Model airplane crashes are as tragic as they are inevitable. Nobody wants to see someone's hard work smashed to bits in an instant. But it happens -- and we can't help but look. We have to see what happened and analyze the causes. It's part of the hobby. And, often, someone is quick to get a picture of the wreckage. This section of Flying Lines is devoted to the human nature in all of us ... the need to gawk at others' misfortune. It's a page for pictures of CL airplane crashes.
We're asking FL readers to send in photos of notable crashes. Please include a bit of information about the airplane, the crash, and the cause of it. Just e-mail your photo and information to the editor.
Don Schultz sent in the historical photos above and below with the following commentary: First shot is a beautiful green model ... (name of modeler unmentioned to protect the guilty) before and after the crash at the 67? Albany, Ore., contest. The white and red model in the background was a rebuilt previously crashed garbage basket case of a George Lieb airplane that I brought back out of the ashes, rebuilt in two weeks for this event.
Don's report of the crash above: An old Shark 45 that was also "gleaned from a crash" rebuilt to fly again for the 68 Albany contest with a second place finish behind the late NW ICON of stunt, Gene Matheny. The next weekend we had another contest at the old Main Terminal at Boeing field right in front of the main building. This model again had a very very short life of only about three months after being rebuilt. I have always had extremely poooooooooor depth perception. This is the tragic result of flying with 70 feet of line on a 60-foot circle that was surrounded on one side by a group of roped crowd control barriers that I hit with the entire outboard wing -- which parted cleanly. (I continued to fly my level laps ... gave the judges my starting hand signal and started the wingover .. flew through the inside and outside loops .. but then decided to ATTEMPT a landing (power on...and again clipped the first barrier on landing, which resulted in a K&B 45 killed-n-kooked' shaft engine run. Just after the crash, it began to downpour and I couldn't pass up an invitation to go to the Flight Center Bar where Ed Knutson and I bought each other late morning coffee nudges in memory of a departed of Shark 45 war horse .. that survived a few years of flying, first by Lynn Howard Dooty and then revived and re-sent to the old stunt model grave yard again ... by the depth deprived n' demented eyeballs of Schutzie...
Don Schultz says this plane was "a beautiful brand new "Playboy" model that was reduced to slivers on his first official flight. Gee, those I beamers "REKIT" so completely?"
Bill Allen's Formula 40 Speed plane bit the asphalt at the 2007 Northwest Speed in September meet, while being piloted by Mike Hazel. Bill says: "With about a lap left in the tank, I saw it come by at about 160 with the outboard half of the stabilizer pointing straight up the results weren't pretty. We figure it was due to a combination of undetected damage from a spectator incident earlier in the year and the high-ish winds we had for the meet." Bill Allen photos.
Mack Brown came to the April 2005 fun-fly in McMinnville with his uncle, stunt flier Nils Norling, and demonstrated the maneuver the Central Oregon fliers refer to as the "lawn dart." The plane is a Ukey. Jerry Eichten photo.
Matthew Eichten shows Jerry Eichten's Twister, modified as a Mustang, after a crash at the 2005 Stunt-a-Thon at Thun Field in Puyallup, Wash. Jerry Eichten photo.
Still in its shakedown period, John Thompson's Evil Twin suffered a one-engine power-on crash at McMinnville in August 2006 with Bruce Hunt at the handle experimenting with a shutoff loop. Both OS LA .15 engines broke in exactly the same spot. The plane has been repaired and is flying again, but the effort to figure out a shutoff loop has been abandoned. Jerry Eichten photo.
The Cierra died for a good cause. Built in approximately 1990 by Mel Marcum from a design by Gerald Schamp, and powered by an O.S. .35 FP, the Cierra was a profile stunt plane that had many hundreds of flights on it at the time of its demise in 2006. The plane was being flown by a new member of the Eugene Prop Spinners, an RC flier returning after many years to his CL roots. He had gotten one or two successful flights on the plane, and made a "rusty pilot" error and whacked the ground on one of the Eugene Airport's grass circles. No tears followed the crash, since the plane was ready to be retired anyway. We were glad that someone was able to return to the hobby by getting in some flights on the venerable Cierra. The parts were spread over quite an area of the grass; they were repositioned on the asphalt for the photo. Flying Lines photo.
This page was upated June 12, 2008