. Never flew it, binned half way through the build as I had suffered enough. Dreadful quality, nothing fitted, coming along to be as heavy as a brick. I've still got some of the wood, odd sizes, and whenever I use a piece, the remember. I sometimes think I should chuck it, so I can forget.

[J D 8]

Galaxy Models Typhoon,Very twitchy in flight even with low rates,all of the church roof to get it to balance. On second flight a heavy arrival partialy detached the firewall and even though it was carefully put back I never did get another flight out of it despite several attempts.

Ended its days blown to bits at Haverfordwest model show BoB finale.

Edited By J D 8 on 17/02/2018 16:26:19

[Martin McIntosh]

Just has to be the RCME Seibel free plan. No matter what thrustline I tried it just drove itself into the ground and refused to take off. When I eventually forced it into the air somehow, it flew like a pig. Tricky build for nothing. I watched a video of one built by somebody else and the `flying` characteristics were the same. No wonder that the Storch got the VSTOL contract. Want it anyone before it goes to landfill?

[gangster]

This post is driving me mad. Why? Because a model springs to mind and I cannot for the life of me remember what is was called or who made it. I am trying to remember the model, pretty sure it was distributed by Ripmax. Same company made the Moonshine Bipe. Maybe Aviette. Model in mind had a long tail moment and then fus tapered to nothing. 40 size low wing sport. Please put me out of my misery and remind me. Didn’t like the kit flew like a pig Very quickly snapped the fus at the back. Was going to glue the tail lane back on what was left of the fus and lost the will and gave it away.

I am surprised the Bifly appeared as rubbish on at least 3 posts. I had the big one loved it and had it for years finally it was top fuel soaked to go on . Did not like the nasty liteply fus but it’s was fine. I would have another without qualms

[Alan Hilton]

Flair models cap 232 artf it was such a dog it used to savage passer byes ankles when parked in the Pitts

Alan

[Paul Marsh]

Worst models. one was a Robbe Puma. Too heavy, even with a .61 at full chat, wouldn't get off the ground, when it lumbered into the air, it was so heavy it crashed again at the end before the turn.

Another, a recentish ARTF a Black Horse 40 size spitfire. Dreadful tip stall, soon as I throttled back, it goes into a spin. Every time you try and land it, it goes in and breaks every time, no matter ho careful I was.

[Frank Skilbeck]

Posted by J D 8 on 17/02/2018 16:25:53:

Galaxy Models Typhoon,Very twitchy in flight even with low rates,all of the church roof to get it to balance. On second flight a heavy arrival partialy detached the firewall and even though it was carefully put back I never did get another flight out of it despite several attempts.

Ended its days blown to bits at Haverfordwest model show BoB finale.

Edited By J D 8 on 17/02/2018 16:26:19

Funny I've just built one of these, first flights with an Irvine 25 and a slightly rearward c or g were interesting, the Irvine was a bit noisy (it was a 30 year old blackhead one) so it's now got an OS32 in it and c of g brought forward a tad. I take off from a home made dolly, but it actually flies OK now. I've got it set up with a lot of aileron differential (by offsetting the rods on the servo horn) and not much elevator movement. Biggest issue is that you have to land on the cowl and i can't see that lasting too long.

My worse model has to be a Graupner CAP 232, with the specified elevator movement it was very sluggish and not very aerobatic, turn the elevator movement up and it became more responsive but then had a violent tip stall, often at high speed just waiting to bite you.

[Don Fry]

Trouble was, with those old kits, quality control was not a priority.

The previous owner of DB Sport and Scale had a background in proper engineering. But his better half had, and I never knew her well, but she had a background which had a standard, a red line, in French "normal".

Hence, I suspect, the business got through their guardianship, to move on.

But another dog wot springs to mind. And at this point I confess that I don't know who is at fault, so please accept the experiences of the customer.

An electric foam Flying Boat, called H2O. Seemed nice, but the outriggers were fitted for water, or not, if you put it down on the grass. But no method to make a choice. And the batteries, I believe supplied with the kit, both failed within five charges. And I always charge to balance, sub 1 C, and return to storage if not immediately used. And it flew but not well, somewhat boring, with exciting  bits. That one ended up in the recycling yard. Can't even burn it.

I rant with my house toasty with the bits of my clubs old starting benches powering the wood burner.

Edited By Don Fry on 17/02/2018 18:59:37

[Jon H]

I cant say I have ever had a total lemon of my own but a friend asked me to fly his cmpro/flair 70 inch spitfire.

what a moose. If looked like it had suffered an allergic reaction to something and was all puffed up, it didn't fly very well and every landing was made with assistance from the spinner. I tried everything I could to fix it and eventually we gave up

[Martin McIntosh]

Almost forgot a scale glider from HK, foamie with a retractable wheel. The battery position was fixed and way too far forward resulting in 3oz of church roof in the fin to get it to fly at all. It lasted all of four flights before the rear of the fus. snapped. Motor was pathetic too.

[trebor]

Posted by gangster on 17/02/2018 17:16:54:

I am surprised the Bifly appeared as rubbish on at least 3 posts. I had the big one loved it and had it for years finally it was top fuel soaked to go on . Did not like the nasty liteply fus but it’s was fine. I would have another without qualms

I'm glad you said this after I've spent hours sorting one out ready for the this season.

[Don Fry]

Arrrrrr, Martin, you remind me. I have a HobbyKing Skipper. Now that is a nice aircraft. I believe they say it goes on an 1800 3S battery. With the battery as far back as you can get it, a squat 1000 battery is still somewhat forward for balance, with almost full forward stick to keep it inverted, and level.

[Bob Cotsford]

BlackHorse Extra 300, twitchy as hell. When it landed out behind a hedge I kicked the living whatsit out of it and claimed that it had hit a tree stump. Boy, that felt good!

[Don Fry]

Bob, was that the 1.4, 1.5 metre version? I had that one and thought it pretty decent, at the time, an ARTF that worked.

[Bob Cotsford]

Don, it was a 46 size one, it was almost as though the wings were upside down. You only had to look at it to get a flick out of it. More than a hint of elevator without power would set it off, it was not a model you wanted to go deadstick with.

In it's defense, I did get it second or third-hand.

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 17/02/2018 19:54:21

[Phil 9]

Ebay foam corsair. I never actually got it to fly. SFM eindecker was a close second

[PatMc]

Two slope soarers that I didn't own but was asked to fly.
First was Folkerts FK-3 free plan PSS model from RM. It could be launched into a nice steady breeze picked up some altitude but as soon as any aileron was applied in either direction it would enter an uncontrollable spin. Tried cg changes etc which only altered the angle it hit the deck. Apart from it being a bit on the heavy side for it's size it seemed quite well built. We gave up when I let the owner fly one of my models for the rest of the day. I think he removed the gear & binned the model when he got home.

Other model was a Ripmax Shikari. Nice sleek looking model with veneered foam wings, supposed to be an intermediate first aerobatic sloper. The owner told me he couldn't get it to loop & rolls were "untidy". He handed the tranny to me mid flight & invited me to have a go. Sure enough when I tried a loop it invariably flicked out as it reached the top & when rolled it would start slowly for the first 180 then suddenly flick through the second half. After several attempts I did manage some pretty untidy loops (never consecutive) & with a lot of stick thrashing some passable, anything but axial, rolls. Inverted was like balancing on a football, in fact my Junior 60 was/is easier to hold inverted.
After landing I had a good look at the model & found that the wings had a huge amount of washout built in, presumably as an ill conceived aid to stability.
That one got new pair of built up, near parallel chord, wings with no washout & slightly wider chord ailerons. It looked quite tidy & flew aerobatics very nicely after that.

I later spoke to a couple of other Shikari owners who confirmed the same characteristics. One of them didn't like to admit he'd bought a dog, he claimed it was meant to ease you into the first stages of aerobatics without actualy completing the manoeuvers & made landings very easy !! The other offered to sell him the one he had as a spare. 

Edited By PatMc on 18/02/2018 00:31:16

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

The model that I found the worst was a Cambrian Panther which I bought one for a fiver at a club auction which (I discovered later) had been extensively "polyfillered" and covered in Solartex - then painted...

I flew it twice - first time it seemed OK until I throttled back, when it immediately dropped a wing. After a few experiments it became obvious that I was going to have to come in pretty fast so set up a low flat fast approach and only chopped the throttle at zero feet. Breathed several sighs of relief and put it back in the car!

After I'd removed as much weight as possible from the tail (and as it only owed me a fiver) I plucked up the courage to try it again. It flew a little better but any attempt at a loop resulted in a flick off the top as well as vicious wing drops during any attempt at slower flight. After another hot landing I decided it had to go on a diet, stripped the covering, found the extensive and heavy filler and got distracted by other projects.

A year or so ago, a clubmate acquired a kit and built it (adding as much lightness as possible on my advice) - then asked me to test fly it for him. With some trepidation, I gave it a go and found it better than mine but still with a nasty wing drop at the stall. We set the ailerons up a bit (although they are strip ailerons they start a fair way from the fuselage) and it behaved much better. I still couldn't bring myself to slow it up much on the approach and I think this put the owner off a bit as I haven't seen it since - not sure what became of it!

I still have mine in the loft but I wasn't inspired as much as I'd hoped and still haven't done anything with it. I did have some email conversations with an owner from Guernsey who seemed delighted with his example. I think I remember that his was a lot lighter than mine but the correspondence was on my old work email account which I no longer have access to, having escaped from all that nonsense a few years back.

[Jon H]

Posted by Bob Cotsford on 17/02/2018 19:28:48:

BlackHorse Extra 300, twitchy as hell. When it landed out behind a hedge I kicked the living whatsit out of it and claimed that it had hit a tree stump. Boy, that felt good!

Ha! I think we have all been there