Tell us about your first crash .. I mean hardish landing!

[Keiran Arnold]

Although I had several heavy arrivals with my first model, my first real crash didn't occur until I was on my second model. Now I'm not saying it was awjhile ago but I was using a Sanwa Stac 4. I was now faily confident having moved from a 3channel model to 4 channels and was carrying out some aerobatics. Having done several rolls I did a loop- disaster the port wing folded! however instead of spinning in iyt remained flyable and I was able to bring it in until it stalled on finals.

[Phillip Howcroft]

obliterated my first model on its 3rd flight on a runway at RAF Bruggen.  instructor talking me through a landing coming in lovely and slow (so i thought), instructor warning me about hitting some object or other - everything looked OK to me he must be looking at something else - then BANG.  Flew it straight into a runway marker, pushed then engine right through the frame - a wooden one at that.  wings split and decided to decorate the runway, bits everywhere.

I'm just dumbstruck listening to the famous instructor one liner - "you didn't want to do that!!!!", maybe they do know what they are talking about.

As for timbos comment - it did naff me off and i did take up golf which ran down the side of the runway as all good RAF stations do.

After that its hard to learn without a model and it was well beyond repair and i was improving at my golf so the flying took second place until i got back from Germany.

[Hamish]

I have cut and pasted this from a posting I put on the Simulator section

Thanks David.

Unfortunately the next flight was not so good.  Coming round about 20m up preparing to land and it went straight in and smashed right up to where the leading edge sits.  Instructor cant give any reason as it appeared he could not get it to respond to the transmitter.  May attempt to repair but it is a major task.

In the meantime I have acquired an old Magnattila which I am told will fly well. Getting a bit of TLC and will brush up well.  £50 with 5 servos (Flaps now?) an old  OS 40 four stroke which cant be bad. I have a 10yr old OS48 four stroke which has not seen fuel, so I am not short for choice. 

Got 11X6 and 12X7 props today.  Any suggestions as to which?

Bought a new 35Mhz Futaba  FF7 transmitter as I have kind of lost confidence in the Sanwa. (Will try again ometime in the future)

Excuse me twittering on a bit and I will probably get a 100 lines for posting in the wrong (?) forum

[Crash dummy]

200 Lines or 2 confessed crashes Hamish!

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Crash dummy]

As you KNOW ive never crashed or even lost my escapements. However, it is only a mattter of time. Sadly for you lot it may be a few months before i can do that. The weather here is pretty filthy right now. .. Blasting down with sleet. This tends to develope into serious snow within a few hours, then lasts for several months. Anybody got a set of Skiis?

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Braddock, VC]

My first was with a cambrian capstan, a 72" span sloper, the fus was built around (IIRC) a 3/8" 7 ply spine.

This was about 1978 or 9. I was flying in the bowl above the target at cwm nant-y-groes near abertillery, my old dad was getting frail then and wanted to see it fly. It was a bitterly cold day in winter and the ground was frozen solid. It was also the first time I'd flown a sloper. Anyway I launched  into the teeth of a gale and the plane immediately went back over my head, full down brought it out ove the slope and at about 100 feet all I could do was watch, as I expect I still had full down in, as it screamed in vertically and impaled the frozen slope up to the wing leading edge. The only thing that was damaged was my Y fronts and as I pulled it free, a local soarer joined us and said he'd take it up for me and it flew beautifully, he actually said "what a floater".

At the time I thought it was an insult as floaters were those lumps that you saw in your beer in a poorly run pub......

[Crash dummy]

For me never Eric, mad i am sometimes , but crazy never. Model with skis is a thought though.

[Crash dummy]

Joking aside, i live about 200 metres from the local hospital. Throughout the year the Helicopters ferry accident victims to the hospital. Everything from a girl in high heels trying to climb a mountain to the winter skier that came un-skied. I see it all here. It makes crashing a model aeroplane pretty tame really. A couple of my friends are paramedics, they have to deal with the reality of this stuff on a daily basis. Add to that the "normal" road accidents etc. They are busy most of the time. Anyway i digress,wont do again. So There.

[Matt]

My first was with my Dads Chart Mascot...lovely plane. I was under the careful guidence of my instructor doing circuits to get my landing confidence up when a aerobat doing the usual back and forth hit me head on (or I hit him head on, but I wouldn't admit to that). The collision tore the wing off the areobat and knocked the mascot backwards and in to a dive.

Believe it or not, with my cat like resposes, I recovered the plane and bought it back into the circuit. However on the approach I 'felt' that the plane was being dragged to one side and had to feed in a good deal of rudder, just to keep it straight! After a greaser of a landing we discovered the reason for the pull to the side...a large chunk of the other guys wing was burried in the foam wing of the mascot. The other plane was a right-off, but the mascot went back into survice the next weekend.

 Matt

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Crash dummy]

The what Phil ?

[Crash dummy]

Keep these stories of your first prang or dodgy landing up. I CAN SEE as can others that we might now be talking a ding or two!

[Crash dummy]

Slightly off track here. The weather is dire in my little town in Bavaria today. Looking out of the window its picture post card stuff, but the problem is i cant throw it away! Sadly, this could be true for the next few months. Seriously grounded! John.

[Crash dummy]

... Phew! at least i wont have to report my first crash for a while!!

[Crash dummy]

Just to keep the stats up to date ... 645 readers, no more crashes reported! ..

[Ken Lighten]

A good few years ago I had an enlarged 'Little Bit' tail-less jobby that I had built with an O.S. 40 about 45" span which decided to forget which way was up when inverted on a full chat low pass - lots of confetti and dig the engine out from 8" down in the grass - just about a week after having my photo with the model appear in RCM&E with a caption saying how 'safe' a flyer I was!!

[Crash dummy]

As i always say here Ken, my big bang will come! I think i may have been saved by the Bavarian winter, but its only a rest! Many thanks for your comment Ken.

[richard cohen]

my first proper one was with  my first low winger,  a speed air 40, practising spins and inverted flight. I was getting spins from 300 feet to about 30 feet before recovering which most onlookers said was impressive but pointless and would end in tears, but it didn't so I moved on to flying right across the airfield inverted till I decided that the only way I would challenge myself would be to fly lower altitudes to focus my concentration. I was making nice repeated slow passes at about 4 feet off the runway but should have cottoned onto the fact that I had a small gathering of clubmates watching in a huddle (why do we do that ? ). While I was happy with my thumb skills it was my memory/fuel tank which failed me..... ... I had failed to set my timer and run out of fuel half way down the runway. If I had had just a few feet more altitude I could have rolled back  and performed a deadstick right down the centre line ( I like to think to the applause of onlookers), but as I rolled I realised the altitude was lower than the wingspan so with no speed to climb out and roll I landed gracefully on the canopy, at least it looked graceful till I found the engine and bulkhead nestled up to the servo tray !!!..........isn't it a long walk out to recover the model when several set of eyes are watching from the flightline with the murmurs of ' we did tell him....' echoing across the strip.

[Lee Burke]

My first one was not strickly speaking a flying incident; I had finaly  finished building my Sopwith Camel and ran outside to fly it  (I was about twelve at the time) and tripped and fell on top of the thing, crushing it completely.  LOL - well I didn't laugh at the time.   And then just two days ago my model flipped on its back and pluged straight to earth - well rock actualy - for no good reason.  LOL - well I didn't laugh at the time.  The series continues. . .