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Things that have dropped off in flight


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i arrived at our site beside the north east coast and was told about one of my friends model going out to Sea......as I was having a laugh in sympathy etc....he then told me it also had my tuned pipe fitted....never to be seen again...probably now home to some crabs ….

ken anderson...ne...1..crabs dept.

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During launch on my first or second F5J comp, my E glider threw a blade off my (cheap and nasty) folding prop. The motor and bulkhead instantly parted with the airframe, leaving the battery in place (good old Velcro!).

The glider came down (with no input from me) like an autumn leaf and suffered no extra damage. The motor was much further away than I had imagined, but was found.

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Posted by Gary Manuel on 11/06/2020 19:41:52:

This one is going to take some believing!

I wouldn't have believed it myself if it hadn't have happened to me and was not witnessed by several members.

I started my Saito 150 as normal in my Slipstream MXS and took off. Just after take off, the engine cut and I managed to land OK with no damage. Post flight inspection revealed that the prop was turning with no resistance. Obviously no compression, so I feared an expensive repair. On closer inspection, there was no glow plug in the cylinder head. Ah that explains it, the plug has unscrewed and fallen out after take off. New plug fitted, refueled and ready to restart.

Glow clip would not fit onto the plug. Wait! There's a plug already inside the glow clip!

The only way to explain this is that I started the engine and the glow plug came away from the engine as I removed the clip. The engine ran for long enough WITHOUT A GLOW PLUG for me to take off, before cutting. I still don't believe that this happened, but it did.

Anyone have an explanation? I feel like someone who has reported seeing a UFO or being spoken to by God - nobody is going to believe me.

Well, I'm very happy to believe you but as you say, it is quite impossible for the engine to have worked at all with a glow plug sized hole in the top,. However, i've seen enough impossible and improbable stuff in my time to say "yep, that works for me"...or more eloquently, "there are more things in heaven and earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

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I've also done the Rx battery one. I was doing a tight outside loop at the time - the model came down in an inverted spin - no damage - it was very solidly built - the battery landed about ten feet away from the model! I've also had the motor detach from an electric model. This was a well known artf, we'll draw a line over which manufacturer, the motor mount had been assembled with insufficient glue. I was hand launching at the time with only one hand on the Tx, Suddenly the motor is hanging out of the nose, still on full throttle thrashing about on its wires and machining away various bits of the airframe. I was extremely lucky that this didn't include my fingers. The lesson was obvious - never take anything for granted on an artf. The last example I'll mention was on a pusher model. The hatch consisted of most of the top of the fuselage and was held on with magnets (not strong enough ones), as it detached it exited the model by way of the propeller, emerging in the form of confetti. My clubmates thought it most amusing - I was less impressed.

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The problem with inverted glow engines is that the glowstick isn't immediately visible as you walk out... I've twice taken off with it still attached... only to spot it sticking out from underneath as the model passes in the circuit.

Once I landed with it still attached. Once... it wasn't. Never did find it.

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Not my plane, but back in the day when we huddled atop a local slope, now and then, we would hear the tell-tale sound of flutter, building to a ripping noise then almost silence other than the pilot's cries. This high speed pass resulted in the total loss of the tailplane, the glider bunted to inverted then porpoised a little before settling down to a gentle descent with aileron control into the long grass. Others generally never had the height to complete the bunt.

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Posted by David Hall 9 on 12/06/2020 14:20:45:

Not my plane, but back in the day when we huddled atop a local slope, now and then, we would hear the tell-tale sound of flutter, building to a ripping noise then almost silence other than the pilot's cries. This high speed pass resulted in the total loss of the tailplane, the glider bunted to inverted then porpoised a little before settling down to a gentle descent with aileron control into the long grass. Others generally never had the height to complete the bunt.

I had that happen to me when I lost both halves of an all moving tail in a tight turn on a very windy day.

As with yours it stabilised inverted, and with gentle aileron turns I was able to land it nearby without too much damage.

Dick

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I also saw a model fly away straight and level never to be found again(it was fitted with one of the Ripmax Hal auto levelling devices)…..c/w ic engine etc..

 

and I was present when a model landed perfectly minus the diesel engine it had fitted when it left the ground... kulou 

 

ken anderson...ne...1..fair well dept.

Edited By ken anderson. on 12/06/2020 15:04:34

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