How often do you crash your RC?

[Sleepy nic]

Morning,

Just thought I'd ask to see if its just me or not. I went home from uni for a long weekend and was delighted to see that the engine bearings I needed to get my Ansmann Deuce nitro car running again. As I'd built it with my dad from a kit he decided to sit over me tutting and generally taking things away from me so he "could do them properly".

It worked though as it was up and running again and sounding mighty sweet. So we jumped in the car and went to our local park, dad brought his DSLR so he had something to keep him occupied while I did my best Ken Block impression on the wet tarmac and grass. It was all fun and games for about 30 minutes before I someone managed to shred one of the rear tyres, you can imagine my amazement when it limped over to where we were stood to see that it had split right down the middle. Cock!

It took a lot of superglue and some sore fingers there it was. It lived, Franken-wheel! Sceptically dad agreed to take it again before I went back to Liverpool after work the next day. So there we were. Cold day, 15 minutes and some swearing at home to make sure it wasnt in a mood and would run for us. Off she went powering down the slick tarmac, we couldnt believe it Fraken-wheel worked! Shame it couldnt deflect the, apparently, rather solid bench I somehow didnt see. bks.

Slightly bent chassis and some repairs needed around the swing arms/diff housing, im sure we'll fix it when im home again. Maybe in the snow

So is it just me? should I step away from the controller or do you kind people fancy making me feel better and telling your tales of woe with oddly solid objects?

[jamieduff1981]

Yup. Been flying fixed wing for years and have a long run of no incidents, then last year I managed to lawn dart everything I owned near enough!

Last year I took up trying to learn to fly helicopters, which I've bent every time I've taken out (although I've made considerable progress each session preceeding the bendage!). Just had a new 450 chopper kit arrive yesterday infact. Woohoo.

[vdubbin]

A friend of mine texts me every so often, with a similar story. He finds a cheap second hand RC buggy or truck, usually a Chinese clone of unknown heritage, whihc he fiddles with /cleans and gets running (it's always Nitro, I haven't converted him to battery powered yet) Great fun had by all until something goes bang, and I'm sent off to scour the interwebs for details on replacements.

I've suggested a crawler or a Mardave to him for the next "project"…

[Sleepy nic]

Nice to know its not just me, I did have a strange mix of embarrassment (mainly because my dad had just mentioned how well I can keep it in a straight line) with a small bit of happiness when I saw it limping towards me, swing arm had fallen out and was held in by the steering turnbuckle and sway bar. Not so much happy that it was broken more "Wow, look at that!"

Must admit as much as i'd like to run it on consecutive outings without having to solve some sort of crisis, if it ran perfectly every time it would kill the magic and im sure i'd lose interest rather rapidly. I cant imagine some of the devastation of crashing an RC plane.

[grenpayne]

Sleepy nic said:

I cant imagine some of the devastation of crashing an RC plane.

I only recently gave up rc fixed wing flying after about 10 years (manly due to having no time to do it) and have had some horrendous crashes. It can leave you feeling sick to your stomach, mainly based on looking a muppet in front of all your club mates, and working out how the hell your going to fund the replacement!

One that particularly sticks in my mind was a model called a Weston Magnum R. It would just about crack 200mph and was FEARSOME to fly. I had to psych myself up to fly it but over the course of one summer I got the hang of it and was slowly getting more and more confident. One particular day I had it in an absolutely flat out pass over the runway and entered a banked turn to bring it round. At this point it just stopped responding to the controls and ever so slowly the nose dropped and continued to fly round the wide turn. Everyone in my club was watching and we stood in disbelief as it accelerated towards the ground in a shallow dive. When it did hit the hard, sun baked ground the bang was immense. I thought it might bounce due to the shallow angle; instead in an instant it was a cloud of wood and yellow covering and the debris field was HUGE. The biggest bit of the model we found was about the size of a match box, the engine casing had been cracked in two, and the fuel tank was squashed flat into the ground.

We subsequently found out the crash was caused by the battery connector coming loose from the switch, something that was entirely my fault as I'd forgot to secure it properly during the build. After that, I couldn't face having another and it still makes me feel horrible thinking about it now!!

[SystemParanoia]

that thing would be awesome with a telepresence camera onboard

[hman]

There's loads of YouTube vids of fast rc planes going in - turbines are particularly spectacular!!

My last rc crash was a graupner extra 300 which I stalled into a spin at about 30 foot.

Annoying because it was the exhaust valve tappet unscrewing which caused a gradual power loss.

I opened the throttle on last turn to finals and nothing happened, tip stall, spin and into a bazillion pieces..

Artf's with laser cut parts look great, fly great, but are very difficult to repair without adding loads of weight.

Most spectacular was an acro-wot at full chat in a knife edge spin straight into the deck- totally misjudged my height- idiot !!!!!!

[PanzerCommander]

My slash gets crashed a stilly number of times when it gets taken out for a bash, there isn't a bashing session that it does not cartwheel end over end five or six times after a full power run at a hillock or rut is misjudged, ending up on its roof, falling down hills and slopes most people would think you need a rock crawler for. It takes a beating and keeps coming back for more, the only thing I have broken is a body shell. A mate has broken a suspension arm but then it did fall nearly 8ft after a misjudged jump off a skate park half pipe

My Savage 25 (now sold) took a similar pounding but as it weighed around three times that of the Slash and it broke bits quite often, it even survived a dip in the North Sea when I was playing chicken with the waves, only the throttle servo needed to be replaced after that (stripped the truck down after a beach run anyway - sand is evil).

Even my Tamiya Tiger II tank has been on its size once (fell off a high curb - oops).