Crashing is Not an Option - 2009/11

46 MODEL AVIATION
by Don Apostolico
The beautiful thing
is that a model
c an be f lown
almost forever
MANY PILOTS IN our hobby say,
“Sooner or later, all models crash.” Is it me,
or does that statement sound like a selffulfilling
prophecy?
Some can fly for years without
damaging their airplanes, or they can
experience electronic/mechanical failures
without crashing. Others experience the
same failures, needlessly destroy their
aircraft, and endanger others in the process.
What’s the difference?
This article will make you aware of the
major issues that often result in needless
crashes, so that you can take appropriate
corrective measures to eliminate the
problems that cause these accidents and
endanger others. I will primarily address
Giant Scale models, but many of the issues
I will address apply to smaller airplanes
and helicopters.
The keys to model longevity are:
• Carefully choosing the correct equipment.
• Setting up equipment properly.
• Learning to fly with proficiency.
• Regularly maintaining the aircraft.
If a pilot does the preceding, the
chances of crashing are substantially
reduced.
Right: Don watched a stunning new Giant
Scale model crash after only a few flights,
because of hinge/linkage issues; the result
was $4,000 lost. Little or no glue can be seen
on the flat nylon hinges, and they were not
pinned in place.
Above: Don and Judy Apostolico, who own
Don’s Hobby Shop, with their $6,500 40%
Carden Extra 330. The left receiver went
out on the model’s seventh flight, but it was
no problem. Three years later, the Extra is
as good-looking as it was the day it came off
the workbench.
Cr ash ing is
an Option NOT
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:38 AM Page 46
November 2009 47
Small trainer nylon servo gears cannot
withstand the loads that Giant Scale
models impose, but the heavy-duty metal
gear on the right can.
Right: Proper baffling can drop cylinderhead
temperatures by more than 100°. Lack
of proper baffling can result in hot-running
or seized engines.
This meter measures current flow and
locates binding servos. It is plugged into the
servo, and the other end is plugged into the
MatchBox or receiver.
Vent filters keep dust, dirt, grass seeds,
dandelion fuzz, and other trash from
entering the tank through the vent line.
The Jaiccio regulator, designed by Jim
Odino, has been the standard for many
years. It reduces the 7.0-8.4 volts to
most receivers’ and servos’ maximum
rated voltage of 6.0.
Above: A terrific regulator from Fromeco
has an adjustment feature, allowing the
modeler to choose the regulated voltage
from 4.8 to 6.4.
This deflection tool has
been the standard used
to measure control
movement in degrees
for more than 20 years.
The clogged filter,
top, had roughly 350
flights in on one of
Don’s 40% aircraft.
Photos by the author
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:42 AM Page 47
Left: Fuel fittings
on tanks should be
safety-tied on the
inside and outside,
to keep hoses from
slipping off of
fittings.
Right: Don loadtests
batteries
before every flight.
Notice the reading
on this 5200 mAh
Lithium battery
with a 1-amp load
applied. This
battery is safe to fly.
Right: Mitch and Tracy Kral’s good-looking
40% Carden Extra 260 on Don’s EZ
Balancer. It’s easy to use and takes all
guesswork out of locating the exact CG
location.
Below: Don’t guess about your needle
settings. The pinch test, using a tachometer
and needle-nose pliers, is the easy way to
determine if the engine is rich or lean.
Come to think of it, that is the safety profile for full-scale
aircraft. Why not apply some of the safety concepts that have
allowed full-scale airplanes to fly and land safely for decades, even
if they experience equipment failure?
The world is imperfect and there are occasional full-scale
accidents, but they are the exception rather than the rule. In the
aeromodeling world, crashing is often the rule rather than the
exception. Many modelers are doomed to repeat the same mistakes
that have caused countless others to destroy their airplanes, because
they don’t know what they don’t know.
The full-scale industry learns from each crash, documents
details, and disseminates the information so that the cause of the
accident will not be repeated. In contrast, the modeling world often
To compensate for wind drift in a crosswind landing, bank the
upwind wing into the wind and align the fuselage with the runway
with downwind rudder.
To stop a model from weather-vaning and drifting on takeoff, bank
the upwind wing into the wind and apply downwind rudder to keep
the fuselage aligned with the runway.
48 MODEL AVIATION
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:44 AM Page 48
November 2009 49
depends on well-meaning but sometimes
misinformed opinions and Internet threads
written by modelers and RC flight
instructors who are trying to help but teach
with incorrect information, because that’s
how they were taught. When faulty
information is repeated often enough, it
usually becomes fact because so many
believe it.
These are not criticisms of the
wonderful people who try to help others,
but observations of the basic problem. This
lack of knowledge is a challenge in
education.
Throughout many years, our industry
has learned the clearly identifiable success
and failure patterns that have been observed
to consistently work or fail under a wide
variety of operational conditions. Those
who don’t know the patterns are far more
prone to crash airplanes than those who do
know the successful setups.
Crashing or not crashing is also driven
by attitudes. Some aeromodelers assume
that their equipment will always work. That
is an accident waiting to happen.
Another attitude is that all airplanes
crash sooner or later. I have learned to
assume the opposite. Some type of
mechanical or electronic failure will
eventually occur. When that happens, I
have to have set up my model to enhance
the chance of a safe landing. We learned
long ago how to prepare our models so that
safe landings can be made if various
onboard components fail or malfunction.
Success and Failure Patterns: In the past 50
years, we have learned that there are no
new reasons why aeromodelers crash
airplanes. We can often finish their
sentences when they talk about such an
incident, because we have heard the same
failure patterns numerous times.
If you deal with the public in your
respective professional field, you probably
know what I mean. You repeatedly hear the
same issues; therefore, you know what
many people are about to ask or say.
My business is no different. By listening
to thousands of hobby shop customers
during the course of many years, I have
learned what works and what doesn’t. I
wish you could be a fly on the wall at my
store and hear people say the same things,
such as:
• “I should have listened.”
• “I won’t do that again.”
• “I learned that one the hard way.”
• “That mistake cost me an airplane.”
• “I’d still have my model if I had set it up
differently.”
Since we ask the cause of the crash at
the store, we have learned that aside from
pilot error, the leading causes are battery
failure, switch failure, and receiver failure,
in that order. Conversely, some customers
tell us that they had a specific failure and
simply landed their aircraft.
The next question we ask is, “How did
you have your model set up?” The success
and failure patterns are clear.
After hearing numerous modelers tell us
that they crashed their airplanes because the
airborne batteries failed and hearing others
say that they had battery failures but didn’t
crash because they installed a battery
backup system, we quickly learned that
such a setup would prevent a crash.
Therefore, we recommend battery-backup
systems.
That’s the kind of cause-and-effect
relationship this article will cover. There is
no guesswork or opinions—only straight
data obtained from many people throughout
many years.
One bias that aeromodelers need to be
aware of is that uninformed fliers often
consider their experiences the norm, because
they have not seen or experienced the problem.
That is not empirical data; it is an uninformed
opinion based on limited data input.
Setup configurations are not
recommended or eliminated based on a few
modelers’ individual experiences. They are
chosen or excluded based on a mass of
aeromodelers’ collective experience.
I suggest that we modelers, as do fullscale
pilots, learn from others’ misfortunes
and avoid setups or procedures that cause
the needless destruction of aircraft and
endanger others when an airplane goes out
of control and crashes. Safety is the
priority.
The Challenge: The answers to the
question why models crash have been
identified, but the fix is more difficult. That
is because the challenge involves a personal
commitment to a number of issues.
We need to unlearn bad information or
hand-me-down bad habits and educate
ourselves, to overcome generations of
misinformation that circulates throughout
the modeling community. This education
requires you to make an effective effort to
obtain accurate information about
performance profiles and equipment issues.
Just because your friend does it or says
it’s correct doesn’t make it so. Is his
technical opinion based on solid data, or is
it an opinion with no factual data to back it
up. Is his aircraft on borrowed time because
he has “gotten away” with an unsafe setup
and therefore considers it safe?
It’s for you to judge, since it’s your
legal responsibility to safely set up a model.
If you hurt someone or damage someone’s
property, saying that your friend said it was
okay and not knowing are unacceptable
excuses in the law’s eyes.
Sifting out bad information from
aeromodelers who are trying to be helpful
can be difficult. I recommend that you
challenge the source of data by asking the
next questions.
If a modeler tells you that your receiver
will burn out because it can’t take all the
current flow from the high-powered digital
This excellent-flying $4,500, 33-pound Cessna 152 had a receiver become
inoperative after roughly two years of flight. Now it is eight years old and
is as attractive as it was the day it came off of the building board.
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:45 AM Page 49
50 MODEL AVIATION
Item Pilot Setup Equipment Random Maintenance
Error Issues Choice Failure Preflight
This Giant Scale setup manual, which is in its
third edition, helps a modeler transition to
large models without making common setup
mistakes.
Proficient Flying has been called the “Stick and
Rudder of RC Flying.” RC pilots who don’t
understand the flight envelope are doomed to
continue crashing models, because they don’t
understand the causes and effects of their
actions.
Modelers continue to
crash aircraft for the
same reasons. To help
them set up their
airplanes and avoid the
common equipment
preparations and
piloting mistakes that
often cause crashes, we
at Don’s Hobby Shop
wrote the books Gas
Engines Giant Planes
and Proficient Flying.
Once a modeler
learns the setups that
have proved to work in
adverse circumstances
and avoid those that are
more prone to fail, he or
she is far more likely to
fly without issue than
the pilot who doesn’t
have that information.
There are 30 reasons
in five main categories,
arguably with some
overlap, why
aeromodelers
chronically and
needlessly crash their
airplanes. The
accompanying chart
details this information.
The main categories are:
• Inadequate flying
skills (pilot error).
• Improper equipment
setup. (Using the right
equipment and setting it
up incorrectly.)
• Improper equipment
choice for the intended
application.
• Equipment failure
(random).
• Lack of proper
maintenance. (Poor
preflighting and routine
maintenance.) MA
—Don Apostolico
Reasons
Why They Crash
Pilot Error X
Battery Failure X X
Switch Failure X X
Receiver Failure X X
Burned-Out Servos X X
Receiver Brownout—Reboot X
Hot-Running Regulators, Wires, Servos X
Failure to Load Test Batteries X
Not Using 6-Volt Regulators X
Incorrect Propeller Setup X
Building in Choke Points X
Improper Radio Programming X
Improper Needle Settings X
Flutter X X
Stripped Servo Gears X X
Incorrect Linkage Geometry X X
Inadequate Servo Torque X X
Radio Frequency Crosstalk X
Improper Tank Plumbing X
Inadequate Fuel Filtering X
Improper Inlet/Exit Radios X
Improper Baffling X
Linkage Failure X
Loose Nuts, Bolts, Screws X X
Reversed Controls X X X
Not Connecting Extensions X X X
Vapor Lock X
Improper Charging X
Incorrect CG X
Incorrect Travels X
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:46 AM Page 50
servos, ask, “What is the receiver’s current
limitation and how much current flow does
a properly set-up model draw?”
A pilot who can’t answer that basic
question after making the profound claim
or answers that he saw it on an Internet
thread is probably not a source I would
trust. Compare the preceding answer to, “I
called the JR service center and was told
that the receiver was rated for 20-30
amps.”
Which response are you going to trust?
Are you going to trust your $1,000-$6,000
model to an uninformed opinion? Many do
and have accidents as a result.
The good news is that aeromodeler
education can solve all of these issues.
Although there are preferences in
equipment choice, as with the old Ford vs.
Chevy debate, the systemic issues that
cause airplanes to crash don’t change.
Hand-Me-Down Information: Great
flying skills and having been in the hobby
for a long time do not necessarily mean
that a flier possesses accurate information.
The skilled pilot could be giving bad
technical advice.
I often say that just because a person
has brushed his or her teeth since
childhood doesn’t qualify that person to be
a dentist. Because a person can hover a
model doesn’t mean that it is set up
correctly. I’ve seen some excellent 3-D
pilots who have unsafe setups.
Some bad hand-me-down information
has been around for years. Several
aeromodelers recommend that the rudder
and ailerons be coupled so that the rudder
moves in the same direction as the ailerons
and allows the airplane to perform
coordinated turns. You might have heard
this from friends, read it described in
magazine articles, or overheard it at the
field.
The problem with this is that in any
crosswind takeoff or landing, the rudder is
moving in the wrong direction and the
takeoff or landing becomes difficult or
impossible to perform safely. Try that
technique in a full-scale aircraft and you’ll
be calling the coroner.
An analogy is that if you want to turn
your car to the left, you turn the wheel to
the right. Ridiculous! But no more so than
coupled ailerons with the rudder moving in
the opposite direction than it should be
traveling in a crosswind.
Tell a full-scale pilot that you take off
in a crosswind by rolling in upwind aileron
and upwind rudder to compensate for the
crosswind. That pilot will look at you as if
you came from another planet.
If you don’t apply upwind aileron and
downwind rudder in a crosswind, out-ofcontrol
takeoffs and landings are frequent.
In some cases, a crash results. This is a
pilot-skill issue.
Crosswind takeoffs and landings
require upwind aileron and downwind
rudder to maintain directional control of
the aircraft; the opposite of a program
November 2009 51
coupling mix that some recommend and
use. The result is often needless damage to
a model or a crash caused by improper
control input. When you see an airplane
with this mix, you can tell that the pilot
doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, or he
wouldn’t be using this hazardous setup.
This flier might have gotten away with
that setup and not had an accident, but that
doesn’t make it right—just lucky. I don’t
want to depend on luck when it comes to
not harming someone; I’ll take knowledge
every time. The first priority is to not hurt
people or damage their property, and the
second priority is to save the model.
Another pilot training issue is the wellmeaning
instructor who teaches a student to
land the aircraft while controlling the
descent rate with elevator rather than
throttle. If the airplane is too high on final,
many modelers have been trained to point
the nose down to burn off altitude. Wrong!
When too high, the throttle should be
retarded and the nose raised slightly to
bleed off airspeed. Once the speed is bled
off, the model will drop like a stone. Then
the throttle is used to regulate the descent
rate.
If a pilot gets this relationship backward,
the model will often zoom down the runway
at high speed. The result is its running out of
runway or being pinned to the ground with
down-elevator and flipping over.
Sometimes you hear a pilot claim that an
airplane floats and won’t slow on landing.
This lack of airspeed control is responsible
for many landing accidents. If you have
blown the approach, go around again and
do it the right way.
Deficient pilot skills can be remedied by
learning the limits of the flight envelope
and practicing until you are proficient. An
entire chapter in Gemstone Publications’
third edition of Proficient Flying, available
from Don’s Hobby Shop, is devoted to this
subject. Remember that elevator controls
airspeed and throttle controls descent rate.
Now the hard work begins. And in some
cases, you will incur expenses as you decide
what degree of commitment and expenditure
are appropriate. Crashing can be avoided,
and in the next article, dealing with accident
avoidance, I will address the major
categories and issues that can prevent
disasters.
If you commit to unlearning bad habits,
undo bad setups, eliminate choke points,
properly install the correct equipment, and
learn the flight envelope to become a more
proficient pilot, you will enjoy safe flying
for years because you made the choice.
Crashing is not an option.
Have fun and fly safely. MA
Don Apostolico
[email protected]
Sources:
Don’s Hobby Shop
(800) 972-6273
www.donshobbyshop.com

46 MODEL AVIATION
by Don Apostolico
The beautiful thing
is that a model
c an be f lown
almost forever
MANY PILOTS IN our hobby say,
“Sooner or later, all models crash.” Is it me,
or does that statement sound like a selffulfilling
prophecy?
Some can fly for years without
damaging their airplanes, or they can
experience electronic/mechanical failures
without crashing. Others experience the
same failures, needlessly destroy their
aircraft, and endanger others in the process.
What’s the difference?
This article will make you aware of the
major issues that often result in needless
crashes, so that you can take appropriate
corrective measures to eliminate the
problems that cause these accidents and
endanger others. I will primarily address
Giant Scale models, but many of the issues
I will address apply to smaller airplanes
and helicopters.
The keys to model longevity are:
• Carefully choosing the correct equipment.
• Setting up equipment properly.
• Learning to fly with proficiency.
• Regularly maintaining the aircraft.
If a pilot does the preceding, the
chances of crashing are substantially
reduced.
Right: Don watched a stunning new Giant
Scale model crash after only a few flights,
because of hinge/linkage issues; the result
was $4,000 lost. Little or no glue can be seen
on the flat nylon hinges, and they were not
pinned in place.
Above: Don and Judy Apostolico, who own
Don’s Hobby Shop, with their $6,500 40%
Carden Extra 330. The left receiver went
out on the model’s seventh flight, but it was
no problem. Three years later, the Extra is
as good-looking as it was the day it came off
the workbench.
Cr ash ing is
an Option NOT
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:38 AM Page 46
November 2009 47
Small trainer nylon servo gears cannot
withstand the loads that Giant Scale
models impose, but the heavy-duty metal
gear on the right can.
Right: Proper baffling can drop cylinderhead
temperatures by more than 100°. Lack
of proper baffling can result in hot-running
or seized engines.
This meter measures current flow and
locates binding servos. It is plugged into the
servo, and the other end is plugged into the
MatchBox or receiver.
Vent filters keep dust, dirt, grass seeds,
dandelion fuzz, and other trash from
entering the tank through the vent line.
The Jaiccio regulator, designed by Jim
Odino, has been the standard for many
years. It reduces the 7.0-8.4 volts to
most receivers’ and servos’ maximum
rated voltage of 6.0.
Above: A terrific regulator from Fromeco
has an adjustment feature, allowing the
modeler to choose the regulated voltage
from 4.8 to 6.4.
This deflection tool has
been the standard used
to measure control
movement in degrees
for more than 20 years.
The clogged filter,
top, had roughly 350
flights in on one of
Don’s 40% aircraft.
Photos by the author
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:42 AM Page 47
Left: Fuel fittings
on tanks should be
safety-tied on the
inside and outside,
to keep hoses from
slipping off of
fittings.
Right: Don loadtests
batteries
before every flight.
Notice the reading
on this 5200 mAh
Lithium battery
with a 1-amp load
applied. This
battery is safe to fly.
Right: Mitch and Tracy Kral’s good-looking
40% Carden Extra 260 on Don’s EZ
Balancer. It’s easy to use and takes all
guesswork out of locating the exact CG
location.
Below: Don’t guess about your needle
settings. The pinch test, using a tachometer
and needle-nose pliers, is the easy way to
determine if the engine is rich or lean.
Come to think of it, that is the safety profile for full-scale
aircraft. Why not apply some of the safety concepts that have
allowed full-scale airplanes to fly and land safely for decades, even
if they experience equipment failure?
The world is imperfect and there are occasional full-scale
accidents, but they are the exception rather than the rule. In the
aeromodeling world, crashing is often the rule rather than the
exception. Many modelers are doomed to repeat the same mistakes
that have caused countless others to destroy their airplanes, because
they don’t know what they don’t know.
The full-scale industry learns from each crash, documents
details, and disseminates the information so that the cause of the
accident will not be repeated. In contrast, the modeling world often
To compensate for wind drift in a crosswind landing, bank the
upwind wing into the wind and align the fuselage with the runway
with downwind rudder.
To stop a model from weather-vaning and drifting on takeoff, bank
the upwind wing into the wind and apply downwind rudder to keep
the fuselage aligned with the runway.
48 MODEL AVIATION
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:44 AM Page 48
November 2009 49
depends on well-meaning but sometimes
misinformed opinions and Internet threads
written by modelers and RC flight
instructors who are trying to help but teach
with incorrect information, because that’s
how they were taught. When faulty
information is repeated often enough, it
usually becomes fact because so many
believe it.
These are not criticisms of the
wonderful people who try to help others,
but observations of the basic problem. This
lack of knowledge is a challenge in
education.
Throughout many years, our industry
has learned the clearly identifiable success
and failure patterns that have been observed
to consistently work or fail under a wide
variety of operational conditions. Those
who don’t know the patterns are far more
prone to crash airplanes than those who do
know the successful setups.
Crashing or not crashing is also driven
by attitudes. Some aeromodelers assume
that their equipment will always work. That
is an accident waiting to happen.
Another attitude is that all airplanes
crash sooner or later. I have learned to
assume the opposite. Some type of
mechanical or electronic failure will
eventually occur. When that happens, I
have to have set up my model to enhance
the chance of a safe landing. We learned
long ago how to prepare our models so that
safe landings can be made if various
onboard components fail or malfunction.
Success and Failure Patterns: In the past 50
years, we have learned that there are no
new reasons why aeromodelers crash
airplanes. We can often finish their
sentences when they talk about such an
incident, because we have heard the same
failure patterns numerous times.
If you deal with the public in your
respective professional field, you probably
know what I mean. You repeatedly hear the
same issues; therefore, you know what
many people are about to ask or say.
My business is no different. By listening
to thousands of hobby shop customers
during the course of many years, I have
learned what works and what doesn’t. I
wish you could be a fly on the wall at my
store and hear people say the same things,
such as:
• “I should have listened.”
• “I won’t do that again.”
• “I learned that one the hard way.”
• “That mistake cost me an airplane.”
• “I’d still have my model if I had set it up
differently.”
Since we ask the cause of the crash at
the store, we have learned that aside from
pilot error, the leading causes are battery
failure, switch failure, and receiver failure,
in that order. Conversely, some customers
tell us that they had a specific failure and
simply landed their aircraft.
The next question we ask is, “How did
you have your model set up?” The success
and failure patterns are clear.
After hearing numerous modelers tell us
that they crashed their airplanes because the
airborne batteries failed and hearing others
say that they had battery failures but didn’t
crash because they installed a battery
backup system, we quickly learned that
such a setup would prevent a crash.
Therefore, we recommend battery-backup
systems.
That’s the kind of cause-and-effect
relationship this article will cover. There is
no guesswork or opinions—only straight
data obtained from many people throughout
many years.
One bias that aeromodelers need to be
aware of is that uninformed fliers often
consider their experiences the norm, because
they have not seen or experienced the problem.
That is not empirical data; it is an uninformed
opinion based on limited data input.
Setup configurations are not
recommended or eliminated based on a few
modelers’ individual experiences. They are
chosen or excluded based on a mass of
aeromodelers’ collective experience.
I suggest that we modelers, as do fullscale
pilots, learn from others’ misfortunes
and avoid setups or procedures that cause
the needless destruction of aircraft and
endanger others when an airplane goes out
of control and crashes. Safety is the
priority.
The Challenge: The answers to the
question why models crash have been
identified, but the fix is more difficult. That
is because the challenge involves a personal
commitment to a number of issues.
We need to unlearn bad information or
hand-me-down bad habits and educate
ourselves, to overcome generations of
misinformation that circulates throughout
the modeling community. This education
requires you to make an effective effort to
obtain accurate information about
performance profiles and equipment issues.
Just because your friend does it or says
it’s correct doesn’t make it so. Is his
technical opinion based on solid data, or is
it an opinion with no factual data to back it
up. Is his aircraft on borrowed time because
he has “gotten away” with an unsafe setup
and therefore considers it safe?
It’s for you to judge, since it’s your
legal responsibility to safely set up a model.
If you hurt someone or damage someone’s
property, saying that your friend said it was
okay and not knowing are unacceptable
excuses in the law’s eyes.
Sifting out bad information from
aeromodelers who are trying to be helpful
can be difficult. I recommend that you
challenge the source of data by asking the
next questions.
If a modeler tells you that your receiver
will burn out because it can’t take all the
current flow from the high-powered digital
This excellent-flying $4,500, 33-pound Cessna 152 had a receiver become
inoperative after roughly two years of flight. Now it is eight years old and
is as attractive as it was the day it came off of the building board.
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:45 AM Page 49
50 MODEL AVIATION
Item Pilot Setup Equipment Random Maintenance
Error Issues Choice Failure Preflight
This Giant Scale setup manual, which is in its
third edition, helps a modeler transition to
large models without making common setup
mistakes.
Proficient Flying has been called the “Stick and
Rudder of RC Flying.” RC pilots who don’t
understand the flight envelope are doomed to
continue crashing models, because they don’t
understand the causes and effects of their
actions.
Modelers continue to
crash aircraft for the
same reasons. To help
them set up their
airplanes and avoid the
common equipment
preparations and
piloting mistakes that
often cause crashes, we
at Don’s Hobby Shop
wrote the books Gas
Engines Giant Planes
and Proficient Flying.
Once a modeler
learns the setups that
have proved to work in
adverse circumstances
and avoid those that are
more prone to fail, he or
she is far more likely to
fly without issue than
the pilot who doesn’t
have that information.
There are 30 reasons
in five main categories,
arguably with some
overlap, why
aeromodelers
chronically and
needlessly crash their
airplanes. The
accompanying chart
details this information.
The main categories are:
• Inadequate flying
skills (pilot error).
• Improper equipment
setup. (Using the right
equipment and setting it
up incorrectly.)
• Improper equipment
choice for the intended
application.
• Equipment failure
(random).
• Lack of proper
maintenance. (Poor
preflighting and routine
maintenance.) MA
—Don Apostolico
Reasons
Why They Crash
Pilot Error X
Battery Failure X X
Switch Failure X X
Receiver Failure X X
Burned-Out Servos X X
Receiver Brownout—Reboot X
Hot-Running Regulators, Wires, Servos X
Failure to Load Test Batteries X
Not Using 6-Volt Regulators X
Incorrect Propeller Setup X
Building in Choke Points X
Improper Radio Programming X
Improper Needle Settings X
Flutter X X
Stripped Servo Gears X X
Incorrect Linkage Geometry X X
Inadequate Servo Torque X X
Radio Frequency Crosstalk X
Improper Tank Plumbing X
Inadequate Fuel Filtering X
Improper Inlet/Exit Radios X
Improper Baffling X
Linkage Failure X
Loose Nuts, Bolts, Screws X X
Reversed Controls X X X
Not Connecting Extensions X X X
Vapor Lock X
Improper Charging X
Incorrect CG X
Incorrect Travels X
11sig2.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 9/25/09 9:46 AM Page 50
servos, ask, “What is the receiver’s current
limitation and how much current flow does
a properly set-up model draw?”
A pilot who can’t answer that basic
question after making the profound claim
or answers that he saw it on an Internet
thread is probably not a source I would
trust. Compare the preceding answer to, “I
called the JR service center and was told
that the receiver was rated for 20-30
amps.”
Which response are you going to trust?
Are you going to trust your $1,000-$6,000
model to an uninformed opinion? Many do
and have accidents as a result.
The good news is that aeromodeler
education can solve all of these issues.
Although there are preferences in
equipment choice, as with the old Ford vs.
Chevy debate, the systemic issues that
cause airplanes to crash don’t change.
Hand-Me-Down Information: Great
flying skills and having been in the hobby
for a long time do not necessarily mean
that a flier possesses accurate information.
The skilled pilot could be giving bad
technical advice.
I often say that just because a person
has brushed his or her teeth since
childhood doesn’t qualify that person to be
a dentist. Because a person can hover a
model doesn’t mean that it is set up
correctly. I’ve seen some excellent 3-D
pilots who have unsafe setups.
Some bad hand-me-down information
has been around for years. Several
aeromodelers recommend that the rudder
and ailerons be coupled so that the rudder
moves in the same direction as the ailerons
and allows the airplane to perform
coordinated turns. You might have heard
this from friends, read it described in
magazine articles, or overheard it at the
field.
The problem with this is that in any
crosswind takeoff or landing, the rudder is
moving in the wrong direction and the
takeoff or landing becomes difficult or
impossible to perform safely. Try that
technique in a full-scale aircraft and you’ll
be calling the coroner.
An analogy is that if you want to turn
your car to the left, you turn the wheel to
the right. Ridiculous! But no more so than
coupled ailerons with the rudder moving in
the opposite direction than it should be
traveling in a crosswind.
Tell a full-scale pilot that you take off
in a crosswind by rolling in upwind aileron
and upwind rudder to compensate for the
crosswind. That pilot will look at you as if
you came from another planet.
If you don’t apply upwind aileron and
downwind rudder in a crosswind, out-ofcontrol
takeoffs and landings are frequent.
In some cases, a crash results. This is a
pilot-skill issue.
Crosswind takeoffs and landings
require upwind aileron and downwind
rudder to maintain directional control of
the aircraft; the opposite of a program
November 2009 51
coupling mix that some recommend and
use. The result is often needless damage to
a model or a crash caused by improper
control input. When you see an airplane
with this mix, you can tell that the pilot
doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, or he
wouldn’t be using this hazardous setup.
This flier might have gotten away with
that setup and not had an accident, but that
doesn’t make it right—just lucky. I don’t
want to depend on luck when it comes to
not harming someone; I’ll take knowledge
every time. The first priority is to not hurt
people or damage their property, and the
second priority is to save the model.
Another pilot training issue is the wellmeaning
instructor who teaches a student to
land the aircraft while controlling the
descent rate with elevator rather than
throttle. If the airplane is too high on final,
many modelers have been trained to point
the nose down to burn off altitude. Wrong!
When too high, the throttle should be
retarded and the nose raised slightly to
bleed off airspeed. Once the speed is bled
off, the model will drop like a stone. Then
the throttle is used to regulate the descent
rate.
If a pilot gets this relationship backward,
the model will often zoom down the runway
at high speed. The result is its running out of
runway or being pinned to the ground with
down-elevator and flipping over.
Sometimes you hear a pilot claim that an
airplane floats and won’t slow on landing.
This lack of airspeed control is responsible
for many landing accidents. If you have
blown the approach, go around again and
do it the right way.
Deficient pilot skills can be remedied by
learning the limits of the flight envelope
and practicing until you are proficient. An
entire chapter in Gemstone Publications’
third edition of Proficient Flying, available
from Don’s Hobby Shop, is devoted to this
subject. Remember that elevator controls
airspeed and throttle controls descent rate.
Now the hard work begins. And in some
cases, you will incur expenses as you decide
what degree of commitment and expenditure
are appropriate. Crashing can be avoided,
and in the next article, dealing with accident
avoidance, I will address the major
categories and issues that can prevent
disasters.
If you commit to unlearning bad habits,
undo bad setups, eliminate choke points,
properly install the correct equipment, and
learn the flight envelope to become a more
proficient pilot, you will enjoy safe flying
for years because you made the choice.
Crashing is not an option.
Have fun and fly safely. MA
Don Apostolico
[email protected]
Sources:
Don’s Hobby Shop
(800) 972-6273
www.donshobbyshop.com