Shaun K Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 I have a somewhat sad tale to tell, but there is a happy ending... Yesterday morning a beautiful flying day came to an end about 2 minutes after my first take off. The 'crackling' sound I thought was my engine misbehaving actually turned out to the precursor to the covering of the upper wing surface getting ready to rapidly take leave of its designated position! The happy ending comes from the fact that the grass off the end of the landing strip is roughly 3 feet high and I managed (through a little bit of luck and a little bit of influence) to get the plane down on its belly with no other significant damage. Not more than 5 minutes after my lucky escape a fellow club member prematurely ended the maiden flight of his large, 'cheap & cheerful' Chinese ARTF with exactly the same problem of covering lifting of the wing structure. Once again, a happy ending due to this one being a bipe with one wing intact, so he was able to bring it down in a more orderly fashion than my own. In this case the top wing surface covering actually finished in an exposed, forward-facing seam some 30mm back from the leading edge! That is clearly never going to be OK. The moral to the story - check all of your ARTF covering and see if the exposed seam edges finish on or above the leading edge of the important bits like wings. As soon as there's an edge lifting it's going to let you down in a hurry. Perhaps something as simple as an overlaid strip of film with no seams on the leading edge would be enough to get you out of trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Grigg Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 What make of models are they Shaun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun K Posted August 24, 2009 Author Share Posted August 24, 2009 Hi Stephen, My model is a World Models Sky Raider 1 trainer. As for the big bipe, I don't know what brand it is but will endeavour to find out on my next visit to the club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Grigg Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Thanks Shaun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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