Going going... almost gone!

[samtheman]

Hi all,

First time post on these boards just like to say hello to everyone.

I recently entered the world of RC planes and purchased the Super Cub as my first just this week. After a few flights I got a pretty good hang of it minus some hard landing and those darn struts that break so easily! Anyways, I purchased a 8 cell 9.6v hobbyzone battery and man what a difference! It was even cheaper than the 7 cell!

I decided to test out how the new battery improved the climb and started to raise the planes altitude. There was a decent wind and before you know it the wind had add a good few extra MPH on the plane and I lost sight of the wings. All I could see was a faint white dot off in the distance- that thing was a good 1000 feet away ( made a pretty good esitimate- live on a farm and neighbor down the road saw it directly overhead at one point. ( I was really interested as to how far it went and used google earth to get esitimate). So back to the plane. Once I couldn't see the wings I lost control of the plane as to how sharp its turning and what angles. I hovered up and went into clouds at one point! I was really thinking that I was going to lose it in a horrific crash in someones yard!

Anyways, I managed to eventually see the plane getting bigger and kicked the throttle to top speed and pulled the sucker down in a heartbeat! Wow- amazing what gravity can do! The Cub came racing down in a matter of seconds a solid 60MPH speed on its way down from the clouds. Luckily I managed to land the plane after watching it soar hundereds of feet away.

So has anyone ever experienced this horrific type of incident before? Man I was so scared I was going to lose it the first week! I do wish I had a camera on it to see how it looked up in the clouds. Great plane, but I didn't think it could ever go the as far as it did today- I don't think I'll try it again though!

[sayers]

Yes On my FIRST FLIGHT ever. Not quite as bad as your experience but the wind also got ahold of my SC and in trying to get it back lost sight of it complety , I was in a LARGE field I shut down the throttle let go the stick and went looking for plane , I found it a long way off , the marks in the snow ( Mine is fitted with pontoons to fly off the snow )Showed it had landed on the pontoons then they had run in to a ridge of snow it had nosed over was laying upside down but with NO DAMAGE not even broken prop.
Great Airplane.
Happy Flights & Soft Landings
Sayers ( Jerry )

[flydiver]

Sure, happens to new fliers all the time. Complete loss is not uncommon, especially with wind. A cardinal beginner's rule is not to fly in wind until you are ready for it. Beginners learn this the hard way of course. For new fliers enthusiasm trumps good sense almost every time. That was mostly true for me.

fly

[sayers]

Well the Wind had gone down , I THOUGHT what was realt happening it was changeing directions I took off into the direction it had been comeing from earler , I made a turn right in to the direction it decided to come from , plane went right stright up over in half a loop , well I recovered from that ( I credit my Simulator time for that )but by that time I had lose sight of it I Did not want it to get outside the field I was in so just shut it down and let it do it's thing ha ha . Landed it's self. Still in the field.
Happy Flights & Soft Landings
Sayers ( Jerry )

[sb352]

Funny you mention that samtheman , lost my sons commander 2 today same wind issue ,and just wouldnt come back . OTW to the local LHS to get him a SC