Why do we crash?

When we are first learning to fly our airplanes, even level flight is difficult. Until we get it down, crashes are inevitable. Then, when we learn to fly inverted, the same thing holds true. Crashes, again, are inevitable. But, once we have learned the basics of flying--upright, inverted, loops, eights--then we should be pretty much past crashing...if we practice at a high enough altitude, and if our equipment doesn't fail us.

Since a lot of people seem to still crash nearly every time they go flying, I started this thread to find out why and how we could help. Why did you crash the last time you were out (or the time before that, or the time...) and is there something you have learned or something we could help you with to prevent it from happening again?

Even the experts will still crash occasionally, either from equipment failure or from stupidity (yes, even the experts will occasionally have one of those days). But even the beginning and intermediate flyers should be able to expect to go out and fly with the confidence that they can bring their planes home alive.

So...why do we crash? What problems are you experiencing or what have you learned that you can pass on to others?

After learning inverted flight 75% of my crashes were some form of the above stupidity, the other 25% were engine quiting in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I would guess it is probably the same for most...

Don't know why you crash Len

For myself, the last 2 crashes I had were stupid equipment failure. I the last case, I was flying in relatively heavy wind (what contest doesn't have wind?) and the exhaust header gasket blew out just as I was climbing into the wind on the wingover. About 50 feet off the ground. All the power went bye-bye. Time was, I might have ran and saved it, but I just don't run that fast anymore. So, deceleration trauma.

The time before that, I was flying an official flight at a contest in heavy wind (see a pattern here) and on the down side of the 3 outside loop, the stabilizer failed and splat, concrete poisoning.

Both time I destroyed the engine, plane and carbon prop. Windy may be able to fix anything, but I say, if the plane is in more pieces than before you built, it's time to retire it.

Man, that SV-11 with the blown header gasket really EXPLODED on impact. I knew it was pretty lightly built, but, WOW.

What I've learned is to ALWAYS check your equipment closely and if somethings looks questionable, don't fly the plane. Occasionally take an airplane apart (gear off, engine and tank out, etc.) and really check things over. And don't skimp on things like primary reinforcment when building in an effort to build a lighter plane. Use common sense.

If it makes you feel any better (It won't) we, also, had that header gasket blow out...and not once--several times. It didn't result in a crash, however, and the ultimate answer was to scratch the header gasket and use lock tite on the bolts. Once they were put on with lock tite, they have never been loose or off since. Of course, we still learn from those experiences.

Same with something breaking. If the tail broke, you know it wasn't strong enough and needs to be stronger on the next one. When a plane crashes we can see what was built too light and what was built too strong. If it breaks in the air, then we definitely know what was built too light.

Now the wind may have been a factor in the latter case, adding to the flight stresses, but only you know if it was too windy to fly on that day or not. That is the one bad thing about contest flying (OK, there is more than one bad thing, but that is one of them). All too often there is wind. If we were home, we wouldn't be flying in the stuff, but since we came to the contest, well..? Sometimes it is alright to say it is too windy and leave the plane in the car. But there is still that pressure that we put on ourselves. In having made the effort to get there, we think we now need to fly--regardless of the weather. And then, if we should end up crashing the plane, we suffer through the "thousand regrets" on the way home as we say over and over again, "I shouldn't have flown that last flight. I shouldn't..."

They all count, Steve. I had a plane given to me that didn't have the belcrank mounted solidly inside the wing. It let go and pulled through each rib, one at a time (splat!). I, also, purchased a plane with a spliced pushrod that failed. I got so I didn't want to fly someone else's build for fear that it wasn't put together properly.

>>Randy, I saw you do an outside "baseball slide" crash at Kent! Was that the one? I thought Dave G. had that model now. <<

Nope. The plane that Dave has is a Saturn knockoff. It's the one that had the leadout failure and didn't crash (Yeow!). The one with the satb failure was rebuilt and is hanging on my shop wall. It's also the one I retrofitted with a Stalker and pipe to do some testing with. Weighs a ton now, so you probably won't see it at a contest.

The one with the blown header gasket exploded on impact. It's decorating a dump in beautiful Oregon.

My second comment...and, again, this is quite common for beginners and sport flyers (been there, done that myself)...is to watch your time. Since we now generally fly a complete pattern each flight and only a complete pattern, and since we fill the tank a set amount to accomplish the pattern with a measured amount to spare, we don't normally worry about this. It usually takes five minutes, approsimately, to fly a complete pattern. When done, we fly out the tank straight and level. We strive for a 6 minute, 20 second run. Yes, that's over a minute of straight and level before the engine quits. But, it is OK to practice flying level, too. And this way we never worry about whether the engine is going to make it though those last loops (or whatever).

For a sport flyer who is not flying a set pattern this may be more difficult, but the key is to determine how long your engine will normally run on a tank of fuel and then to check your watch periodically. When you start nearing the end of the flight, there is nothing wrong with just pulling out and flying a few laps straight and level. I would rather put in two more boring level laps than I intended, than to have the engine quit two laps sooner than I thought it would.

The first objective of every flight, the thing you should be telling yourself over and over again before you even begin, is to bring it back alive. Bring it back alive. Then set about to do it.

It makes this sport so much more enjoybale when we bring the plane back alive.

Crashes are usually the result of incompetence, ignorance, and/or stupidity. A beginner crashes a lot because of incompetence or ignorance. With practice, and increased knowledge, crashes due to incompetence and ignorance become less frequent. Eventually one becomes an expert, and almost all one's crashes are due only to stupidity. One would hope that the learning experience would cause an expert to have fewer stupidity caused crashes than a beginner, but I'm not sure that is the case.

Most of my crashes are the result of very simple mistakes. Mistakes that I know not to make. I like to think that if I make a mistake twice, I have learned my lesson. No need to do it a third time.

I urge everyone to BEGIN maneuvers from as low as they can stand.... it allows more room to complete the maneuver. Besides, our little aeroplanes don't fly nearly as well at 45 or 60 degrees as they do level.

Beginners overcontrol. I urge folks to be gentle! If you give something full up to begin the loop, where are you going to go when it looks as if you're going to crash?

Level flight is tough.... at a stunt clinic, I put poles marked at 4-6' around, and the field was littered with balsa wood! Even "good" guys fly too high.

See Ya

But, quite frankly, this is the way we worked with Matthew. We started him high and taught him the shapes. He had room to play with and we went several years without a single crash. In fact, he flew through Intermediate and it wasn't until he reached Advanced that we finally pulled him down to the 5 foot level. Yes, he lost points at the contests because he was flying high. I don't think he ever won anything while flying Intermediate (first, second, or third). But once he got the shapes down and was confident enough to move his maneuvers down to the proper level, he began to win.

I truly believe we do beginner and Intermediate flyers a disservice by stressing that 5 foot level. Flying 10 foot bottoms is so much easier because it gives them room to miss and takes the fear out of the maneuver.

Of course, if their plane isn't trimmed properly and they are having loss of tension as they get up to or pass the 45 degree level, then we have another problem that we need to address. If we were sitting in that plane that was attempting to learn to do maneuvers with five foot bottoms, it might make it a bit easier to understand the need to gain a little altitude while we learn the shapes before we try it at the lowest levels.

Last summer I was flying my profile Oriental, doing my inverted laps very low, three feet or so, just for the practice, when I felt something. I looked down to see one of those pesky 'skeeters boring a hole in the bottom of my right wrist! I reached under with my left hand & slapped it. Prop, needle, rudder, grass stains. Duh.
Nils

My last crash - two weeks ago was from simple overconfidence. I was starting to work seriously on my pattern for the upcoming year. While doing the hourglass, I tried to get the bottom at exactly 5 feet, but missed and pulled out at about 2 feet. I overcontrolled the correction and bottomed the plane out destroying my Bolly 3 blade prop and doing some slight damage to the landing gear mout blocks on the Intrepid. The damage is fixed now, you can't tell anything happended to the plane, but that was kinda scary because that's my only really good plane until I can get my next model built. The moral of the stroy here is that if you havn't been flying much and are starting to practice for the upcoming season - just make you first 5 or 6 flights a little on the high side, don't even try for the 5 foot bottoms on you second filght!!

Good helpful topic here.

Thanks

If it hadn't been for all the comments on the various forums I probably will still be trying to build my first model. All the help that I've received from building to flying tips has shown a great improvement in my skills.

On crashing...well I've had a few this past year! I will say once I got to the level of flying 'eights', my crashes have been few and far between. I still fly high, but then again I'm trying to relearn the pattern.

I want to thank all you fellows just for your comments, as they have been an enormous help. I'm looking forward to another progressive flying season. Thanks!

Just my 2 cents worth

Mel Duval

Thanks

>>I can't find CRASH in my vocabulary Scott <<

Well, now you've done it. You've invoked the Wrath of the Gods.

When you get done cutting down the tree, you may be able to sell the engine to some 1/4 scale enthusiast.