A good reason not to buy cheap ARF's

[coaster]

Well, after a wee landing incident last Sunday I needed something to fly this weekend so I thought,

	Quote:
	I will get one of those cheap, quick to build arf jobs.

Roll around Sunday and it's time for the maiden flight-do all those last minute checks for the tenth time and away she goes!, needs a little bit of trimming but flys okay, do a couple of circuits and start to think about landing, Hang-on whats that big white thing floating down to the ground behind the plane(yep, you guessed it. A WING. ) The wing failed midspan in straight and level flight, nothing even remotely aerobatic about the flight until then. End result was a pile of sticks and an engine with a bent crankshaft.

DAMN.

[3D-Seth]

srry about the loss man - thats why i build em or strip the arfs and reinforce em

[RappyMan]

I've got a Lanier P-47 with some weak glue joints. The wing bolt down plate fell into the plane while trying to screw on the wing. I glue in the servo mounts a bit better. Then on the first taxi with it, one of the landing gears leans in. The retract servo rails came loose in the wing. The landing wasn't 100% perfect & one of the retracts rips out of the wing. I've glued about everything I can get to now. It flies really nice - just could use better glue!

[coaster]

The guy that I bought it from is making some pretty big claims on his website about the cababilities of these planes ...

http://extremerc.co.nz/index.php?mai...roducts_id=214

From what I saw today the first time you pulled into a loop the wings would "clap Hands"...

I think I might take him to task about it and see what happens.

[JeeUm]

Lets hang on and before we go any further, let us know what happens after you contact him. Gotta give him the benefit of the doubt. BTW,welcome to the Giants.

[ampEater]

Bummer man.

At least it wasn't an expensive or well loved model

[plaster93]

Wheres the wing spar? Ive seen this before a few times. Buy a sig Kadet you wount have that problem again.

[coaster]

Yep, that's basically the problem. Two tiny little bits of wood serving as a spar, I have a Great Planes PT40 but it was out of action for the time being.

[rede2fly]

hate to be negative here but, that looks like a trainer and if you were doing loops and stunts, those wings arent made for that. i have seen the same thing happen at our field with the same results. if you saw the wings almost clap as you say in a loop that was telling you something right there. rubber bands have a nasty habit of letting the wing sepparate from the fuse and slamming down on the saddle and that is where or i should say when the damage is done. i 'am sorry about the loss though. been there

[coaster]

Never got a chance to do anything but take off and one and a half circuits!. The wing failed at a point about one third out from the centre. Not the sort of thing you expect on a brand new plane on it's first flight. My PT40 was more than capable of basic aero's with the right pilot. No reason to expect any thing different from this machine.

You are right in that a trainer is perhaps not the best thing to be throwing about the sky, but we all have to start somewhere and work our way up to a large scale machine .

[Toro]

While it was only a trainer, you would think that perhaps they would still have to be built kind of stout to take the YANK AND BANK style the newbie tends to have. I have taught more than a few who have a tendancy to bury the sticks in corners on accident.

keep us posted on progress with them...

and come on... If Bill Hemple can land with one wing on his 260, There's no reason you cant take a lowly trainer home safely on one appendage...

[coaster]

I did think about it and tried to at least keep the nose up so I didn't wreck my engine, but I think I was lacking in power (and skill) to pull off a knife edge landing.

Maybe next time!!!.