[sp2pilot]

Well what do they say about a steep learning curve?


I never even touched a transmitter for a Radio Controlled aircraft in my life 12 weeks ago. Then It was jump in with both feet and no looking back. Computer sim. a few hours a day while I have a good friend assemble 3 aircraft. Yep 3 of them a Nitro Models .60 Super Chipmunk and a Matt Chapman cap 580 from GP as well as my trainer a Hanger 9- P51 advanced trainer. I solo the P 51 and immediately go at throwing it into every type of Aerobatic maneuver I could think of. A couple weeks of this and it is time to Maiden the Cap. I am so nervous on its' maiden that I could hardly breath. I get it into the air and trim it out do a couple orbits and scare myself several times but manage to calm down enough to bring it in and land it clean. This scenario is repeated several times that day with longer duration flights and stronger demonstrations of skill on my part ending the day with a feather soft landing. A week later I return to the field, pre-flight the Cap and roll it out and do a uneventful take off but the aircraft glitches badly with some form of channel coupling between the throttle and the elevator resulting in a un flyable aircraft that became a lawn dart 15 seconds after it left the ground, Complete loss.

I then went back to flying the P 51 gaining confidence and spending the majority of my flights doing drills to improve weakness in my flying skills. I had been using the same transmitter that was in the Cap and had not been able to re-create the glitches so let the problem slip back into the back of my mind until one fateful afternoon in early Dec when the P 51 demonstrated the exact same issues 90 seconds into a flight and again I was locked out and the fail safes returned the control surface to zero however the aircraft was pointed straight down so it augured in with devastating results.

Not to let the loss of 2 aircraft slow me down I had ordered my Aero Works 50 CC Extra 260 and by Christmas Day was ready to Maiden it. I had a wonderful Maiden and several great flights that day finding the big plane remarkably easy to fly and landings were as easy as my Sim.

Then this weekend I flew all day Saturday consuming over a Gallon fuel and getting pretty cocky with how I was handling the Big Extra. I returned Sunday morning and had a nice flight and then asked one of the vets at my field to take up my plane and see how he likes the way I had it trimmed as well as how my expo settings were on my transmitter. (No one had ever flown any of my aircraft and I was curious if my untrained approach was far from the normal) After he flew it and landed it he said I had built a beautiful aircraft and my settings were perfect. Well with that ringing endorsement I quickly refueled and fired it up for the fateful flight. Now my pre-flight routine has always been to start the plane, check all controls, bring the engine from idle to full throttle a few times then roll out and fly, but no on this flight I start the engine check controls and roll out, never bringing it to full throttle and it cost me huge. I began my roll out adding throttle and the Extra accelerated smartly down the runway and lifted off as the engine was at about half throttle, I continued to add throttle and began to climb. Then it all went silent. The engine just quit....I was maybe 25 feet off the deck and 75 feet from the end of the runway. I do not have the experience to even know what I should do. I immediately pushed forward on the elevator and watched in horror as my plane rotated forward and headed straight down towards the runway. I pulled all the way back on the stick and the plane flared and pancaked hard shattering the landing gear and spinning off the end of the runway flipping upside down.

Post mortem and I have the formers on both ends of the landing gear crushed as well as the bulkhead under the wing spar fractured badly. Both wings are un harmed as well as the elevator and rudder structure. My Carbon Prop is gone as well as both wheel pants. I have already done most of the demolition to get at the areas I have to repair and tomorrow I should begin rebuilding and be flight ready by next weekend.


Geesh I am a dumb ass. The cardinal rule is keep flying the plane when things go bad, I just freaked out. Panicked and then over re-acted. No one to blame but me. I am still very much the excited newbie but these "lessons" are starting to gnaw at my eager beaver mentality.