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Fly aways


fly boy3
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I've seen one (well two if you count a drone which seemed to think home was still in China - it disappeared in that direction) in nearly 20years. The assumption was that the battery or switch failed and the large trainer type model adopted a free flight style climbing circle, steadily drifting downwind until it was a dot in the sky, never to be seen or heard of again.

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Well many years ago I had a couple of fly aways.

Both due to destractions and failure to switch the radio on.

One was found 4 miles away and Anglia TV was kind enough to mention it and a local policeman found it. A dontation to the police fund was duly made. This was due to a person coming over to see what it was all about.

Second one was due to engine problems. Once I got the model going I forgot to switch on.

I was flying from a private airstrip and we went off in a Tiger Moth but didn't find it but that made my day.

Publicity with local radio station and models shop and eventually two weeks later I got a phone call. It had been found 12 miles away the next day by a farm worker and stored in a barn

A £20 donation to said farm worker was well worth it.

I am not counting the free flight fly aways from before radio.

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And of course on older systems, remember to extend the transmitter aerial.

Something I forgot tonight. Brief and spectacular aerobatics. My Wot4 now needs a rebuilt fuselage. Bah humbug. (That wing is impressively tough though. Still reasonably intact after twenty years and on its third fuselage! )

Pre-flight checks not quite complete = null points. Doesn't matter how many years I've been doing this flying game, it is still depressingly easy to make a pig's ear of it. The only bright spot is that at least I did that with a model, not the full size. A cheap lesson and mental rap over the knuckles.

Edited By John Bisset on 17/07/2020 22:59:02

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In many years, I've seen only one fly away, but what scares me is the potential to lose a model in the sky. When flying in thermal comps or when in practice, at distance, if the pilot takes his eyes off the model, it can be very difficult to pick it up again. Now and then, they can lost "in the sky".

At my local club, my fellow flyer shouted that he had lost his hot liner. It wasn't too high or far away but he had passed in front of the sun and had lost sight of it. As he scanned the sky in front of him, I landed my model quickly and looked in the opposite direction. I saw it, maybe 200m downwind and near to the horizon. He got it back. So easily done.

Edited By David Hall 9 on 17/07/2020 23:23:57

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I have witnessed two:

- 35 MHz radio - forgot to extend antenna.

- Flying in a drizzle - best guess was that water in the switch of the IC pattern plane caused loss of control. The slow roll continued until the model went into the trees just out of sight.

Edited By perttime on 18/07/2020 05:38:18

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Fly away, I suppose that's a matter of opinion and degree?

I don't think any of these count, but then again.

  • My Cougar 2000, RX switch failed, loss of control. Very large tree stopped it getting any further, but as it was straight and level it might have made + 1/2 mile if not
  • My Wots wot, battery fell out of model due to poor tray design, circled to land and then the lipo disconnected from the EC5 connector, loss of control until model met the ground
  • My Habu edf, flown many times, this time in light drizzle flying over adjacent field 1/2 roll and 1/2 loop to come back. RX failure resulted in 1/2 roll and 1/4 loop with vertical decent and model in failsafe
  • Club members Hunter edf (5ft wing span), loss of TX/RX control, model glided considerable distance before crashing into trees (+1/4 mile).

Does fly away mean beyond visual sight of a model? For some of our very young fliers with EDF's that's a long way away and they bring them back every time wink

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This happened about ten years ago. I was just about to take off with the Super Sixty when someone said that the aerial on my Futaba FF6 was loose. I tightened it up but unbeknown to me, snapped a small white wire at the base of the aerial. Final control check proved that everything was ok so I pushed the throttle forward and the model took off and started climbing to the left. I put in right rudder but had no control so the model continued to fly in fairly tight left hand climbing circles. We had a spare Futaba transmitter in the club house so while I watched the model, others took the crystal and battery out of my transmitter which involved unscrewing the back from my transmitter! Unfortunately the spare transmitter was Mode 1 while I'm Mode 2. I think that we managed to get the engine to cut but can't be certain. It appeared to land in or behind a wood half a mile away. A search party was organised but we couldn't find it.

When I got home I emailed the RAF helicopter training base at Shawbury and they promised to have a look for it the following Monday morning. At 09.20 they found it and emailed me the co-ordinates. Having picked it up I sent the crew a bottle of Champagne in thanks. The damage was not too severe.

Once the white wire had snapped the transmitter had a range of about two metres!

damaged super sixty (1).jpg

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Modern radios have failsafe settings for a loss of signal, so the primary cause for a fly away these days will be due to a switch or battery failure in the aircraft.

I had a fly away many years ago with one of my enlarged BMFA Darts. It had a little diesel engine in it and I was running it up to get it tuned. There was no need to switch on the radio for this at this time. . So, it was running nicely, and I stood back to let it run for a while. When I turned my back, my "helpful" son then picked it up and launched it.

To be fair, this was his job, and he hadn't been told to leave it alone. . Anyway, we watched it spiral gently up to the heavens and slowly disappear out of sight. There was no name and address on it, so assumed that would be the last we saw of it. . . . . . However, I got a phone call that evening from the chap who ran the local model shop. My Dart had landed, undamaged, in his garden. . Yayyyyyy,  got it back. . . And we flew it at the Model Engineers Exhibition at Olympia a couple of days later.

B. C.

Edited By Brian Cooper on 18/07/2020 08:44:37

Edited By Brian Cooper on 18/07/2020 08:46:38

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A clubmate had two flyaways with the same model (an electric glider). The cause remained a mystery until he remarked that on both occasions it appeared that someone had come across the model before he found it and kindly unplugged the battery!

A quick investigation revealed that the wires from the internally mounted brushless outrunner were dangerously close to the rotating motor drum. Sure enough, close inspection revealed chafing on the wires which, once snagged on the motor, pulled the ESC forward, unplugging the battery.

But I agree - the most common cause, on gliders at least, is forgetting to switch on. I've also seen external switches on gliders cause problems - ('back for on' gets switched off at launch, 'forward for on' gets switched off in midairs or touch and gos through long grass!)

Trevor

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Many years ago I built a ‘Wing-ding’ from a free plan in Model Aircraft (1965?) (just found it on Outerzone), powered by a Cox 0.20. On its first flight it flew massive loops due to not enough downthrust so I adjusted that and the next flight it took off at 45 degrees and disappeared into the distance. We could hear the motor running (no silencer and boy were those Cox engines noisy!) and then heard it cut out as the fuel was exhausted but had no idea where it was. I cycled to the village post office, about a mile away, and put a note on the notice board about the lost ‘plane. My dad got a ‘phone call later on that day as it had been found, in fact it had landed next door to the post office! It did fly again but with more downthrust and some rudder trim which at least kept it in the same field!

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Posted by Trevor on 18/07/2020 08:53:44:

But I agree - the most common cause, on gliders at least, is forgetting to switch on. I've also seen external switches on gliders cause problems - ('back for on' gets switched off at launch, 'forward for on' gets switched off in midairs or touch and gos through long grass!)

Trevor

Too true Trevor! I had a Middle Phase and made the long climb up to the top of Mt Caburn (just outside Lewes, East Sussex). I had my girlfriend with me (now my wife) and I wanted to show her the joys of slope soaring. I assembled the glider and proceeded to launch it whereupon it described a perfect horizontal semi circle and came straight back into the slope. The cow that it hit (true!) was not amused, neither was my girlfriend! I discovered that it was not switched on as the launching procedure had knocked the switch off.
That was oh so many years ago but the image of the jumping cow is still with me.

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Posted by Frank Skilbeck on 18/07/2020 07:54:14:

Club mates free flight chuck glider got caught in a thermal, last we saw of it was 3/4 fields away still going up...........

When I was a lot younger I built a a KK Caprice which is a FF tow line glider. I spent many a happy hour flying and trimming, on the few calm days we had. I gradually increased the de-thermalize fuse and the length of the tow line.

With this model when the tow line drops off an elastic band pulls the rudder over thereby making it fly in gentle turns.

So what went wrong!

On the last flight ever the tow line would not detach so I gave it a tug and the towline broke. The plane turned down wind and went in a straight line over a road and into a wooded area. My girlfriend and I searched for hours giving up when the light started to fail.

That's when I decided RC from now on! Could have been my girlfriend that made that decision as we did eventually marry.

RC happened over forty years later.

And here I am flying RC for the past two years. smiley

A life long dream achievedyes

The loss of a plane is always sad at the timesad and I often wonder what happened to it. Which still makes me feel sadsad

Just put it behind you and move on because there is a lot more fun to come.

Steve

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When I extended my RAF service from 5 to 12 years I was given a bonus of £100 which in 1958 was a fortune.Iwas paid this on the day I was going on leave. WOW!!!!

On my way home I walked into Henry J Nichols shop (308 Holloway Road) and bought a brand new Fox 35 and assorted wood and then I spotted a card of Cox Peewees so I had one of them as well!

While on leave I build a small FF pylon model to my own design.

I took this to an evening club flying session and started it up and let it go....I then found out that Peewees run for an awfully long time on a tankful of fuel

Never did see that again!!!

Edited By Peter Miller on 18/07/2020 09:56:15

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My one and only flyaway was a free-flight KK Dolphin glider, I'd just finished it, lovely job, and decided its maiden should be off one of our club slopes. Took it to one of our Sunday slope sessions at Highlow and launched it off the slope. It slowly tracked into wind, climbing and climbing - absolutely perfect - and climbing and climbing.... never to be seen again.

A couple of years ago at the Ponty Single Channel & Retro R/C event, several minutes into the Blunderbird-Racing slot I realised that for some time I'd been watching the wrong model... mine had safely landed itself 200m away.

 

Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 18/07/2020 22:17:51

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hello FB3,all the years I've been flying I've only seen one fly away on its own(had the ripmax hal installed in it)….any others I have witnessed have been the old "I've lost control" jobs where people haven't charged the aircraft battery's...and they normally end up a couple of fields away......todays modern radio equipment seem totally reliable compared to not a long time ago..

ken anderson...ne...1...never to be seen again dept.

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I have seen few fly-a-ways over the years and most have been I/C two channel high wing type model or glider with higher stability than low wing models .The main cause was that the radio as not switched on or the switch was knocked when launching .

One chap was so annoyed he drove off in pursuit of his diesel powered glider . Driving around the area in huge circles with a mate for a spotter. . He saw the model start to descend. He thinks it landed in a cropped field a couple of miles away but it was never found , That had a pristine AM 10 on it .Not very valuable but he was not amused !

Another mate launched his Mills 75 powered Tom Boy into wind and seconds later the *%(" word was followed by "I never switched the bloody radio on " That in itself was hilarious as he said it in a Michael Caine voice , You know " Your only supposed to blow the bloody doors off " Voice. We watched the model climb over the fields heading straight into the wind and eventually when only a tiny dot. It turned ,.the engine had obviously stopped and it glided in large circles and landed perfectly in the next field ..

With more electric models and better pit and pre-flight check procedure fly-a-ways are very rare now ...........Touch wood !

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Only had 2 real fly aways ( o.o.s. lost ) my first rc model and my first electric.

Back in the sixties I built a small sc model with a ME Heron diesel and RCS radio. As it gained height I though I had it and then I didn't. That diesel seemed to run for ever, and it disappeared a dot in the sky over the wooded valley, never to be seen again.

About 20 years ago I built a 67"model, my first electric, to take some aerial photos. Very little power, but it did the job. Some years later I flew the model again, but half way through the flight control and power was lost.

The model flew on across our huge field and into the wooded valley. Despite a couple of days searching we couldn't find it. Then a week later a dog walker spotted it and some of the lads recovered it with no damage.

Back on the bench everything seemed ok, so I changed the RX, and tried again, this time keeping it low in a large circle.

Five minuets gone by and I let climb a little when it happened again. This time it made a decent landing by itself.

Turned out it was the BEC wot dun it, so I installed a new brushles power train, now 1/2 pound lighter and a lot more power It's my favorite hack, and got my B with it.

Edited By ron evans on 18/07/2020 11:07:42

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The Mention of RSC Guidance System reminded me of another one

I had a Mercury Matador with RCS Guidance System in it.

On an early flight I pressed the button which disappeared into the case.

While I was desperately; trying to get the case open the model flew away.

Luckily a couple of lads arrived shorty afterwards with the undamaged model so at least I got it back

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About thirty years ago I built a 72" powered glider with a little PAW for our club's powered glider comp. The model would really perform in even marginal conditions so I reckoned I was in with a shout. The ruddy engine had other ideas though - for some reason it would run for about 10 seconds if you were lucky after a launch, resulting in a short walk to retreive. After much fiddling and fettling as you do, and with no improvement, but with a fuselage now well coated with slippery diesel crud, I gave it another good heave-ho whereupon my hand slipped along the fuz and knocked the RX switch off!

I wasn't too concerned because the engine would be stopping in a few seconds time as it had done up to now with boring repetition and all would be well...............you know what's coming, don't you?

The flaming motor ran like a dream and hauled the perfectly trimmed, now free flight model, in delightful circles up to altitude and steadily down wind until out of sight across miles of open countryside, thankfully with nothing there to cause a problem. Often wonder where it wound up, possibly many miles into the next county.

One of my flying mates had an experience where his Bird of Time went AWOL at a tremendous height and headed off towards East London! After a week or so he was contacted by the finder in Ilford (phone number in model) who said that he had watched the model circle down into tennis courts and make an uneventful landing. Model recovered with no damage or incident after its ten mile journey to a public park surrounded by houses, roads etc.

Edited By Cuban8 on 18/07/2020 12:13:20

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Peter,

Snap! My brother and I had a single channel Mercury Matador with RCS radio that we lost in a thermal over Nomandsland in Hertfordshire. We watched it as a speck in the sky that shrank to nothing with altitude. We searched the countryside for several whole days. It actually went 6 miles, ending up in a tall tree at The Node. We only got it back because some painters with tall ladders spotted it in the top of a tree, and we had our address on it.

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