RC Aircraft Airframe Repair- Crashed RC Airplanes Sucks, But They Can Be Fixed. Landing Gear Area.

In this video I start by dorking in a rc aircraft. Fortunately it is fixable and so I do a full damage assessment and I walk you through the entire repair process.

[@hughobrien4139]

I like your style. “Just tear the damn thing apart.” Came out nice! I’ve got one that’s been hurt for too long now. Needed some inspiration to draw off of. Thanks for sharing.

[@RC-Air]

It’s the only way to do it, you can’t really start until you can see and figure out what needs to be done.

[@waynemiller6070]

No videos for repairing a motor box on an extreme flight 67" laser, so here I am. Getting inspiration from you Don. Thanks for the encouragement! Love your channel!

[@ArtofTaxidermy]

I still learned a couple of things .. thanks. I really liked the way you brought two balsa sheeting together with those V cuts. Body camera worked fine but I think forehead cameras if adjusted properly work great too, they tend to follow more where you are looking at. Thanks.

[@RC-Air]

Thanks for the insight brother. The forehead can just hurts to wear for any extended period. I’ll try to balance the two next time. Hopefully I won’t be making too many more repairs though.

[@benleprevost1]

Hope all is good with you Don, we're all missing the vids! Hope you're well!

[@RC-Air]

Thanks man. Yeah all is good. I just burned out for a bit. After crashing the Raven, I rebuilt it and then the following week blew the engine up at Fall Nall. It was the world telling me to relax a little. So I’ve just been traveling and spending time with the fam. I’ve only flown a couple of times this year. But I’m feeling excited about flying again and that’s a good thing.

[@jeffworsham8240]

Good job knocking that out! I think first hurdle is mental and usually the biggest- realizing that it can be repaired.

[@RC-Air]

100%! You just have to dig in and figure out what needs to be done, sometimes it is way more than you expected, sometimes it's a relatively easy repair.

[@michelpetrus]

Thank you for sharing this.

[@RC-Air]

No problem. I’d prefer to have it flying, yet sometimes things go wrong. Hopefully it will help someone in the same mess.

[@vincentgattorno9751]

Nice Job! Congratulations.

[@RC-Air]

Thanks. It made for a busy week.

[@slange455]

Noticed when they add carbon rods it seems to cause more damage guess everything is a trade off

[@RC-Air]

@@slange455 the carbon adds so much strength without adding weight. I keep a supply of rods in various sizes so that I can make repairs when necessary. Honestly, I see it as all good.

[@madatthesky7588]

Post more awesome 3D videos/tutorials! You're videos are awesome!

[@RC-Air]

Thanks for the kind complement. Winter gave me some down time and allowed me to relax. I’m planning on getting back to creating soon.

[@LouCosmeRC-ov2ol]

The truth is, no matter how cool, calm and collected you are after a crash, son-of-a-b it still hurts lol… I spent 3 weeks balancing and experimenting with sticky weights until I got it flying like a dream! And finally! it was perfect! until a high speed low pass on knife edge when it didn’t respond to my inputs 😢 It destroyed me bad. Its been 2 months and its starting to feel better. Yesterday I looked at the destroyed Extra-300 in a plastic bin of pieces and thought, I think its time to begin project repair. So, time does help alleviate the pain some 😅. By the way… I’ll be uploading that crash this week. Happy Flying!

[@RC-Air]

Crashing sucks. Especially when it’s a plane that you’ve worked all of bugs out of. Good to hear you’re going to do the work. Now you have a no respect plane and you can fly it like it’s a freebee!

[@ArtofTaxidermy]

I had a crash the other day pretty much like yours on my 74 slick . I think it was a radio glitch. Because I can’t find any other issue with my electric motor. It stopped in the middle of the hover when I was only only 50’ off the ground. 😢 not enough space to level out the plane to land. I’m waiting for the landing gear crash kit to arrive. Pilot Rc planes are impressively strong built.

[@RC-Air]

So sorry to hear this, I had an ESC that would occasionally reset when it was under a load. Lost my XR61 because of it. You may want to do some testing and see how much load you’re drawing. I am absolutely not the person to tell you what is good and not when it comes to an electric. I wish I could offer more insight. My first instinct would be to look towards the ESC though, then check each and every extension for loose leads or any frayed wires that might be arcing. Nothing worse than not knowing why. I get that radios can glitch, I’m just not sure I can be convinced that they do as often as people think.

[@ArtofTaxidermy]

@@RC-Air Thats the problem,, I dont know what happened... once I have it back up and running I will be taking the whole thing to a RC friend's house who is really good when it comes to electronics and checking everything there with him before flying again. my ESC is a brand new EDGE 120.. which I needed to add an external BEC to it...after the crash when I brought everything home everything was working just fine. When it happened it felt like someone flipped the Engine cut Switch on me.. and part of me thought I might have done that without noticing .. but cant be sure. The first flight went over 6 minutes no problem.. the second flight is when it happened and I still had 40% juice in pack.

[@RC-Air]

Yeah hard to say. Definitely use a second battery. I just run a 2s 1250 for my Rx and servos. On all my electrics, even my 95”. There is plenty of juice to cover a 6 minute flight. Hopefully it comes together quick and you’re flying again in no time. On the plus side, now that it’s been dorked in, you have yourself a no respect plane! Time to drag that rudder!! (Just kidding, fly at your personal level).

[@RC-Air]

@@ArtofTaxidermy and one last thing. I had a brand new ESC fail right out of the box. One of the capacitors was bad and it drained my batts unevenly. One at 0 one at 60%. A 12s plane doesn’t fly well on 6s. Point being new doesn’t guarantee flawless. We all hope it does yet sometimes. It may have a cutoff set in it and when you were drawing the batts down in a hover they it sagged below the cutoff for a fraction of a second and poof. I’m totally speculating here, just giving you some rabbit holes to explore. Good luck my friend.

[@ArtofTaxidermy]

@@RC-Air all true.. my friend told me all the same things.. I have to get to the bottom of it. Thanks anyway.

[@DS-ql3ou]

Nice job, My wife says it’s obvious that I like building the planes and fixing them better than flying the. She may be right. Having nothing but electrics myself, it is very eye opening to see how fueled engined add a level of complexity. I’ve never thought about how the exhaust affects the balsa and ultrakoat . Concerning ironing temperatures, I find that 220 deg is too hot for my Addiction coat for sealing the edges and wrinkled it some. I had to dial the t back to about 185 deg. It may be I have not moved the iron fast enough of maybe my transparent ultrakoat is actually thinner and more delicate. Not sure. I am not very experienced at this and I thank you for demonstrating your ironing and sealing technique.

[@RC-Air]

I can see where the park lite stuff may have a lower temperature range. That stuff is pretty thin. Larger planes are easier in many ways because you have so much room to move. I used to like to build a lot, I just prefer to do it in the winter months, not so much during flying season.

[@benleprevost1]

Nice to see somebody else tackling a repair, makes you see bits or orders you can improve or do differently. Didn't realise your yellow raven is no more 👎 loved the look of that plane. Chest mount is cool, lot nicer than a static camera and trying to show the work area. How about a quick hanger tour? With brief thoughts on flight characteristics ect. Saw some cool planes in the background!

[@RC-Air]

Thanks man. Yeah the yellow one ran out of gas at the wrong time last fall. It really bummed me out, I preferred that color it made depth perception quite a bit easier. I’ll do another hangar tour soon. The two you could see are my old 120” Aeroworks Edge and my newest plane which is a 125” Extreme Flight Extra 300 which I got for IMAC. Thanks for commenting it really helps.

[@grongrod]

Great video! Very informative. Hope I never need it 😊

[@RC-Air]

Well if you fly long enough you’re bound to make a mistake. Hopefully it will help in the future.

[@grongrod]

@@RC-Air Usually when I make a mistake I get to go home with a bag of sticks 😅

[@RC-Air]

Oh I so get that too!

[@waynemiller6070]

The only reason I used to build is so I could fly. I do enjoy building now though. Although I spent a whole Lotta time thinking… Thinking about how I'm going to do something versus actually doing it. 🤔

[@RC-Air]

Oooh the thought cycle is my absolute worst way to waste time! Once I start spinning I get nothing done. Fall Nall starts Friday, I had to get this one done quick. Went in on Tuesday and ready to go by Friday.

[@waynemiller6070]

@@RC-Air you're talking to Joe Nall? You're going? Sounds like you're going to fly there! Looking forward to that video.

[@RC-Air]

@@waynemiller6070 I live going to Triple Tree Aerodrome. It’s amazing! It’ll be my 5th times since I moved to Georgia. I definitely don’t fly nearly as much as when I’m alone, lotta guys on the flight line and flying much faster than my old ass. I am planning on getting some video footage from the event though.

[@joshwilson243]

I saw this lol

[@RC-Air]

Yessir you did and thanks for the helping hand getting it back to the pits. I flew it again today, it’s all good again.

[@joshwilson243]

@@RC-Air I just watched your repair video. Very nice

[@RC-Air]

@@joshwilson243 thanks. I finished the plane on Friday and spent Saturday editing a video. This stuff is coming you you in real time 🙃

[@joshwilson243]

@@RC-Air well I was telling my father about you earlier. I sent him your video. I still believe you are one of the best pilots Iv ever seen in person and Iv been doing this a long time. I love your style. Hope to see you again. I will be at the field tomorrow afternoon.

[@RC-Air]

@@joshwilson243 you’re all too kind. There are some phenomenal pilots in this area, I do pride myself on being somewhat unique. I don’t know if I can get up there tomorrow. I just pull my trailer into my driveway and I’m getting started on packing up to head up to Fall Nall on Friday. I’ll see if I can make the time, no promises.