spindoctor

I got the Lightning tuned up to perfection, and both Saito .82 4-cycle engines were singing from 3K to 9K RPMs on two-bladed props. The wing was straighter than an irish cop, and I double checked all the throws and rates. 14.5 lbs empty, I would have come in under 14 lbs if I could have gotten the balence right. As it was, with EVERYTHING mounted as far forward as possible, it took a pound of lead shot to balence. Yikes!

Take-off was dead easy, just gun the engines, keep the nose centered and blip in a little elevator when the groundspeed seems fast enough, it took about 80% of the runway to get airborne.

A few clicks of aileron and elevator to get her trimmed and razor straight. I made a few low passes and retracted the gear. Nice! It really build up some airspeed then!

I found that it would climb at full throttle. Level off at 70-80%, and drop like a rock at anything less.

I made several passes, rolled, and looped (once!) and then dropped the gear for landing. I was tempted to use flaps, but really was afraid of introducing anything new at this point.

On low rates, it rolled slowly and very scale-like: the rudders were used in knife-edge to keep altitude up, but only for a second. I used rudder in turns as well, and they were crisp and tight. It flew like a dream! I was shaking at first, but after several passes became more relaxed and really enjoyed it. I love the sounds of twins, and the ROAR of both Saito .82's as it buzzed the pits was incredible. What a rush! I'm in love.

I set up for a landing by flying WAY out, and making one long pass to make sure the gear was down (as if I could do anything about it now!) All was well, gear was down and locked. I knew the rough grass field would take it’s toll on the gear, but I was hopefull that I could get her down in one piece, already making plans for the next flight.

On final, I circled out past the tower (via line-of-sight, not physically) and lined her up with the runway, throttle at 75%. I used elevator to get her down to 10-15 feet, and made sure the wings were level. As soon as she was centered, I lowered the throttle to 1/2, and was preparing to flare onto the mains, when the wingtip caught the thin high grass at the root of the runway. I didn't even see it until it was too late, and gunning the engines was not enough to hop over the last few feet.

Dick, I swear I never saw this coming: The lightning did a sickening vertical cartwheel and tore itself apart just a few feet from the runway. I stood there for a few minutes, not understanding. The wing barely touched the grass tips, about 18" off the ground, and it was moving like a rocket. I was afraid of overshooting the runway!

I don’t think it's fixable. The crappy VQ fiberglass cockpit tore itself in two (a pound of lead in the nose, remember) and the wings tore out of the mounts, and both booms cracked at the wing joint.

I feel just sick. I know "If you fly'em, you're going to crash'em", but this one was different. I loved building it, I loved seeing it in the air, and really was focused on getting the landing right.

Well, it's Monday, and the tears have dried up. The funny thing is that the retracts and gear were totally un-touched, go figure. I only broke one prop.

Bottom line: I want another one. I don’t care if it's a VQ or KMP, or Yellow or Robart, but I want to fly a Lightning again.

See you soon,

Pete (....in search of a paved runway)

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Don't know what to say............... []

Other than, get revenge with a weed whacker and raze that grass field to the dirt!!

Sorry for your loss........

jrf

My Feedback: (551)

Sorry for your loss, but maybe a post-mortem will help prevent problems with the next one.

You committed the cardinal sin of twin flyers; sudden full throttle at low airspeed. If one engine lags under those circumstances a snap roll is guaranteed. All landings should be treated as deadsticks. If you MUST go around, accelerate very slowly to be sure the engines pull together. If you are landing on one engine, you might as well shut the other one down because no matter where it's going to land, hitting the throttle at low airspeed will surely make the damage worse.

Jim

Flak

My Feedback: (1)

Spindoctor,
Tough luck...Sounds like her sink rate was pretty fast at low speed. I watche Twin Man's P-38 video and came to the conclusion a P-38 of this size is FAST and Furious! I practice on the G2 Flight Sim all the time and the P-38 is easier to land fast than slow. Good luck with another P-38 or rebuilding your current model.

"Keep 'Em Flying!"
Flak

kram-RCU

spindoc:

Sorry, Dude!

Please refer to my philosophical comments about P-38 loss when it happened to Samparfitt.

I love twin warbirds, but the more I fly them, the more impressed (depressed?) I am with how much work they are and how easy they are to lose. It just seems like any little thing will crash them and the rate and frequency at which "any little thing" goes wrong is astronomical. Even with my proven flying birds, it seems like I spend really large amounts of time nursing them on the ground for every minute in the air, and even then, they're always surprising me with new malfunctions that could easily prove lethal: loose firewall bolts, leaky air valves, etc, etc..

All I can say is that the "P-38 B-r-o-t-h-e-rhood" is not only elite, but tragico-comedic. It's no accident that everyone at most airfields will stop and stare when one takes to the air, and most meets have no more than one or two in attendance. The price of glory can be vulnerability.

My dream is through beating up my (so far) five P-38's and two P-61's, I will someday acquire the skills and technical resources to build and fly the "bullet-proof" P-38.

Keep the Faith


mt

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Gee, that was well written. I felt like I was there. I feel your pain. I once had a strand of grass knock down a sweet stik. Then I found the rebar sticking out of the ground about 18". What a surprise. Thats been almost 15 years ago and it still makes me mad.

spindoctor

Thanks for your replies, bros. I talked to a pattern flyer from the same field, he told me he lost a 1.20 sized pattern plane in the same way a few weeks earlier: the wingtip touched the high grass during landing. I thought he was kidding. My wing loading was twice his, so I'm still in shock that a few tufts of grass did me in. This was my second flight, btw. But the first one at this field. It was pretty windy day (I had hoped to use that to my advantage).

Lessons learned.....
1) I should have had a spotter. One who understands heavy, scale planes. Then I could blame him.
2) I kind of wish I'd tried the flaps.
3) The plane flew fine. it's airspeed was fast, but it handled slowly and deliberately. I didn't get to test stalls and recovery, but as long as you kept the airspeed up and he manuvers scale-looking, it was a puppydog. (a freakin' AWESOME puppydog!) Landings, though, were a pit-bull, with you holding raw meat. Fast and hard! (There are some things I like that way*, but not my landings.)

A quick call to Kondor informed me that the Josie' is out of stock until Sept. Rats! I'd build another VQ, if I could find one cheap. The VQ and KMP have similar wing loadings, no advantage there. I could be talked into a tigercat ARF, is there one?

Actually, I've been doing a lot of thinking (had time while I gutted the Lightning) I'd love to be able to fly one without investing 3+ months of building: A 100" SPAD Lighting, with an aluminum "H" frame? I wonder if I could get close to the same wing loading, but with a more rugged airframe. Hmmm..
Where can I get coroplast, in bulk?

(Is there Giant-scale SPAD combat yet? Why not?)

I did find out (the hard way) that RealFright G2 does not really prepare you to handle live lightning. The sim glides, and recovers WAY too easily, dispite a very heavy wing loading. Maybe it ignores the aeordynamic breaking effect of the props at low RPM? I used it to practice engine-out, and at least that seemed pretty authentic. It made me REAL carefull to get the engines just right!

Youse guys here have been great. I hope by sharing my experiance, I can return the favor, if only a bit.

Pete


* The steering response on sports cars. What were you thinking of?

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Pete:

Hobby Lobby has an F7F ARF, but it's small, intended for electric power. A company in Texas is getting one ready for market in the 40-60 engine size, but it will be a while.

In the meantime you can take some solace from a "Doctor" Christmas who designed a planed he called the "Bullet." Two were built, both crashed on take off, both test pilots were killed.

Bill.

jimcork1

My Feedback: (4)

Sorry about the loss,, I fly the Herk and I fly every landing as if 1 engine is out.. I basically fly a steep power off approach. I have to add a touch of power in the flare,, but otherwise a no power approach. Now for flaps.. I found that half flaps works better for landing and full flaps for take off. Best of luck on the next P38,, I might just build one,, at least if we get another field. Currently fieldless. Jim

Villa

Every crash must have a lesson. On this one the lesson is: Depth perception is good for about 17 feet. Beyond that ????????????? YOU CANNOT TELL WHERE THE BEGINING OF THE RUNWAY IS!!!! Having crashed short there many times, I have changed to the following: I aim for touchdown to be in-front of me if at all possible. Especially with new planes. On final I always tell myself that I DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE RUNWAY BEGINS. I also practice taking my eye off the plane on final and looking down for the start of the runway. After a while the panic after taking your eye off the plane subsides. Have you considered a pusher/puller? I converted my std twin SPAD to a pusher/puller and I have no more one engine out problems. As a SPAD it is practically indestructable. The other day I was doing low and slow figure eights about 4 feet off the ground and eventually screwed up and hit the ground hard enough to throw up a divit. Front engine stoped, no brocken prop. I would have tried a takeoff with the rear runing engine except it was very hot and muggy. On an 85 degree day it takes off on either engine, usually in a very exciting way (99.90% stalled).

CraigA

Here are a couple pictures of a SPAD twin I built....pretty ugly but it flies great. I also built an even uglier SPAD version of the P-38.




CraigA

spindoctor

I love it! (needs to be bigger.)

colmo-RCU

What´s a SPAD???????

twinman

My Feedback: (2)

CriagA
That is exactly the same idea I built using to 60 size Ugly Stick arf's. Wing ended up 86" and two ST 90's and loved it. Very easy to fly.
Twinman