I Would Rather Eat a Bug!

[Dan McEntee]

   Well, not really, but my engine did yesterday I'm pretty sure! I have a previously abused Nobler ARF I am rehabbing and was  test flying it yesterday and having some good results without the cowling on. I had 5 really nice flights and wanted one more before calling it a day, so got it started, launched and in the air to check my lap times, and heard a muffled pop, and the engine ran funny for about a lap, then sputtered and quit. i just called it a day and wound up lines and started to check out the airplane. I tried to restart it and it would fire, and it felt funny while flipping it. I pulled the spinner and found the prop nut loose.  I drained the tank, checked the fuel filter and a few other things, then tried to get it to run on out a prime, and found the engine full of fuel! I pulled the glow plug, checked it and it glowed, and cleared the engine of fuel, put the plug back it and ran it dry. I put two ounces of fuel back in it, and it started and ran normally it seemed, but the exhaust residue was coming out brownish, where it had been clear. Went home and pulled the engine and took it apart, and found some brownish goo inside, but other wise the engine was like new inside. I came to the conclusion that I must have ingested a bug of some sort, and the engine ran long enough toe really liquify it's remains, and what was left came through when I test ran the engine!! Kind of like an airborne puree!! I have only ever seen this once, years ago at VSC when Gordon Dellaney was flying what I think was his original Too Much 2 twin stunter and one engine ingested a butterfly , made some outrageous sounds and quit!! I think all my engines will get a layer of panty hose to keep the critters out so this doesn't happen again and at the wrong time !!
  Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[Dennis Adamisin]

My brother hit a bee once, we knew it was a bee because its "south" end was stuffed in the venturi, not enough to shut off the engine, but enough to make it run a a low power setting for about 11 minutes...

So what was the last thing that went through that bugs mind??? (rim shot coming)

[Trostle]

Probably more than 10 to 15 years ago at a VSC, Bart Klapinski had a nice flight going (he always has a nice flight going), and his engine just quit.  Found the remains of a bumble bee in the venturi.

Keith

[Motorman]

Just when you think you got the bugs worked out of it, more bugs go back into it.

[Robert Whitley]

I had a grasshopper get impaled into the pitot tube on my full size Citabria at above 1,000 feet.
Of course this caused a zero reading on the airspeed indicator and a landing with no airspeed reference.
I came in hot and used considerably more runway than normal. All ended up okay and I incorporate this in the training of my students in case they are ever in similar circumstances.

The moral of the story is that bugs are evil and conniving and even under penalty of death will do everything in their powers to inconvenience us wether full size or model aircraft!

[John Park]

The moral of the story is that bugs are evil and conniving and even under penalty of death will do everything in their powers to inconvenience us wether full size or model aircraft!

I once intercepted a bumble-bee while doing 80 mph on my BSA Super Rocket.  It hit me in the throat.  I thought someone had shot me.

[John McFayden]

I once had a large dragonfly get trapped between the lines where there was a twist. Instantly caused friction that almost totally locked any movement. Glad I was flying level. I rocked forward and back on the handle to keep the plane level and eventually the lines sheared the dragonfly in half and freed things up.

[Ken Culbertson]

Slightly larger than a bug but we used to have nearly daily practice sessions in the late 70's at dusk.  From about 15 min before the sun set to about 15min after we would fly.  Some stayed a bit after because there were big lights from some car dealerships that kept the horizon lit.  BATS!  They could turn 5' corners!
 
Ken

[John Park]

Slightly larger than a bug but we used to have nearly daily practice sessions in the late 70's at dusk.  From about 15 min before the sun set to about 15min after we would fly.  Some stayed a bit after because there were big lights from some car dealerships that kept the horizon lit.  BATS!  They could turn 5' corners!
 
Ken

We used to toss acorns and beech-mast into the air and watch the bats homing in on them until they realised they weren't chasing nice juicy insects.  They could really manoeuvre!

[Motorman]

I was flying at an old soccer field near a wet land area. Half way through the pattern I see my wife flapping her arms and yelling "birds birds"! I think gee she looks funny. I turn and look and here comes a flock of Canadian geese 15' off the deck. I put the plane down a foot off the ground and flew right under them.

Motorman

[Steve Helmick]

My "bug" recollection is of Ted Fancher's Classic flaming out during the inverted laps at an Albany NWCLR. I think it was his Tucker Special and a honey bee. Ted whipped it around until he could land it inverted in the rough grass median between the ramp (where we were flying) and the Taxiway (where we weren't flying).

IIRC, there was very little damage, if any. Looking at the grass afterwards, it was amazing there weren't some serious owies. I think this was the same year that Ted stuck 10 oz of tire weights on that Tucker to find that it flew better at the higher GVW...and I recall seeing a weight or two flying off in flight.  Steve 

[John Carrodus]

A few years back , one of the Wimmer boys , Otto I think, clipped a stroppy seagull in the wing at Bruce McLaren Intermediate School..a feather or two fluttered down while both kept flying. Some of us use pantyhose to keep out the bugs, dirt and rubbish. The stuff has saved our engines a few times.

[Ken Culbertson]

A few years back , one of the Wimmer boys , Otto I think, clipped a stroppy seagull in the wing at Bruce McLaren Intermediate School..a feather or two fluttered down while both kept flying. Some of us use pantyhose to keep out the bugs, dirt and rubbish. The stuff has saved our engines a few times.

Now if we have elevated to Bird Strikes....  They are so frequent around here I had some decals made up!

[John Carrodus]

Ken, we got thems birds around here too. Thems called Kamikaze Birds and one flew into my windscreen the other day! Nice, slick looking model.