First Serious Crash

[hounddog]

My pristine Cub is now not so pristine and it is all my fault.


Bit windy but flyable and cruising around nicely. Coming to the end of the flight as performance was starting to drop off and I thought I'd have one last hurrah before packing up and going home.

Dived down from about 75ft, pulled back on the stick and went inverted. Trouble is I did not think ahaead and the plane was inverted, about 15ft high, had no power to climb away with any alacrity and was heading for a bunch of trees.

Could not roll right way up as it would plunge into the ground before it could recover and probably cartwheel.

So there I was; inverted, boxed into coffin corner and out of options other than to cut the motor and deliberately plunge it into the ground or if I got really lucky manage to pull off a split S just before it hit the trees. It hit the ground vertically. What a plonker.

Surprised at the damage, although I expect it was because I was carrying a lot of power while inverted:

Motor pulled forward out of the gearbox and driven through the front of the cowl.
Cowl smashed into 3 pieces.
Driveshaft bent.
Gearbox housing cracked across web.
Propeller bent.
Firewall smashed.
Fuselage (almost) broken into 4 pieces with only the decals holding it together.
Major stress wrinkles in the decals / foam all the way up to the empennage.

New fuze, gearbox, prop, cowl and decal sheet ordered. Do not consider the fuze as worth saving considering the extent of the damage and how inexpensive they are.
Did consider going brushless ect but can't get the motor mount easily over here, so sticking to stock.

[Crazy Horse]

I feel so sorry for you mate, but me being a real cheapskate I would repair the fuse, I thought you were a Yorkie lad!
Takes time, a bit of hot water to sort the damage out, soak the bent bits in really hot water, ( it seems to get restored after a while) bit of epoxy (my friend for ever). Repair/tape the cowl (now you know I am a cheapskate). As for the decals, who cares? Do a paint job.
The other bits, well, I suppose you have to get some.

[iandhunt]

I have literally EXPLODED my first cub, had about 13 or 14 pieces after hitting a metal street light... I think I still have my original cowling....well, it is mostly tape now.... The Cub survived the street light, but not the tree for 2 months.

[flydiver]

Some people like pristine toys, some folks figure to keep them going as long as feasible since there is a high likelihood they'll come to this in the future anyway.

There are certainly a few serious repair jobs that once I was done with them I realized I would have been FAR better off just scrapping it and starting over. But that, like much else, is a learned wisdom, learned the hard way.

[renard80]

My deepest commiserations, hounddog.

Most of us have been there or similar.

My early weeks / months were marked by so many disastrous crashes that only the soothing encouragement of experienced flyers persuaded me to carry on with the hobby.

So, glad to see you have picked yourself up, dusted yourself down, and started all over again. (Hey, that gives me an idea for a song!)

Incidentally, surprised to see it's flying weather up there in the Grim North. We Soft Southerners are experiencing blustery winds, too strong for flying.

[hounddog]

I am lucky in the fact I have a fantastic missus. After a quick rendition of Ms Britney Spear's "Whoops I Did It Again" she got the visa out of her purse and told me to order the bits.

As for restoring stuff back to original condition, being an engineer can be an expensive curse sometimes. I can spend hours bunching and routing servo and receiver wires, not liking the result and starting over. Decorating a room can take years.
A curse I tell you.

The wind oop ere yesterday was 10 gusting to 15mph which was flyable only with 2200 lipo on board. Stock battery.....forget it.


A problem I have is that not being able to takeoff and land in the back field because of the grass means I get a little bored of boring holes in the sky for a full battery, so explore the cubs capabilities a little more than is wise.
Problem is when I do them closer and closer to the ground. Thud and little bits of white plastic cowl stuck down a hole in the ground.

[flydiver]

Mar 17, 2013 8:22:53 GMT 1 hounddog said:

Problem is when I do them closer and closer to the ground. Thud and little bits of white plastic cowl stuck down a hole in the ground.

There are better planes for that. ;D

[hounddog]

One thing. I know the servos are not the best and I have 6 HK 15178 10g servos in the drawer doing nothing other than waiting for the aileron mod and for spares.

Are the HZ ones worth saving as I note they don't have a very cool reputation on here?

[flydiver]

The servos are OK. The big trouble is they are in the Cub and get the beejeezuz crashed out of them all the time. No plastic geared servo handles that well.

[Dillzio]

I can't say I feel sorry for you, but I don't think you have anything to feel bad about either. Just another bend in the learning curve

Just don't get discouraged, learn from your mistakes and stick with it!

If you're interested in having a spare cub for practicing dangerous tricks or teaching others to fly in, you should be able to fix that one up without too much trouble. I love the tech/construction side of RC planes, if you're the same you'll enjoy fixing it, and you'll get a real sense of accomplishment from turning something that was once rubbish into something that can fly.

[hounddog]

All repaired with a new fuze, gearbox ect now.

For those wondering how a bare fuze arrives, it comes without decals naturally, or electronics.

It does however come with new battery box, battery box door, pushrods, firewall, all the plastic mounting points and the wing securing pins fitted.

The quality is not as good as the original one with loads of plastic injection mould circles apparent and the foam is not as white as the original either, more like the foam on my T28.

Pity the wing securing pins came glued in place as it made fitting the windscreen decal impossible without cutting it and I made rather a hash of it. Never mind.

Kept the OE servos in the end as they were slightly larger than the Hobbyking 10g ones, and keep eyeing the wing with a view to cutting out the ailerons with a stanley knife but can't quite bring myself to do it, this despite watching loads of "how to's" on youtube.

[Crazy Horse]

Good Evening hounddog,

So glad that you are up and running again! But come on, take young Dillzio's advice and mine and repair the broken one. I think that Dillzio and I are well, how shall I put this? Careful of spending the pennies, as tight as a crab's rsole or just plain innovative and love doing the repairs and coming up with a solution. All respect to you Dillzio, your Cub must weigh in rather heavy but there is no problem there as far as I am concerned, it all helps with windy days!

As for cutting ailerons, you have read the "how to's", seen the posts on you-tube, (isn't Necubflyer's video's the best you can imagine?) Step by step instructions for the senile old chaps among us (me). All that it needs for success in any endeavour are good tools and a big bag of confidence.
A new knife/blade is the best investment you will make. Costs b*gger all but makes your life easier and I am all for that! Try your local "pound store" at least five extending blade knives for a quid. Now that is what I call value old chum!

Be bold and go where so many of us have gone before, live long and prosper. I really do miss watching Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, bloody superb landing gear! (Those of us of a certain age and red blooded Alpha males will know what I mean )

I wish you nil wind, warm, balmy days and just little light cloud so that you don't have to squint when flying near the sunny side. Oh, but silly me, you live in Yorky land, no chance of any of that then. ;D

[iandhunt]

I agree with Crazy Horse, my old Cub shattered and I glued her back together with relative ease. It is a trainer and is thus resilient to abuse from us newbies. I would still repair the old fuselage as Dillzio recommended and use it as a trainer and a back-up. Would having a back-up wing make it easier to cut into the wing you have now?

[Crazy Horse]

Take all the electrics and stuff out, put the fuselage in very hot (boiling) water, Watch the result. It does work to a degree. Then you can do the repairs afterwards.

As regards cutting the wing, if you make a cock up (technical term) you can always glue/tape it back together so you have a standard wing again.
For our American and other revered cousins, cock up means to make a mistake.

And NEVER forget, measure twice or thrice, cut once. That has always stood me in good stead, no matter what I have been making/ building, well at least for the last fifty years ;D

[flydiver]

One of the basic functions of busted planes is emotional separation. If it's broke, and after you get over the discouragement, you 'may' be more inclined to tackle repairs and modifications you would not on a pristine plane.

For example:
I was interested in combat. I built an extremely basic delta out of fan-fold foam, bamboo, and tape. It worked but flew poorly. OK....proof of concept. Took be less than 2 hours to build.

So I made Combat MK2. I did a KF foil to improve the glide, I added twin rudder stabs for a cool look and lateral stability. I embedded the RX, servos and much of the battery for protection and better streamlining. Then I taped the whole thing to make it strong and pretty. By the time I got done I had over 8 building hours into it. It flew great, but I simply didn't have the stomach to deliberately do full contact with it. I simply fly that one around and went on to do Combat Mk3....which has had the bejeezus beat out of it and is ugly with Gorilla glue and bamboo splints. But it still flies.