Crashed My Extra 330L

[Ronniebiggs]

So I havent flown for a long time but as Ive been flying all sorts on my phoenix flight sim I thought I could cope.

The only admission I have is that I did nothing with the COG before I flew which might have contributed to the crash.

Anyway I took it over a field with a few trees (Fatal!) I taxied for a while to get to grips with it then I went for it very little to no wind. It went up abit steep so I brought it round to the left with my ailerons and then back towards myself. The idea was to do 1 circuit slow and land. As it was flying towards myself it stalled badly so I put on power and elevator but by now I was heading towards a tree. So I tried to climb over it and BANG.

Worst thing of all was it was stuck at the very top of the tree!
So I had to climb all the way to the top and recover it which I did luckily. Got it back and the damage is as follows:

Bent shaft going to the motor (No stripped gears but still bent)
Small dent in the leading edge of the wing and in the end of the opposite end. Nothing significant.

But on inspection I have noticed that the nut on the back of the prop is about 15mm off the prop and so it spins without engaging and im wondering if thats what caused the plane to stall.

Any advice on the COG setting or other words of advice?
Its nocked my confidence as the low speed conrol seems to be poor on this plane and thats what I need really so I can fly slow.

[David]

Sorry to hear..C of G is very important it can change a docile and manageable aircraft into a beast and horrible to fly.
If you dont know where the c of g should be exactly then a good guide is 1/3 of the chord of the wing back from the leading edge at the root...or just about in the middle of the hump on top of the wing where the wing joins the Fuz.. Imagine that same point but now under the wing on either side of the fuz and balance on 2 fingers.
If it tips backwards you are tail heavy and why it would have been nasty at slow speeds either bring the batt forward or add weight.

However depending on design an Extra can be a bit tip stall'ey (when 1 wing tip drops) when slowing down for landing and its important to keep a tad of speed on when landing. Most Extra's and Edges need the battery as far forward as possible unless your doing 3D.

Not quite sure from your description of your circuit but always fly the loop in front of yourself never around yourself, not sure if you did this but in front of you means you can see all the obstacles all the time and Clearly dont fly near trees

If the prop nut had come loose and the prop freewheeling it would have lost power for sure and possibly why you stalled. They need checking all the time, I have had the prop fly off in flight.

[David]

Most flyers favour a left hand turn or a right hand turn not often both. Later you need to practice the one you hate. The bit that worried me there was when you said you were flying it toward yourself.

Honestly even if you are just a bit rusty or not long flying really really try to avoid that. Try a figure of eight in front of yourself from left to right with the cross over just about in line with where you are standing, that way its never going to fly at you and will always pass in front. Sure as eggs are eggs something will go wrong just when your looking at the spinner and thinking.. I hope nothing goes wrong!

Is there not a club you can get to near where you are, it will be the best move you make.

[Ronniebiggs]

Dalton flying club near Croft on Tees is the club I would like to fly at or perhaps Stockton near redmarshall (Quite a premium to pay to join this one though!)

Im in the process of getting my friend into the hobby and if he does we will join together.
I believe I want the COG slightly forward of the COG point so slightly nose heavy is that correct?

To be honest I think I bought a to fast plane to begin with. I discussed the plane with the shop and I was looking at a nine eagles xtra 300 but the shop said the plane I bought was better as it had a larger wing area so would be more stable. It seems the Extra 330L needs quite abit of ground speed before it takes off which I didnt want as I wanted slow speed and stability so I could almost glide it if I was going to fast.

[David]

It is better to have it forward rather then rearward, but getting it on the spot would go a long way as a starting point if you know where that is. The Extra is not a great glider or slow flyer by itself. Although something like an Extreme Flight Extra can do wicked tricks in the hands of a confident pilot. To be honest apart from a "glider" the slowest power plane I ever owned and the one that taught me the most the quickest was a fat wing 3D Cougar that will fly at walking speed and with barn door type surfaces gets you out of so much trouble in the blink of an eye.

If its confidence you need and we all do, you really need to stay away from the Extra type planes untill later and just buy a high wing or mid wing Foamy. We all have them and they are brilliant for no stress messing about and as slow as you like, giving you confidence buy the bucket load and great for trying out those "wouldnt dream of stunts" also very durable when " sneaky friends" decide its COMBAT time

[Ronniebiggs]

My friend has been looking on a site (Are you allowed to name sites on here?) and has found a plane with a 4ft wing span high wing plane that has an autopilot to level out in danger. He suggested we get one of them each. They also have a built in function to allow you to dog fight which if you successfully hit the other plane it cuts the power for a couple of seconds. Sounds fun.

Is there any guides on the forum to setting the center of gravity. I didnt fully understand the terminology you used for example Chord?

Many Thanks and Happy New Year

Andy

[David]

Chord is the width of the wing from the front leading edge to the rear trailing edge, its also why I did a second explanation such as "hump on the top of the wing". The Root of the wing is where it joins the fuselage (the body).

As to the other aircraft which... if your struggling to fly then having motors cut out isnt exactly gonna help much. Auto pilot is just a diversion away from learning to fly. If you join a club the first thing they will tell you to do is to put them back in the boxes and buy a sensible plane.

Since there is a club, the best thing for you to do before you spend another penny, is just go along there and chat to some of the people, you wont need to join for that and I have not come across a club yet that are not happy to give you advice.

Try looking on this site http://www.bmfa.org as well

All the best.

[Ronniebiggs]

I know its slightly off topic but I have a setup issue I need some help with. On the main propeller shaft there is the thread then after the thread heading towards the plane there is an area about 10mm which has no thread and then the diameter of the shaft increases by approx 1mm which runs to the gear. I have 2 nuts and 1 washer and both ends of the propeller are resessed in the shape of a nut to allow the propeller to lock into it.

I had it set up so the first nut was all the way down the thread nearly on the last thread and then I slid the prop on, then washer then nut. But on my fist flight the prop spun the rear nut loose which went down the unthreaded partr and stopped when the diameter increased which meant that there was a gap of about 10mm and the propeller wasnt engageing. How would you set it up?

It looks like the prop needs to go all the way down to the part that increases in diameter but the prop is to large and will slide over even the largest part of the shaft same as the washer that slides all the way to the motor.

Sorry for the essay just want to be as explanitory as possible.

[Richard]

Orange GWS type prop, with a gearbox that has a 3mm threaded shaft? A photo would be great...

Is it like this?

[Ronniebiggs]

Yes I believe it is like that. If you look at the nut on the right anything towards the left to the next nut on the left has no thread and if fauced the nut furthest left will go over the unthreaded area and stop at a ridge pretty much where the left nut is. If we cant figure it out from this description I will try and take a pic and post it. Not fealing very well at the moment so the smallest things at the moment are making me go dizzy (Flu!)