Seagull Cap 232 and Radio Interference?

by Gareth Burgess
(Norfolk, United Kingdom)

Seagull Cap 232 with an SC .61 2 stroke. At about 120ft the plane seemed to stall then spiral with a small amount of elevator inputted.
Moving the controls had no effect on the downwards spiral of death, I didn't have control!! Feet from the ground it seemed to respond for a moment just enough to level out the airframe and deflect some of the force of the crash.
The airframe snapped in half, the left side of the wing returned to pieces of balsa and the canopy shattered as the pilot was thrown across the airfield. Luckily the engine was ok, and apart from one servo, all avionics were ok. The airframe had only seen 3 flights!!
20 mins later my friends 1/5th scale Christian Eagle rotated out of inverted flight straight into the ground, again uncommanded input. We were both on 35Mhz and it seemed that both of us had suffered from frequency interference. Me on Channel 63 and him on 85.