Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Everyone's talking about their RC experience, but I don't have any. I flew U-control, IE, control lines. I had built a stand off scale P-51 that was totally scratched. I used a 11" original G I Joe as the pilot. This thing was loaded, even the landing gear wells were detailed. IIRC, this thing had a 4' wingspan. It was powered by a Fox 50 engine, which at the time was the biggest engine available. I was 13 years old and being a member of a local model airplane club, called the "Prop Twisters", I went with the group to the King Orange Internationals, in Orlando Fl. At the time this was the World Championships.
I had done well in previous contests with the plane, and I had gone all out. I painted on approx 5,000 rivets around the "panels" on the plane, even though it was covered with just Silk-Span. The cockpit was completely detailed, the wheel wells were detailed, if it was on the real Mustang, I tried to put it on the model. Took me 2 years to build.
I was points leader in the division, and the last thing I had to do with the plane was fly it. Not a problem as this part was just some basic maneuvers and that was it. I flew them as I was asked by the judge standing next to me asked, and for the last maneuver he asked me to repeat a basic loop. No problem.
I went into the loop, felt a pop in the handle, and for some reason, the plane would not come out of the loop, and the loops got bigger and bigger. I even grabbed the bottom line and pulled hard on it, but no change! The plane made about 10 loops until the plane hit the edge of a concrete pad, that the jets used to take off from. The plane literally shattered into thousands of pieces. The biggest piece of the plane left other than the pilot, and the engine, which fortunately wasn't damaged as it wasn't mine, was the bellcrank mount. You could see where the screw holding the bellcrank had ripped out, causing the accident. Because of the crash, I went from 1st place to last. I haven't flown since.
I had done well in previous contests with the plane, and I had gone all out. I painted on approx 5,000 rivets around the "panels" on the plane, even though it was covered with just Silk-Span. The cockpit was completely detailed, the wheel wells were detailed, if it was on the real Mustang, I tried to put it on the model. Took me 2 years to build.
I was points leader in the division, and the last thing I had to do with the plane was fly it. Not a problem as this part was just some basic maneuvers and that was it. I flew them as I was asked by the judge standing next to me asked, and for the last maneuver he asked me to repeat a basic loop. No problem.
I went into the loop, felt a pop in the handle, and for some reason, the plane would not come out of the loop, and the loops got bigger and bigger. I even grabbed the bottom line and pulled hard on it, but no change! The plane made about 10 loops until the plane hit the edge of a concrete pad, that the jets used to take off from. The plane literally shattered into thousands of pieces. The biggest piece of the plane left other than the pilot, and the engine, which fortunately wasn't damaged as it wasn't mine, was the bellcrank mount. You could see where the screw holding the bellcrank had ripped out, causing the accident. Because of the crash, I went from 1st place to last. I haven't flown since.
