Coyote's Tips (1 and 2) - For new and complacent flyers

[Coyote]

1) Never.......ever.....ever trust weather forecast - always be ready to fly! Case and point, as of last night after midnight, weather forecast was rain/drizzle during the night, and drizzle Sun morning with winds (according to Windfinder) of 11-13 kts.....that's 20-24 km per hour! Well Sun morning at 8 am at SP, no rain just fog and a very very slight breeze. The wind did not pick up until 1030 or so and then it was too gusty/windy for my comfort zone. That said, I still got in 2 hrs worth of flight time. Never trust or rely on weather forecasts in this area - especially those early in morning

2) When installing wing, and hooking up wires - always do a COMPLETE pre-flight check before your first day flight- and I mean complete pre-flight. This morning I checked all main flying surfaces and everything checked out fine. Went airborne with my Funcub, did a few loops and rolls - no issues, I then came low over the field to do a low-and-slow flyby only to find out flaps did not deploy despite toggling the switch back and forth (remember I had said checked MAIN flying surfaces - I had forgotten the flaps). With no flaps, I said to myself no issues here; I'll look at it when I land. Since I had plenty of battery time left, I gave the Funcub gas and pulled out of slow flyby w no issues. On my downwind leg a full 15-20 seconds later and 30 ft up, the plane suddenly went from a straight and level flight to coming to an abrupt stop and then started corkscrewing itself towards the ground. All I could do was cut throttle and try to level wings while slightly pulling on up elevator and using the rudder to help straighten the aircraft. Luckily I had enough height that I was able to level the wings and pull out from the corkscrew into a direct (not so pretty) landing. As I was walking towards the plane wondering what the heck....I heard a grinding noise. As I looked at the aircraft flaps - one side of the flaps had fully deployed while the other was level with the wing. The flaps on the Funcub are huge and they come down 70-80 degrees. With flaps deployed only on one side, I had essentially deployed a huge speed break but on only one side on the plane. Were it not for having height - there would have been lots of foam all over the field. All this to say, had I done a PROPER PRE-FLIGHT test (to include flaps), I would have noticed the flaps cross-wiring issue and saved myself a lot of problems and would have never come close to a disaster

LESSONS LEARNED -

1) DO A COMPLETE PRE-FLIGHT

2) DO A COMPLETE PRE-FLIGHT

3) IF IN TROUBLE OF ANY KIND, CUT THROTTLE DOWN (while some may disagree, in more cases than not, cutting power will give you a little more time to react and will likely also save you some damage if the aircraft hits the ground).

Next week's tip....how to fly in the fog. Oops...I'll leave that one to Ken

[Duster]

lol, forgot to turn on my radar system, lol. But when in trouble ,like fog, and in my case i had altitude and was in a open area, with no one near, luckly after cutting the throttle and reversing the directing i had been going it reapeared and was in a clear area where i recovered it and made a some what crude landing with little damage, and that brings back one of the first things i was told when starting in this hobby, which was to do everything in your power to protect any one from being hit by your plane in the case of it getting away from you ,and that means put your pride and joy into the ground if thats what it takes, i did that last week end ,when the wing folded and there was no other alternitive , m
y fly lite was destroyed but no one was hurt. A plane can be replaced, a life cant.
ken.
im wondering if a small parachute from the rudder might work incase of flaps,lol