Muppet of the week

[Geo.]

My worst muppet moment was just after a spell of buddy box training.Reset my trannie servo reversers for my own model.
Elevator up down ok. rudder left right ok.
Ailerons moving!! You guessed it,reversed.
Right after take off,bin bag required.Proves no matter how experienced you are,you can still make fundamental mistakes if you don't concentrate.

[Dave Harbour]

I have a sportsman aviation spit, funnily enough one of my muppet moments happened with this plane not long after passing my A cert. My instructor friend took the plane up for me for the first time and handed me the controlls and i was chuffed to dickens at flying it for the first time, second time i tried it for myself from take off, my friend did warn me about spits tip stalling but not how to recover from them, after take off the left wing stalled and the plane went cart wheeling back to the pits knocking off both wing tips and destroying the nose. lesson learned, rebuilt the spit, re-covered in true scale style of BBMF mkII and made own GF cowl and flown successfuly for past 3 years.
Steve, maybee Jamara could supply a cowl as their spit is almost identical, also carbon copy did a spit cowl with the correct firewall dimentions.

[001]

My muppet moment, started the 4 stroke engine on my Super 60, which was tuned into the wrong transmitter (an old one with servo reverse inside the back panel). I checked out the controls, decided that only the elevator needed reversing so, cleverly decided to change over while the engine was running. Selected Channel 3 by mistake, plane leaps forward at full throttle, and is stopped by my lower leg. Ruined a good pair of jeans and a year later I still have the scars, so I won't do that again!

[Roger T]

Richard,

I have to say that the use of restraints is quite a good idea! And is a requirement in our club (as per BMFA advice).

Watched a colleague try to start a 4 stroke with throttle stick closed, but sadly with reversed servo sense. Good news: it didn't start, but the model was well restrained with a rugby goal post yolk in the ground.

Roger T

[jimmy]

one of our club members didnt put the wing bolts in his katana, took off and started to fly after about 2 minuits the wing came off and he lost the model

[Steve Ebbon]

Hi Jimmy,

It's good to know I'm not alone and these thing happen to other people as well, not that I would wish mishaps on anyone but it's good to read of the mistakes that can happen, it might help others to keep their models flying longer.

[Lee Morgan]

Well i think we all have muppet moments.
As a b/day presie my wife bought me my first low wing trainer, A Blackhorse speedair. Fantastic plane (my opinion) when i had built it. Took it out the back garden ran 3 tanks of fuel through it ( being really carefull and checking the engine countless amounts) Right time for flight. Here in wales we have loads of flying sites that are perfect for flying powered and glider models. Anyway i chose the nearest flying site through impatients took my son with me who was 9 at the time.
Started the plane ran it up and down the strip 4 times ( caution ) then went for it.................... Next comment my son made was " Dad thats very close to that tree !!!!!!!" so if anyone has a wing for a black horse speedair doing nothing I would love to get it in the air for more than 30 secs..

I dont use that site anymore,

Lee

[Peter Miller]

I claim to be the only person to shoot myself down without even touching a transmitter. Here's how it happened.
I was flying a nice vintage model and asked Fred if he would like to fly it. While Fred is crusing it round Derek says, "I am going back to the cars, do you want anything." I said, "Yes, could you bring my other tranny." (no Memories in those days.)
Coming back Derek calls out. "Your batteries are low." I said, "No, that is an RF meter, pull the aerial out to see the full power." Derek does and Fred says I've lost it" and the nice vintage model folds a wing.
Well, I wasn't flying a model so it must be all right to switch on my Tx. We all have allocated frequencies with no duplicates and hence no peg board.

[Ian Nelson]

This is a USA muppet moment as told to some of us by a club member who had visited a flying site there.

A group who were co-owners of a large-scale model were first to the site this day. Although they used a peg-board system, as they were fist there, they didn't get their peg. Our club-member arrived and joined the group of fliers. As the tx was being passed between them, it was passed to him. After a short fly, he passed it on.

Just after he had passed it on, the next flyer lost control and the plane crashed. Reason: another flyer had arrived, and finding his freq peg on the board, took it and turned on his tx, unfortunately the same freq as the plane already flying.

Body bag, please.

[Nick Chudley]

Here's a muppet moment that might give you a chance to learn from my expensive mistake.

I have a model with twin electric brushless motors, which requires two speed controllers working in parallel.

I found a different old motor in my box yesterday and I was wondering if it still works. So I connected it to one of the speed controllers, removed the prop from the other motor and started it up. It worked alright, but the speed controller caught fire within about 3 seconds.

What I learned: If you have 2 or more controllers in parallel, make sure all the motors match.

DOH!

[Flanker .]

I had a GREAT muppet a few years back, I was flying my SAS Ace with a very clapped os 15 in it. I was showing off to non flying friends, doing fast low passes n cutting grass with the prop. "Bet you can't do it upside down" they said. "'Corse I can" sez I, and I did. Trouble was there wasn't enough down elevator left to climb up again .... and there was a nice dry stone wall at the end of the field...

[Peter Miller]

Not my muppet this time, well, not the worst part.
Was flying my easy Pigeon and got distratced, lost sight of it. Spent tow days searching and then gave up.
Farmer's son turned up a few days later. he had found it sityting behind a copse. Couldn't get it in the tractor cab so balanced it on the bonnet. It slid off and the tractor drove over it. Not a lot left.
He only got half a bottle of whisky by way of thanks!

[001]

Had a minor muppet moment today. (Result of getting old and absent minded). I spent a lot of time balancing a model that had been damaged and repaired. Thought - why do I not make a neat installation of the weights in the nose. Clamped some new lead weights inside the nose and glued them with epoxy. When it had set I checked the C.G. again, very nose heavy. I couldn't understand why, because I had carefully checked the weights with a digital scale. Then realised - the clamps were still there.

[christopher small]

I taught myself to fly with a 72 inch glider with a enya 049,took off from one of our fields many years ago,perfect launch,everything was going well till I tried to turn to the left,nothing happened it carried on straight,eventually it came round to the left about a 1/2 a mile or more away,you could just see it.To my left was a wood which it was heading for,I could do nothing to control it,so I ran for the wood then lost sight of it,(should never have put in a 2oz tank)then in a clearing in the wood it came over me,so I held on full down elevator which suddenly brought it down like an arrow into the ground,needing a lot of repair work.
The reason for all this as I soon found out was that the aerial wire had pulled out from the receiver,so after about 30 yards it must have gone out of range.
So after that prior to take off,I always check all controls (with Tx aerial down at about 20 yards away)for correct movement etc,and check for interference ,then if all is well extend Tx aerial and go.
When servo reverse came out on transmitters
It must have caught out a lot of people,when swopping from one model to another,several times I have had to change the switches over in this last minute check.

[flytilbroke]

Had two "moments" with the same model, a Seamaster. First one I decided to put the aeriel wire inside the fuse, stretched it to the tail and glued it. Flew well till forty/fifty feet up and forty/fifty yards out. then vertical SPLAT. wire wasnt glued and had coiled back. Fixed model.

Second "moment" I let myself be distracted when fitting the wing. Started take-off run, wing flew up, now got a high speed boat. No damage at all.

[Tony Jones]

Many of my muppet moments have been caused by distraction during the assembly and/or setup stage in the pits. You can't blame the people who gather round to ask questions, but I now try to wait until they've gone away so i can concentrate 100% on what I'm doing.
Distraction is a well-known cause of accidents in full size aviation and pilots and engineers are trained to be aware of it and resist it.

[Peter Miller]

Tony, Are you by any chance the Tony Jones that I knew at Laarbruch in 66? Flew control line stunt.

[Tony Jones]

Sorry Peter, no. In 1966 I was learning to fly helicopters at Ternhill.

Cheers
Tony

[Barry Taylor]

Apart from those usual muppet moments like trying to start the glow motor with no glow-start attached (usually when clubmates are watching),my recent muppet moment was forgetting to put the aerial up. Its easy when you get distracted. Nowt worse than, after crashing the thing just after take off you hear from the pits a collective: "Is yer aeriel up?". You just want the earth to open up!!

[Peter Miller]

Many years ago I let a vintage model go without switching on. The model flew 13 miles. The best part was that our site landlord took me up in his Tiger Moth for half a freezing hour looking for it.Didn't find it but got it back undamaged three weeks later. No name and address!

[001]

Or pumping fuel into a model for minute after minute and wondering when the tank will be full. Then noticing the fuel pouring out the fuselage (if you are lucky) because a fuel line has split. I always hated that, it's not so much the wasted fuel, but the oil soaked fuselage, foam around the tank, nicad and receiver. It gets soooo messy.

[Grant Darnley]

on a similar note to above, I have managed to fill an entire tuned pipe with fuel before.

my dad once tried to stop a cowled engine(cyano in the carb barrel) by sticking a screwdriver in to push the fuel line off the carb nipple. Stitches resulted.

my personal best would be playing to the crowd with a small overweight scale aerobat, trying to get lower inverted passes each time. I think I left the rudder 40yds behind

[flytilbroke]

Similar fuel problem. On the Saturday at the Loch Tay Splash-in I had a rough engine run on my Ready2, so I refueled, set it a bit richer and went for flight two. Engine cut, maybe half tank. Hmm, refueled for Flight three, engine cut again, on carrying the plane to pits I heard and felt the water sloshing in it. Now where the H,,, did that get in I asked meself. Only, was fuel wasn't it. The tanks' "brass" tubing had corroded and nearly disintegrated and fuel had bled back into the body. I should have checked sooner than flight three. Thanks for new bung and tube on Sunday George.

[Grant Darnley]

Not one of mine, but I did end up with the crashed model afterwards, friend couldnt understand why his engine kept cutting after about 2mins in the air. Checked the needles, plug, fuel, lines looked ok, nothing in the carb so decided to perservere. Cut at the wrong moment and voila, one broken airplane.

It wasn't until I stripped out the engine and tank at home that I noticed he'd plumbed a vent line to the carb!

[Peter Miller]

I tried to fill the tank on an OS 20FS through the crankcase breather. Took ages to clear the crankcase. Too many pipes sticking out of the cowling.
Remember, "The man who never made a mistake never made anything"