what caused my crash?

imran1042 · May 29, 2013, 10:50:59 PM

hey everyone,

So most of you know my Leader crashed today and I have no idea what caused it, nor does Simon or anyone else at TEMAC today. Simon was doing buddy box with me and we made sure all the controls on both remotes were trimmed properly, the control surfaces moved correctly and yes we did make sure the CG was fine, and it was. We taxied onto the field and took off, the second we got in the air, the plane went straight up. Simon tried to level it out but the elevators were not responding so Simon leveled out the plane with the controls he had, he managed to keep it leveled for a few seconds and just when he called for a emergency landing, the plane shot up again, stalled, nose dived and hit the ground from about 100-150ft high. The elevators worked perfectly on the ground but did not respond in the air and the plane kept shooting upwards. Keep in mind this was not the first flight with the Leader, I flew it perfectly fine last Wednesday with Mike. One think I took into consideration when trying to find out what happened was that the battery had no velcro on it, it was held on just by 1 strap around it. The battery was tightly strapped in and Simon approved it (not blaming it on you Simon). Is it possible the battery fell to the back of the plane causing it to become extremely tail heavy? Simon also tried using the slave remote to control the plane and it didn't work. I just want to know what could have caused it so I can prevent it from happening again.

Thanks

Big thanks to Simon for trying his best to save me plane!

thehaze · May 29, 2013, 10:56:58 PM

I don't think that the battery can shift back far enough on a leader for that to happen.

Was this model using as3x? If so was it properly calibrated before flight? Did you do a range check?

Sometimes weird things happen. You'll never really know why.

It sucks, but crashing is part of the experience.

imran1042 · May 29, 2013, 11:02:12 PM

No, I didn't have AS3X. we didn't do a range check but when we lost control it was still over the runway.

imran13 · May 29, 2013, 11:04:26 PM

And by the way, they still had control of other surfaces, just not elevator. Well as far as I'm aware of.

imran1042 · May 29, 2013, 11:10:03 PM

whether we had elevators or not, the plane should have flown leveled because the CG was fine but it kept shooting upwards.

thehaze · May 29, 2013, 11:15:49 PM

Hmm could have been a glitching servo. Or a linkage let go.

imran1042 · May 29, 2013, 11:27:17 PM

i tested it once we retrieved it. it was fine.

battlestu · May 29, 2013, 11:42:46 PM

ouch sorry to hear about your crash... fix it up and give it another go (crashed planes always fly better)

sihinch · May 30, 2013, 08:01:37 AM

The battery didn't move - it was still in the position we put it in, after the crash. So I don't think it was a CG issue.

As Imran said, literaly as soon as we took off, with very little elevator input, it went vertical and then I couldn't adjust the pitch at all. Not even sure how I managed to level out.......it was very weird. I did have throttle and aileron control though. I tried to swap to the slave controller, to see if the elevator control worked on that TX, but it pitched up again and we lost it and spun in.

We flew Imran's plane immediately after, another Leader, and it was perfectly fine. No issues.

As Imran said, we checked all trim and throws on the ground. My thoughts go to AS3x - I wonder if it could have been counter-acting my inputs? Or trying to "correct" my flight somehow?

I take 3 lessons from this episode (personal lessons, up to you if you agree/disagree):
1) Always range check
2) Don't use AS3X for training
3) Train with a foam plane - easier to repair!

Don't worry Imran, we'll get your Leader back in the air.

Ededge2002 · May 30, 2013, 08:15:02 AM

I believe there is a calibration point on AS3X that when you put in the pack the receiver must be in a specific position relative to the horizon.

You might have been fighting the "stabilization"

imran1042 · May 30, 2013, 08:40:40 AM

The AS3X was off and i check a few times to confrim that it was off before flight, also I didn't set it up, the guys at the hobby store did so even if it was on it would have worked properly and not have done this.

imran1042 · May 30, 2013, 09:10:35 AM

I agree, ALWAYS do a range check and I don't know about anyone else but I am never wearing a neck strap when training incase the trainer requires the slave remote quicky.

sihinch · May 30, 2013, 09:14:52 AM

We didn't lose signal, I still had throttle and aileron control. But a range check is good habit.

imran1042 · May 30, 2013, 09:27:20 AM

Simon did you have rudder control?

sihinch · May 30, 2013, 09:40:14 AM

I wasn't using Rudder.