What is your best R/C Crash/Survival Story?

[3D-Seth]

	Quote: Originally Posted by rc4flying
	One thing an older gentleman told me when I was first learning to fly many a moon ago, was never quit flying the plane until you know or hear it hit the ground. Until then, Fly the plane.

Another example:
I was flying my 2.3m Comp-Arf Extra 330L at Toby Silhavy's IMAC in 2005 (after hours flying) and I was doing some 3D on the deck such as harrier passes (inv and upright) and harrier rolls, torque rolls ect and I went to do one last upright harrier pass coming from right to left and I started over the trees off the right end of the runway. As I was starting to drop it down it locked out on me - OH . It rolled over and went in to the trees . . . . . I didnt hear it hit the ground so i gave it some throttle and an input (trusting my inputs as Dave Scott taught me from the 1st US RC Flight School and hoping it would un-lock out) that I thought would save it. All of a sudden the plane comes flying out of the trees and I was amazed! So I brought her around and sat her down on the runway with nothing missing.

My dad and I thought we fixed the problem (rf interference from metal against metal) so we decided to fly the plane the next day in the unknowns and again in the freestyle. Well the patter sequences went okay and it came to the freestyle. I feel pretty good (thinking we got the plane fixed since we had no issues that day) and I went ahead to fly it in the freestyle. In my freestyle that year I do a takeoff start and immediately roll it to knife edge. Right when I did this it locked out on me again at around 5-10 ft - OH . This time it locked out for around 5 seconds and my dad watched me frantically wiggle the sticks trying to make it do something. It finally kicks back on with my sticks in the corners (positive snap to the right) so it snaps when it does kick on. Less than 10 ft with a snap? (Im not that good) and I save it and land her once again

We finally found out that a regulator wire was showing copper and rubbing up against the board in it. So we heat shrinked it and voila fixed. Never had a problem since.

Seth Arnold

[3D-Seth]

In June at the Youth Masters, with the same plane, I was supposed to be practicing but was doing some 3D again - torquing on the deck. I think I accidentally flipped to low rates and that sometimes doesnt work all that well. It was at around 10-15 ft (I was dropping it down) and it flipped over and landed on its nose. I think well after all weve been through (the plane and I like above) it did good. Ended up It only smashed the spinner, broke the prop, broke the cowling, cracked the motor dome, and broke the firewall out - no problem and it still flies today . . . .

Seth Arnold

[Ryguy]

I had the elevator on my Katana Mini (I know, not as impressive as a 40% Carden but still the biggest and best plane I can afford) lock up full down in some tumbles. I flipped it inverted and used the rudder to point it around back into the wind and just did an inverted parachute onto some tall grass, giving it throttle at the bottom ot put it into more of a harrier. No damage except a new servo was needed.

[rmothers]

I have two I would like to share the first I have to say is almost exactly like chammond's crash... My plane was a goldberg Edge 540 67' (baby plane sorry) Anyway I hit a power line on approach. It is incredible how much crhammond crash matched mine, plane stopped in mid-air, canopy ripped apart, prop hit the lines, engine went flying... Only my engine OS .90 had a bent crank.. I had flashbacks and even felt a tear rolling down my cheek while reading crhammond post. Anyway second one was I had an aileron come off in an accelerated dive. I was told i went white at that moment.. but i was able to recover and land it in one piece (of what remained) with the servo dragging alongside the plane...

Thanks for the stories love reading them

Rodney

[rc4flying]

Here is another,
I had this Carden 35% Cap. We were interested in maybe getting into IMAC. So we had a guy that does IMAC offer to take us out and introduce us to that style of flying. Well, I had a 32 oz tank in the plane and that was always enough for the kind of flying I did with plently left when I would land after 10-12 minutes. This day we drove 2 hrs to this guys field and the winds were in the neighborhood of 25-30 mph. We decided to try flying being we drove the distance. We having to fly at full throttle all the time because of the bad winds........You guessed it, I ran out of gas and not close to the field , either. But being I was flying higher then normal, I thought I could get back to the field. Well, I landed about 1 foot short of the field in a complete stall from about 3 foot high. Just could not muster anymore flying out of the plane. Pic is the ending results. That is the only damage the plane had, and it hit HARD. Got home, took the gear off and took them to work with me that might. Used a press to get them back into shape. Could not tell I did anything to them and was flying the next day......In calmer weather.

[snap a saurus]

Got few of those, here is one, few years back, I lost one side on my first 3.3m Yak after a violent parachute, one battery got disconnected and ended up in the tail on fire, second was rapped around the pull pull rudder restricting rudder control also lost throtle control with a battery in the tail and barely enough power to climb in straight lines and loosing altitude in turns after 30 minutes of strugling with the controls and my spotter directing me to crash it in an accesible spot, I landed the plane with power, the only damage was one broken landing gear.

Second one, years back I was torque rolling a 35% Radiocraft Staudacher and dropped it into the corn, the tail got tangeled in the corn (flying wires) and it wouldn't pull up at full power so I killed the motor, plane fell in the corn, went and got it, cleaned it, and flew it again, basically the're was no damage at all.

Another which ended in a crash, again years back, I was distracted while assembling a 90 inch Staudacher with 75cc for power and forgot to plug in the ailerons, after taking off and realising what I had done, I just kept rolling untill I gave up and put it in, total loss.

[Colonel Klank]

Many years ago, I was calling the pattern for Neal Culiner and a strong wind was pushing him farther away from the flight line and towards the only tree in sight.
As I was reminding him to bring it in a bit, he flew right through the tree! In one side, and out the other with only a slight rustle of leaves in the middle. We could hear the gasps from behind us followed by a round of applause. Neal was so focused that only after he landed did he realize what had happened.

(the plane was a Curare, I think)

[SleepyC]

Last year i went to Joe Nall and had a nice 33% H9 Extra 300.
All set up and ready to go.

Got a bit nervous with all the people and pros around and asked my good buddy JeeUm to take her up for the first time down there.

Well, I had installed a smartfly power expander,and thought I had locked the receiver down into that industrial grade velcro, but JeeUM took off and trimmed the plane for around 30 seconds, did one roll and BAM.. receiver pulled out... spun in from around 400 feet.

Myself, Tony Russo, Wizzard, and this other guy spent 1+ hours looking for the plane.

Me and Wiz stopped for a smoke, and Wiz smelled gas... we followed the gas trail to a tree where parts of my plane were suspended in the limbs, motor on the ground, and wings and such in trees surrounding the area.

With out smelling the gas, we wouldn't have found the plane.

Bad points: Never even flying the darn thing... and saying to JeeUm 10 seconds before he took off," don't worry if anything happens, I won't hold you responsible, I mean your doing me a favor". (I cursed the plane right there, I should have said.. JeeUm.. mind crashing it over here, so i can locate the parts easier!)

Good points: Wiz coined the phrase "crash and go seek, and I came up with "Titanic" and "the Berg"
Titanic = crashing on the maiden flight,
and the BERG = the tree you hit while crashing on the maiden flight!

[wizard]

Sleepy, thanks for the reminder. All of us that were tromping around in the briers, were wearing shorts. Reminder to self. Have a pare of jeans close in case we play "crash and go seek" with someone else at the Nall this year.

[Rolling Thunder]

I was flying my KMP yak and when I went to exit a blender the plane acted funny, when I realized my rudder was stuck at full deflection. By the time I figured it out the plane snapped and went into a death spin.

I was able to put the plane in a upright flat spin at full throttle and slow the decent at about 20 feet off the ground. When it got to a couple of feet off the ground I hit the ignition kill and let it fall the last couple of feet.

I ended up breaking the prop, tailwheel, my new RC supergear landing gear. And punch a bunch of holes in the covering from the desert bushes.

I was flying it the next day.

[Colonel Klank]

Yesterday marked the 13th flight of my Great Planes Pitts. I did not dare say anything that would curse the flight and just taxied out and flew my normal tumble and snap routine. Only after landing did I mention to my friends that I had passed the dreaded 13th flight without incedent.
After performing a pretty rigorous pre-flight for the next go 'round, I noticed that both muffler bolts had fallen out and the muffler was rattling around inside the cowling! I flew the rest of the afternoon very loudly as the bolts were long gone.

[rbuhrman]

Earlier this year I came within an inch of wrecking my 29% Giles. I’m not sure how it was saved but pure luck was a big part of it for sure.

Good old impatience was at the root of this near-disaster. I was waiting for a heavy morning fog to lift and decided it would be O.K. to fly close-in and keep it low. On the first circuit I almost lost the plane in the fog but landed it safely. I did some more slow, low circuits with landings and take-offs.

On this approach I cut power a little early on my right turn descent to final. As the right wing dipped, there was not enough flying speed and the plane stalled, becoming impossible to control at an altitude of 40 feet and dropping fast!

The plane traced a crazy downward spiral as I fought to regain control, with the wings banking violently left, then right. By the time I added power, the plane was inverted and about a foot off the ground. I figured it was over, but didn’t really have time to figure….I was just trying to stay alive. Somehow the plane started flying again and I moved the stick forward and it climbed, wheels toward me, up into the fog.

I brought it back down to the visible area and did a few more circuits (with more airspeed this time) while my heart rate settled down, then landed it.

A few minutes later the fog was gone. Amazingly I still had and airplane to fly!

Low and slow 50 degree banks are not part of my approaches anymore.

-r.buhrman