Wierd day yesterday

[Andrew Borgogna]

Yesterday Sunday May 18th I lost one plane and almost lost a second.  First flight of the day was on the new Score I took the revs up to 9000 and was flying the pattern.  I was on the third inside loop when the plane tried to do what can best be described as a snap roll.  To put things in perspective it was very hot and almost a dead calm when I flew the temp in the 90's.  The person who had flown before me complained loudly about the turbulence while he was flying.  Anyway I guess I had my first experience with flying through my own turbulence.  It scare the heck out of me, I yanked back on the handle and got the wings back to straight and level.  Flew a couple of laps to let my heart settle down and then continued the pattern.  I am not sure if I hit a thermal that flipped up the outboard wing or tip vortex from flying through my own turbulence regardless it was something that I really would rather not do again.

Now to the lost plane.  I got tired of playing with the McCoy .35 on my Ringmaster never knowing which engine would show up at the field.  So I got a bright idea; swap out the McCoy and swap in a Brodak B-40 into the Ringmaster.  Their weight was almost identical and I could fly the B-40 at a nice wet 4-cycle and never have to worry about power.  At least that was the plan.  Well a lap or two into the flight the engine ran away, my guess it was do the the excessive heat.  It was fun I was doing the pattern and everything seemed OK.  I had just completed the horizontal square eight and was diving down to get to the correct hight for the hourglass when the outboard wing just snapped up to a vertical position.  I am again guessing it was the back and forth pitch changes of the square eight coupled with the excessive speed that pushed the wing beyond it's physical limits.  I would have been better off if the wing had just snapped off completely, I probably could have saved the plane with just an inboard wing, but the way it went vertical made the Ringmaster roll out of control into the pavement.  The plane was a total loss but surprisingly the engine was untouched.  Go figure!

Needless to say at that point I packed my stuff up and watched other fly.  When the gods are against you there is no sense in tempting them any further.  I guess it could have been much worst, if the Score had did its thing at the bottom of the loop I am sure it too would have been lost.  Today was my day off so I dusted off the Stuka Stunt and the VSC sparky Lil' Zilch and will fly them for a while until I get the Oriental I got from Larry Renger ready.  In the mean time I will continue my trimming of the Score.

[Mike Lauerman]

Sorry to hear of the loss of your Ringmaster, Andy. I recall it as being a "S-1"? The original design with solid leading edge?

Some friends built "S-1As", the latter design with D-tube wings. We saw many of them 'fold wings', unlike the older design.

My wife built the original S-1 from an original kit she picked up at the Santa Clara, CA. MECA collecto. A friend, Juan Rivas, bought an "S1-A", built it and was practicing the pattern.
The right wing went vertical in the 'hourglass', and he crashed it. Wife Joey was inspecting the damage in the pits, and Dr. Kelch remarked, "That plane looks a lot like yours, Joey."
She replied: "Yeah, dead ringer."

[Tom Perry]

The old saw; "Some days you're the dog and some days you're the hydrant." seem to prove true.   

I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you.   

[Andrew Borgogna]

Mike it was the RSM version of the S-1.  It had a hollow leading edge and hollow trailing edge.  In fairness to RSM this plane was designed to fly with a .25 to .35.  It flew for months with no problems using a McCoy .35 and broke up on the first flight with a modern .40.  I accept full responsibility for this incident, if I was building it to fly with a .40 I would  change the leading and trailing edge and add some strength to the spar. 

Tom you got it right, if you can't laugh at the situation maybe you are in the wrong hobby.  I have said it many times over the years if you can't take crashing try another hobby.  Nobody like to crash, but the fact is it's part of the sport.  It's the risk of destruction every time we point the nose straight down that makes this exciting and every time you pull out correctly is what makes it worth doing.
Andy

[don Burke]

An old pilot once said, "There are two kinds of airplanes, those that have crashed and those that are going to!"