HEY STUPID!!!! Make sure the servos are plugged in!!!!

[KrisW]

Uh. . YUP!!!!!
I'm STOOPID. . and it almost cost me a brand new plane yesterday.

I have the aileron servo plugs mounted on their sides, CA'd to a cross-plate inside the fuselage of my new MX-2. I've done it this way for years, never a problem. You simply slide the aileron lead into the plug, zip-tie or velcro over the wires, and everything is locked in place and works properly.

So, there I was yesterday, setting up the plane to fly, plugged the leads in,zip tied the wires, did a control check, bolted on the hatch, fueled and started the plane, did a 200' range check, and took off. . .No Problem. . right???

Well. . . . . . . .NOT.

HiTec digitals lock in place when they stop receiving a signal from the receiver. Unbeknownst to yours truly, the signal wire on one of the plugs had slipped out of it's lock in the plug, rendering a very partial contact at the connection. I don't know how the locking tang got moved, but the signal wire pin slid back as the plug was joined. 5-6 minutes into the flight it stopped making contact .. at JUST the wrong time.

I was in a roll at about one hundred feet, let go of the stick, and it KEPT ROLLING!!!!!

Okay, the adrenalin went to 147% capacity, Heart Rate hit about 185, and suddenly I was breathing like I was 25 miles into a Marathon. took about 2 seconds. . . . .

Luckily, I had not used full deflection, so the left aileron was ONLY locked at about 20 degrees down, so the plane was manageable. That's about where the flaps would be if I engaged the flap switch. I messed with high and low rates and took a few minutes to learn to fly the plane on FLAPS and one aileron, countering roll with the stick due to differential of the ailerons, then set up to land.

BTW. .I did NOT try to re-trim the plane, fearing that if I re-trimmed it, and the left aileron started working again, I'd be stuck in a bad situation at the wrong time. Better to "stick it", with the flaps down, and if the aileron came back on line it would equalize with the other side. I did stay on LOW rates though, thinking that any problems would only be made worse if I went to high rates and had to react.

Landing was FUN. . . I'd never landed the MX-2 with the flaps down before, and it wanted to climb and float like crazy. Across the threshold I was at idle, plane slowing down nicely, and at 2-3 feet I closed the throttle trim to kill the motor. . . . THEN a gust caught the plane and it FLEW, no power, to about 5' before I could counter it. . Flaps make planes want to fly .. .

I got the nose down, to prevent a stall and she came down like a wounded duck, a small bit of wing wag and too steep, but landed on the mains. Landed a bit too hard, too, as the mains went CRUNCH (you Composite Arf guys know THAT sound. . . ) and then the prop hit and snapped as well. She rolled about 15 feet and stopped. . in one piece and fixable.

Post Mortem showed that one of the pins (signal) on the left aileron was not locked in place properly, and had slipped back, giving one of the servos only power and ground. HiTecs "Hold" with a built-in programmable Fail Safe when they lose signal from the receiver. To prevent future problems of this sort, I re-programmed all the servos in the plane to go to Zero surface deflection in Fail Safe. Any future problems of this sort will result in the surface being pretty much locked near center, rendering it inoperative, but at least not hanging out in the air and trying to do bad things while you are flying. That will make recovering the plane MUCH easier.


That's the first time, in 9 years in the hobby, that this has happened to me. It WILL be the last. . . I hope100

Gearplate is fixed, Props are on the way from DA. . Let's go fly!!!

[excelpoint]

Nice work on Savin it dude. Yes I know the sound of the Comp ARF gear crunch. All to familiar

[SleepyC]

DAMN!
If hat was me... i'd be buying a new plane.
I freak out complrtrly when things go bad...

Nice recovery..
So now I'll add ANOTHER STEP to my PRE-flight check list!

[50%PITTS]

as I told our friend Kris here last night after he told me what had happened I greatly exclaimed "I'm really glad i went and bought some connector safety clips today!! Glad ya got her down ok bro!

[KrisW]

Thanks guys.

Ynot was visiting the area, and we sat out at the field for about an hour or two just shooting the bull, since I was too rattled to fly my other plane. GREAT Quote:

"You don't know who the GOOD pilots are till something goes wrong" ..

I guess I'm getting better at this stuff. . . . 100

Best recovery I ever saw . .

David Moser at the Nall 3 years ago, with a 33% H9 Extra. . One of the stabs slipped off the tube and pivoted 80-90 degrees. He spent about 2-3 minutes coaxing the plane down, out near the treeline. .basically trying to do a harrier landing at zero airspeed. FANTASTIC emergency flying skills!!! He got her down with NO DAMAGE!!!

That boy can FLY!!

[Throttlestick]

I just planted my Yak on the maiden cause the crystal popped out.
Before you say anything I have always taped my crystals in It just slipped my mind.
I will take it as a hard lesson and now I am sure I will not forget ever again.
By the way good save!!!!! Glad that everything rurned out right.

[Kitman]

KrisW,

""David Moser at the Nall 3 years ago, with a 33% H9 Extra. . One of the stabs slipped off the tube and pivoted 80-90 degrees. He spent about 2-3 minutes coaxing the plane down, out near the treeline. .basically trying to do a harrier landing at zero airspeed. FANTASTIC emergency flying skills!!! He got her down with NO DAMAGE!!!""

That was acually Chris Fry flying that plane! We were standing beside him. Great Recovery!!!


Kitman

[KrisW]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Kitman
	KrisW, ""David Moser at the Nall 3 years ago, with a 33% H9 Extra. . One of the stabs slipped off the tube and pivoted 80-90 degrees. He spent about 2-3 minutes coaxing the plane down, out near the treeline. .basically trying to do a harrier landing at zero airspeed. FANTASTIC emergency flying skills!!! He got her down with NO DAMAGE!!!"" That was acually Chris Fry flying that plane! We were standing beside him. Great Recovery!!! Kitman

OOPS. . now I am not only stoopid. . .I have a bad memory too. . .

Thanks for the correction.

[ShortBus]

Kris Great save!!!

Glad it ended well

[Vortex]

good save

[Boulder]

Holy crap Kris!!

The things some guys do for attention

[Bunky F. Knuckle]

Yup, it were me that saved that 33% H9 thing in 2001!!! And if that wasn't to boot, I did a Harrier Landing!!! Once in a Harrier, the stab finally decided to play nicely.

My name's NOT David Moser. Can he 3D???? Ida know??? Never seen him fly......

SHOW OFF!!!!!! No, I had to thank Frank Noll, he was in my ear the whole time!!! And when it was on the ground, I finally got to breathe!!! And then a cold beverage was in order!!! Yeah, this guy has mad skillz!!!

Basically, if you want to keep your servo wires in the plug, just put a small drop of THICK CyA where the wire inserts the plug. (I said INSERT!! HUH HUH!!) Connector keepers keeps the plug from coming apart, not the wires from leaving the plug...

Greg, you have now redeemed yourself to me! I won't trash talk you in the least, anymore. (well, I'll have to, if you start.) Thanks for the compliment, Rusty!! Rusty Trombone!!!!!

Chris~