First Nitro Plane

by Eli Shingleton
(New Zealand)

Bought a really nice new model trainer - was an ARF - couldn't be bothered taking it to an rc flying club (bad mistake!) so took it off from a country road. Lifted off - about 20 seconds in the air and one of the solders on my 'home-made' battery pack came off and didn't provide the rx with power so my model flew straight into the ground at full throttle - was not a pretty sight (as you could imagine - although made a pretty knarly noise hitting the ground which was pretty cool)...
Salvaged what I could of the wreck - the wing was surprisingly still intact so that was mounted on my wall... but lesson learned!
Take your rc planes to a club before flying them for a good inspection! I'm sure that solder would have been picked up easily.

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First Nitro Plane

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Oct 23, 2009

Training
by: Croswind

Good advice. Spend some time on a simulator as well, they're available cheap ($20 including box) and are a good investment.

Oct 23, 2009

First flight
by: Anonymous

Wow! I did the same thing 25 years ago at my jr. high school football field--way before simulators and all the latest tech that's available.
I was stubborn, and just knew I was going to master this flying thing all by myself with no teacher. Well I taxied, set the needle valve perfectly on my Goldberg Cub, and off I went. She lifted off, and amazingly, I made a gentle left turn, of my own, and all H*ll broke loose--NO CONTROL--and Wham! right on the 40 yard line.

There was yellow monocoat and sig balsa for 10 yards, as she went in at full throttle! On grass yet! The first debris I saw was my poorly soldered, home made, 4 nicads mooshed in the turf, and three of the four solder joints were not attached. I've since then, learned to use flux.

Sorry to hear of your unfortunate maiden, but don't you just want to get back out there and give it another whirl? Badly? Like something just HAS to be finished?

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