The most stupid/embarassing things youve done whilst flying...other than crash

[Lindsay Todd]

We did have a chap at our club some years back who had brought a Nexus 30 Heli down to the patch for its first flight, went through a fairly extensive check of everything before starting the motor and carrying it out onto the field. Increased the power but nothing happened so tried more, then even more, full chat but the heli refused to leave the ground. In despair shut the throttle promptly and in a flash the heli jumped skyward to about 50 feet, in a panic then open the throttle and promptly drove the model at some force back into the ground. Having done all the checks a simple thing like having his pitch curve reversed resulted in a hefty repair bill and much embarrassment. This guy is now a seriously good 3D heli pilot now.

[Martin Whybrow]

Well not my fault, but involved my plane. Many years ago, when I was first learning, before I could drive, my dad used to take me to Croxley Moor to fly on a Sunday morning; the route to the flying field went past the local dump, and my dad always had something to get rid of, so we always stopped off at the dump en-route. On this particular occasion, he'd loaded something big in the car and put my Tinker on top. Well, we left the dump and negotiated the next roundabout when my dad said "what's that behind us"; looked in the mirror to see the Tinker's wings fluttering through the air as the fell off the car roof where dad had left them whilst unloading the car at the dump. Thankfully, no one ran over them!

[Peter Miller]

You know, reading through all these I don't know about you but I have frequently thought. "Been there! Done that!"

So in most cases...you are not alone in what you did. e.g. Leaving trannies on top of cars, leaving bits at home (trannies,fuel, etc.) Leaving aerials in.

Just remember "YOU ARE NOT ALONE!"

[Mike L]

A few years back I was at the field assembling my 71” Tiger Moth lovingly built from the DB plan and a lovely flier, the assembly involved quite a few nuts and bolts, when someone bowled up who I had not seen for yonks, chit, chit, chit, chat, chat, chat, fire engine up, taxi, take off – hold the phone, something not quite right here – top wing fluttering alarmingly, oops now not connected to the plane at all – hey guys look it flies without a top wing. Managed to float it in without too much damage to plane.

Upon retrieving the plane I summized that I had only fixed (hand tightened at that) one of the three wing bolts for the top wing, how did I know?- one was still in wing and the other two were still in the field box!

My ego, well that’s a different story!! So next time you see me assembling one of my biplanes and I look focussed and not overly attentive – now you know why!!

I watched “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines” last week, perhaps I need to follow the Germans lead and do it all by the book! Splendid film!

[Alistair Scolley]

In the late 1980s I had a Thermalist vintage glider. It was so slow it could only be flown in calm conditions and one day I got it aloft and found that there was a stiff breeze higher up. The model hadn’t been fitted with an elevator (it was strictly rudder-only) so I couldn’t push the nose down to gain speed. We had to run after the model as it got blown down-wind. A friend came with me and I handed him the transmitter so I could run faster.

The model landed in a field of cows. Cows are incredibly nosey creatures and as soon as they heard the plane touch down they all turned and started walking towards it. It was obvious they were going to get there before I did, so how do you keep a couple of dozen cows away from a plane to stop them damaging it? You panic. I started shouting and waving my arms. “Keep away from it! I’ll take it out of your way!” I said.

They all stopped and turned to see what sort of lunatic had come into their field so I kept up the chatter. It worked, though. I picked up my undamaged model then headed back towards the fence and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I turned round and saw that the entire herd was following me, with the nearest animal less than six feet away. They hadn’t attacked, so I reckoned I stood a chance of escaping, but how do you get a fully-rigged glider of 137 inches span and yourself on the other side of a fence as quickly as possible? I reached over the fence and put the glider down on the other side, moved to one side and was through the wire within about two seconds. Luckily, none of the cows tried to jump the fence so I was now safe.

It wasn’t until I got all the way back to the flying field that I realised I hadn’t switched the model’s radio off.

[David Davis]

When I used to import the Telemasters I was invited to display them at a special meeting organised by a club "somewhere in the English Midlands." The club had also invited a number of very proficient 3D and aerobatic flyers. I flew the electric powered 48" and 72" Telemasters without incident before flashing up the Thunder Tiger 91 in the 8 foot Senior Telemaster which you can see in my avatar. I took off and flew it round in basic circuits and figures of eight for perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, then decided to land but for some reason the throttle would not shut sufficiently to enable me to do this so the model flew on. I had a sixteen ounce tank in that model so while the young hotshots were making their models do everything except fly backwards, the old STM was droning round the sky at a high altitude just to keep out of their way. After half an hour even I got bored so I tried cutting the throttle on the top of a loop, stall turns and Immelmans, anything to get that engine to cut but the worthy old Thunder Tiger just kept droning on. After 45 minutes the engine ran out of fuel and I was able to effect a dead-stick landing.

I made some adjustments to the throttle push rod and I was shown how to set the kill button facility on my Dx6i. I'm totally useless with computers!

Now, every time I see one of those club members they all remind me of that epic flight!

[Steve T]

This was a bit naughty but great fun, although I'm sure it is now illegal, anyway....I was bought a cheap (Chinese) foam, powered glider which did everything other than fly, those responsible were trying to give me a present they thought I would have fun with, in good faith as they say. I had several attempts with every possible set up change I could imagine. Of course it was all finally sorted when we realised the plane was just a heap of garbage. What to do? I got a friend to bungee launch the offensive machine as high as we could get it (on my own farm land by the way, not public accessible) as soon as the launching ring had fallen away....I let rip with both barrels of my Browning 12 bore, that fixed it! Before we could get to the tiny bits of wreckage the pigs had trampled it all into their paddock mud, a suitable ending as far as we were concerned. Yes I am aware it is illegal to even crash a plane deliberately nowadays but this was on my own land and out of sight. And it was the best moment I had with that plane 😱

[Stevo]

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but to put the record straight.

18 months in the making...

Saito 56 inverted... Lovely.

I got Engine Doctor to maiden it. A couple of clicks and it was flying straight and true. I looped it round a couple of times. Back to E.D. Lovely scale loop... came out dead level.

Then the wing and fuselage departed their short term relationship. Th wing floated down. The fuselage landed in a corn field.

Moral of the story? Double check that the wing dowels are GLUED IN.

So there you have it. Iv'e suffered years of micky taking.... Haven't I John?

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[J V R]

I took a plane down to the club field, unpacked my gear, plugged the battery in, did the range check and picked up the plane, walked over to the patch looking at the plane, whilst I was walking and noticed that both the props were missing as I had not put them on after changing at home............

[Steve_Wright]

I have managed to kill a DX-6 Tx and 4 battery packs for my twin star by driving home with them on the car roof

[IanN]

Came within a hair's breadth today

"Maidening" a second hand DB Scout airframe I acquired a while back. Model fully rigged and assembled, engine started, controls checked etc at home. All a.o.k. so left for the field

Most of my flying has been solo hand launched elec for a good while so I've been in the habit of using - make that needing - a tx strap. This time, having brought my i.c. flight box rather than the rucksack of electric back up stuff I didn't have the tx strap.

No problem, I only needed it for the hand launches

After a hairy first 30 seconds or so the Scout is trimmed out and flies fine. Ten minutes later a reasonable landing, well pleased. Walk over, switch off Rx, pick up model. A bit awkward to hold in one hand and it starts to slip so......... I just caught myself in time,within a split second of dropping the tranny "safe" in the "knowledge" that the strap would support it Phew!

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I got to the field Sunday and one of the lads was wearing the same colour skirt and blouse that I had on

John...(Josephine)

[Shaunie]

Wow, what a question!

Many years ago (it was about '74) as a young teenager I built a Rip Max Dazzler 48 on single channel bang-bang.

A test glide was performed downhill about 200 yards before some trees, the intention was to turn away from them. The Cg was spot on and the trim must have been just off the stall. Down the hill it went with me running behind it, pressing the button and watching the rudder wiggling from side to side with absolutely no deviation to the planes direction of travel whatsoever. Straight into the treeline it went. It only took about 15 minutes to find. As far as I can tell it hit a Beech tree about 30 feet up, but as I was a complete novice and only had two wing bands on it the wing came off and it all plunged to the ground. The only damage was a dent in one wing leading edge about halfway along it. Rebuilt it with a two channel McGregor, looped it over my head on takeoff and hit the deck behind me. Gave up trying for 12 years until a friend taught me to fly.

Ready for another?

A friend built a vintage plane (super sixty I think) and put a 2.5 or 3.5cc diesel in it, about 1990 I think. As he was a novice he asked me to maiden it. The engine was new and marginal anyway so wouldn't ROG, a hand launch resulted in a bumpy landing. No problem, restart engine adjust trim and try again. Plane climbs well but Wow! Full left aileron just about gives level flight, nursed plane gently around into a left circuit with large chunks of rudder, got it back onto the ground with sticks in the corners. Umm...who didn't check the wing position after the bumpy landing then? It was about 2 inches off centre!

One more before you are too bored!

This was 2013. Not been in the CDMFC for long just getting treated as if I knew what I was doing. Started up my fun fly plane, checked engine was on song as it had been giving me a bit of gyp, stepped around the back, caught my foot in a bramble and kicked the fin flat, nobody laughed, I think that hurt the most!

Shaunie

[Martin Whybrow]

My first model was a Bowman Mini Skyman with a Cox 049 engine; one of the club members was hand launching it for me and it just didn't want to fly, just wouldn't get any airspeed. Then on one launch, ithe engine quit and the model glided further than when the engine was running; we filled the tank and started the engine and that's when we realsied the engine was running backwards! I'd previously broken the starter spring so was flicking it over instead, evidently the engine fired well before TDC and kicked it over backwards!

[The Wright Stuff]

How about having an entire conversation with the person stood behind me whilst I was flying. I reported the trimming I was doing, talked about the wind, and how it seemed to change direction higher up.

It was only after I'd landed that I realised he was no longer there. He had wandered off and was talking to someone else in the pits. There I was merrily talking away to myself....

[John F]

I was flying at a lovely spot near where I live, a large-ish hill with lovely views and a path goes behind where walkers and horse riders go past. I only fly My Serenade glider here and many stop to chat and ask questions.

One morning I was flying and a lady stopped by for a chat, talking animatedly about how her husband flew planes up till recently and how he would have enjoyed the view.

I just said something along the lines of “Bring him along tomorrow if you can, I should be here same time”

She replied “Well if you fly high enough he might see the plane, he died last year”

I felt like such a wally!!

[russ d]

I was flying in the Purbecks one windy day last year, and as I went to give the plane a hearty launch my left knee gave way, the nerve pain was so intense I think it jumbled my brain signals ..............I fell flat on my face holding tightly on to the plane while launching the transmitter into the air !

Luckily I'm a lone flyer and nobody was around to see.

Surprisingly the transmitter landed softly in some long thistles and was ok (Futaba T8 no aerial to break!)

russ

[David Davis]

I have a story where, quite by chance I was saved from embarrassment.

I had built a Flair Hooligan and fitted an old Sanwa Conquest radio. It appeared to glitch rather more frequently than is normal but I always managed to regain control. It was the luckiest model I have ever had and egret selling it now!

I was flying it for about the fourth or fifth time when it hit the top branches of the trees in the background of the attached photograph. The model was tipped sideways and I thought, "Oh dear!" Something made me push the throttle stick forward and the engine, a Red Irvine 46, burst into life and the model knife-edged the trees enabling me to regain control and execute a landing. All the while the model was trailing foliage from its undercarriage! In the photo you may see me holding the twigs in my hand.

[John Norman]

It's not always modellers -- and nothing beat this true story. When the Nazis invaded southern Norway in 1940 the RAF decided to send some Hurricanes to northern Norway -- using the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious to get them there. 46 Squadron flew theirs to Glasgow and would you believe, the fighters were then taxied over fields and along lanes to a jetty on the Clyde. Must have been one heck of a task with so little forward vision

Glorious was 20 miles away so the Hurri's were loaded on to barges and ferried out. When they finally arrived alongside the carrier, their wings were removed and the planes hoisted aboard. It was several hours later that it was discovered the wing bolts had been left on the barges -- now long gone!!! It took quite a while for the shipboard mechanics to make replacements.