That telescoping thing on Radio has a real FUNCTION

[WALKERS210]

Due to health its been a few weeks since I have attempted to put a plane in the air. Tuesday morning I took a 40 mile drive to visit friends at another club. Where after some discussion and swapping war stories I made the comment, It's been a long time since I totalled out a plane. (yea you know what follows). Today I loaded up and off I go to fly. Got to the field and had it all to myself, so setup everything, peaked out batteries, in my Aero-Tech 50cc Yak. Fueled it up, started the 3W 60 which was purring and really rareing to go. Went to step over fuse, to hold plane with back of legs and warm up the engine. BIG FOOT - hit the rudder, and it pulled the right side of pull pull loose on servo. Had good left turn and minor right turn so I decided to taxi around a bit just to let engine get up to temp. As I mentioned no problem turning to left, had to make allowance for right turns, but no problem since all I was doing was just above an idle. Turned donw runway into the wind WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN. Engine throttled up and was airborne, I was looking at radio to make sure where I had the throttle, looked at plane and tried to control it, minumal responce, so I dumped it. Walked down retreived what was left, when I was within 25 feet of pits it hit me- dummy that THING THAT TELESCOPES from Transmitter is there for a reason. Now as a rule I am a creature of habit. After a complete preflight check, and double check control throws before I even start a taxi, I pull out antenna and even look at ribbon on the thing to make sure of wind direction in comparison to windsock. Guess that will teach me to run my mouth about not tearing up anything.

[50%plane]

ouch! I'm sorry you lost your plane like that. I lost my first plane to the same thing.(instructor's fault though)

[sweetpea]

I think your first mistake is taxing a plane with a known problem. When you do that you focus on that problem and forget the little things.

[WALKERS210]

Sweetpea your right, proably should have stayed at home to start with. And I know better too.

[Bunky F. Knuckle]

We all have BRAIN FARTS!!!

It is amazing what that thing does at the top of the Tx, huh????

Good luck next time out!!!

[MrKiwi]

Is it all repairable?

[MrKiwi]

And btw,

[Vic3D]

That sucks man, we all have our brain farts and we learn from them. However, after hitting the rudder and knocking a pull-pull cable loose, I would have shut down the engine and gotten that fixed before flying. I would never fly with a surface being "just good enough".

I always make it my procedure, to start the engine, and then I extend my antenna and hook the radio up to my neckstrap, that gives me just about the 20 seconds the engine needs to warm up idleing. That way I never forget to either strap my radio, or extend my antenna.

Hope you get back in the air soon. You should have knocked on wood.

Take care buddy.

Vic

[Hinckley Bill]

You're definitely not alone .... a good flying buddy of mine, real seasoned veteran, recently totaled his H-9 Sukhoi due to "brain fart". He was so busy talking with 3 or 4 guys surrounding his plane during his setup he forgot to connect the ailerons to the receiver and didn't do his normal range check before taking off. Resulting crash was pretty spectacular. He took it as best as he could, but made sure to "tell" on himself to the rest of our club to try and prevent others from repeating the mistake.

It happens to the best, brightest, newbies and ole-timers....just don't let it get you down and git back in the air as quick as you can.

Bill

[WALKERS210]

I have told many a new flyer that sooner or later it will happen. Posting on a thread that you did something DUMB as heck is somewhat embarrinsing but it also helps to laugh at yourself and give others a chance to grin, snicker and point. I too have always been a creature of habit. Start engine, snap neck strap on to radio, pull out antenna, look at flag on end of antenna and then compare to windsock. It has been a few weeks since I have even felt like leaving the house, wore out heart has had me down, so yestereday I gave it a try. I will only quit flying when there is no more balsa to be had, no more ARF's, no one wanting to sell one of theirs. AS for being repairable- well I have always held that you can repair anything if you have enough glue, but the only things that don't require attention is the left wing, canopy, and tail feathers. So I just stripped everything down and will give whats left to a friend that has one just like mine. Gave my son my camera so I don't have pictures of the carnage, but will attempt to attatch a before picture.

[janatle]

Plane looks nice, this things should not happend! Sorry Walkers210