The confessions thread - worst beginner (or otherwise) mistakes

[anwar]

This thread is for our individual confessions, especially from our beginner days   

The worst thing I did as a beginner, was to charge an 800mah lipo with 3A charge current, because the default charge current on that charger was 3A (it was an MRC Brain charger, don't remember the model number), and that too unattended on carpeted floor ! Just to add insult to injury, it was still attached to a Thunder Tiger foam plane while being charged.

After some time, I hear a pop sound, and shrieking voices of my wife.  When I ran into the room, I see the plane on fire, with stuff dripping on the carpet.  Wasted no time picking up the plane by a non-burning end, and throwing it into the bathtub in the bathroom next door.  While it was in my hands, another lipo cell seems to have burst, and I was covered in blackish soot, so was the entire area. Water was used to douse the fire immediately, even though I was not sure that was the right thing to do on lipos.  But it sure worked for the foam plane that was still burning.

Anyways, that taught me a few things...

And now...  YOUR turn !

[PankajC]

Me?? I got a truck loads of mistakes

1) Fied a 500W motor just doing static test - running it a full throttle just to check what happens when the lipo reaches low viltage. The motor fired before the lipo drained out.
2) Too many models built and crashed without getting hold of a trainer. Practices with Sim did not help either. In one of the incidents crashed full speed on the ground right next to a boy playing cricket - barely missing by a few feet, crushing the lipo - but it did not burn.

[Swapnil]

The worst thing I did as a beginner, was to charge to an 800mah lipo with 3A charge current, because the default charge current on that charger was 3A (it was an MRC Brain charger, don't remember the model number), and that too unattended on carpeted floor ! Just to add insult to injury, it was still attached to a Thunder Tiger foam plane while being charged.
....
....
And now...  YOUR turn !

           

Lets see...
Used dry cells in a E-sky tx. The cells kept discharging in 10 mins. I bought 30 cells before realizing that the tx needed NiMh cells!

Tried using the radio for sim practice while powering it with an adapter. The tx started smoking within seconds!

There's more wacky stuff I shouldn't post here...
 

[hyd_quads]

The worst thing I did : I connected a 2S 5Ah Monstrous LiPo to a tiny brushless motor directly, without any ESC!

[manojswizera]

Please dont laugh much.     I must be the biggest one  

I Built till date 4  Models . Each one by Sticking to the orignal download plans , but none of them flew. Every time a thought i am making some mistake in building or my motor is donot have enough power to lift the plane .
Long back i seen somewhere ( worst site ) about aerodynamics , when u put the aelorons down the plane moves upward.

Same i tried everytime and goes directly hitting the groung nose down.

Just a week earlier i get it down about real function of elevator

now i am sure my plane will flyyyyyyyy.

[anwar]

Wonder if we should add a poll, and vote on the worst (most hilarious ?) !!! 

[Swapnil]

Great idea!

[PankajC]

My vote is to leave the thread as is. If everyone joins in, it just might turn out to be a set of don't dos for a beginner.

[sundaram]

This was way back in 2009 when I was just into the hobby, when I was not aware of the simulators also. It was my first model with with foam and tape reinforced sufficiently with CF and fiber. Lucky for me that the model was made very hardy and very stable with high winger and dihedral . I was fully conversant with the control surfaces and the effect it has on the model in flight. I had gone over that a million times on my mind before the test flight.

First test flight after a few meters of run up the model was in air it was responding to all the inputs ever so gently and flying well when it was reaching the end of the flying field when I tried to turn the model around. All hell breaks loose and I end up spiraling down. This I kept on repeating two to three times. I was not able to make out what was going wrong. I thought some thing was wrong with the model or may be  it was going out of radio range because of antenna orientation when the model is facing you.

Myself having more inclination towards electronics side my mind was always going towards some thing wrong on the setup or with electronics. After few more attempts the landing gear came out from the top surface of the wing after a hard land. removed the landing gear taped and hot glued the hole and went about repeating the same it was happening to me even in short ranges.

Only later after the second model I realized that the control surfaces of aileron and rudder respond opposite when the model is facing you. It took me another model more to get used to the effect.    

Beny was always an eager spectator that time and was witness to all the that crashes.

[Sahevaan]

Lol , I chased my little brother around a field with a 2ch Rc plane a few years ago

[sundaram]

Beny is not getting online much these days in the forum. This was recent with him when Beny was making a model for himself. On phone we discussed at length about the power set up for the planned AUW. I gave him the correct motor, 3000AH Lipo, ESC, Prop size. He bought all exact same as recommended.

The model was built exact as per plan. the power setup fixed as recommended. It was nicely setup together.

I was not there to witness the test flight Beny was all alone and attempted to take flight after charging the Lipo.

After a day when I asked him how did it go, this was what Beny had to say. " Sir the model took off nicely but just within 15 secs the model used to loose thrust and come down. I tried to repeat again and again after charging full but it was same story. there was not sufficient juice in the Lipo for sustained flight.

I suggested that the aerodynamics of the model was not good or some thing was wrong with Lipo. To that he said " Sir but when it is taking off with just  50% of throttle how can it be? "

I asked him where is the model to that He says " Sir after repeated attempts even I thought there was some thing wrong with model aerodynamics. I had to remove the motor and electronics after mud got in after a crash. Getting thoroughly fed up, I replaced the electronics weight with stones to balance CG and as a dying attempt I chucked the model from a hill top thinking it will drop like a stone few meters ahead, to my surprise it went on gliding like a glider on and on it went and landed about a Km down ahead in the Jungle. we had to launch a search party and recover the model from a tree top and it was broken beyond repair"

with that I was also convinced there was nothing wrong with the model aerodynamically.

Later when he was here in Shillong, when we were charging his Lipo for flight. Beny was switching off the charger moment it used to reach 11.1 Volts. I was shocked and asked why you doing that to that he says. " Sir the Lipo is 11.1Volts three cell I have always been doing that, switching off the charger moment it reaches 11.1 Volts"      

No wonder he was having a flight time of around a min with 3000AH Lipo.  

[rcpilotacro]

my list is endless

(a)  i Told my son failsafe on this spektrum is for full throttle and i switched off the tx (dunno where was my mind) by mistake, 4'x1' deep cut on my thighs.  

(b) Flew my scratch built yellow bird for 4-5 flights without screws on the servos, until i luckily spotted it.

(c) took off with rudder reversed. realised it after the wall, pulling up for a hover, landed back.

(d) took off without fuel had to land deadstick (she flew as long as there was fuel for a minute),

(e) knowing fully well that batt is kept without securing,i inverted the ac, had to land with batt hanging, dangling, and cg shifting like crazy

(f) Took off 30 secs after a huge transport aircraft landed, model got blown away in flight , luckily no damage

(g) We (Sandy & I) were flying at a picnic spot, it was about to rain, clouds were way too low, and we were changing models like crazy, in that confusion, took off without changing the model on the tx, crash boom bang, ac was beyond recognition (it was the first one i broke of sandy's)

(h)  Knowing fully well it is a pusher prop, pushed by 2000 KV motor, held it too low, had 9 deep cuts on my forearm while launching, Duct Tape, CA, bleeding and continued flying


....to be continued

[dst161]

Initially when i learnt how to tune cars, I started helping other friends saying I will tune their car for FREE.

One friend gave his car to me and I started tuning it, at that time the actual problem was the glow plug being faulty and I kept on rotating the needles and increasing the throttle.

At one point I was frustrated because the car was unable to idle or shut down on full throttle. I was tired of walking and getting the car back so I decided to face the car to the wall and tune the high end so I will not have to walk.

During that process, I ripped of the Spur Gear and then I had no answer/reasoning for a ripped spur gear.

Later I apologized and asked him to get the spur gear by himself and I paid for that spur gear.

Later I learnt that the car should be running on ground or in air but never try to stop it and hit the throttle to full.

That could have damaged lot more but I was lucky.....

[iamahuman]

Drove like an idiot the first time I raced. Now, it's all about smooth movements and practice.

[Sumeet]

Once...in excitement... ...powered the motor on Full Throttle to see how strong the firewall is. I don't know How this crazy idea came in my mind...I could have tested it by pulling by hand or anything. Anyways, While the plane was still in my hand, My hand felt an strong jerk, and at the very next moment, Motor was on ground while its leads still connected to ESC.  Destroyed the motor in less than 20 minutes after waiting for it for all 20 days.

One more...I was showing my cousin how fast the motor spins. He was holding plane so the propeller was facing towards me. I thought while holding the plane, he would feel thrust too. Just saw the Battery hatch was open and everything inside it was ready to fly-off. So, tried to secure it. Pushed my hand through the spinning propeller  and Bang...Smallest finger started to bleed but I couldn't even feel the pain. My hand was like dead....No pain at all. Jesus Christ.

[I guess my hand had "two adrenaline on the rocks", Kidding]

Things to learn,
Don't forget, Always have somebody ready to pinch you on that painless hand when you are going to do anything crazy. 
If you forget things very easily like I did about that rotating propeller, Try pushing a waste foam strip like I did my hand. 

[anwar]

my list is endless

If we take such incidents, there are many to report   Let us go one at a time

Once I flew a Trex 600N on the good old Futaba 9C 72Mhz.  Waited for a little while, then moved on to flying the Trex 450.  Forgot to change the model on the TX. End result, as soon I connected the battery, the little heli went to full throttle and lifted off, and in the panic (... I must have grown older and wiser since!), I did not think about taking the throttle stick to the full position which would have handled the situation. The take off was not like a bullet, more like a fast climb... I think because of soft start settings on the ESC.  My first instinct was to grab on to the landing skids of the slowly rising heli, but had enough brains left to decide NOT to follow that crazy idea !  The radio was on the ground, next to me.

End result, the heli lifted off to about 200 feet height, somehow got inverted, and fell into the sand from that height, still spinning. Complete rebuild followed !

Felt a little bit of respect for ModelMatch that day, but then again... nah ! Futaba is still better 

[Swapnil]

Hmm...I don't know whether I'm amazed or scared...the damage it could have caused!

[anwar]

The 450 is pretty small.  Will not cause huge issues compared to the bigger cousins, but cannot be disregarded either.

[rcpilotacro]

I did not think about taking the throttle stick to the full position which would have handled the situation.

it happened with me too, Mini Titan e325 but then quickly opened throttle and landed back, Rotor hit the boom, boom bent , changed it from the crash kit and good to go.

From, to be continued...

my son urged me to do an inverted and then landing, i heard it as inverted landing and i actually did it, (What was i thinking) .. video follows

[dst161]

hahahahahaha......

Inverted Landing.......

Good One.

Video would be really awesome to watch.....

Unable to stop laughing.....

[KALYANPRODHAN]

Good thread Anwar Sir.

A Single thread is not sufficient I Think.
It may be a sub forum and with individual thread.

Anwar Sir,
This thread very soon will be the longest thread else not modified to other means.

[coolpratheesh]

| dont know if this qualifies as a mistake or plain stupidity......
This  was my first day on the field with my crafts. I had a KK quad and a Coro plane. I had tried flying my quad a few times before at home, but had not tuned it properly. I thought let us see what happens and pushed the throttle to full, it wen up 2 storeys and fell down up side down. My weeks of preparation went down the drain in seconds.

on the same day I had a friend of mine  maiden my Coro plane. I hadn't checked the grub screws of the motor and when he was coming to land it crashed......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8Wj_W_QRY&list=UUvw0wbNcXTqaDZwvGgcw7eQ&index=5&feature=plcp

Went home with both broken.....
after that I have learned a lot...

[Losthorizonmba]

Full pedal to the metal winch launch. Birdie up. Not responding. Did I lose binding? No, just forgot to turn on Rx!

[maahinberi]

Started my engine on the ground and realised it was running lean. Extended my hand to richen it, while still standing in front of the plane. Next thing I know is that I feel a terrible pain in my index and middle fingers and the engine has stopped. Took me a while to realise what had happened. Luckily, I also made the mistake of trying to tune the engine while it was idling 

[K K Iyer]

Must have been a good year because no one confessed from Feb 2012 till Aug 2013.
Early this year my 30 year old kyosho Cessna refused to lift off.
So we hand launched it. Full up and she still went down.
Turned out that after refitting the stab, i had forgotten to reconnect the elevator pushrod!

And my only attempt at a coro SPAD, 36 inch Piper Cub, no carbon spar fluttered its wings like a bird....

And the time my wife hit a building with my Mills 1.3 powered own design trainer some 25 years ago.....

And the three models I've crashed this year as i couldn't figure out whether they were coming or going. Guess I can't see so well any more after the sun goes down....

And all those tail heavy test flights, aaahhh........

And pre 1970, when Mukul Luthra's model with John DeCruz's radio and my engine flew away from Polo Ground (Delhi). Never found despite yellow paper notices with red text in newspapers....

More if anyone is interested. Like Sanjay G's red Focke Wolf, cable jam on Schweizer 1-26 (fullsize) etc