Why To Quickly Retrieve A Crashed Plane
Jeff Jones
Burlington KY
One should never assume a downed plane is not to be recovered quickly.
I witnessed this crash and watched how there was no concern to recover the wreckage until the peanut gallery yelled fire. This crash was caused by flying with a low battery and the fire started due to an electrical short in the owners wiring job incurred by the crash.
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12 comments
ouch
Can't say I have ever seen that before, but good lesson! Something to share on the flightline.
ahh
We as pilots need to be more careful than ever! Thanks for sharing.
Good advice, thanks for spreading the word :)
We have a ton of electrics that fly at our field. I couldnt tell you the number of times that I have seen LiPos self ignite shortly after bieng removed from a downed aircraft. Luckily enough of our guys have seen this type of thing that we have only lost 1 salvagable plane to a batt fire after impact.
Just be very careful where you grab the batt pack when removing it because having one go off in your hand wouldn't be somthing anyone would enjoy.
crashed plane
first time in many years of flying ever seen one to catch on fire.
crashed plane
always double check your wires and plane before flying. if something is not right fix it. a preflight inspection! sorry for your loss, glad no one got hurt. this could of been really bad.
why wouldn't you want to go
why wouldn't you want to go grab you plane to see what you need to fix it after you crash take one or to seconds then go out and get it
Definitely a lot more common
Definitely a lot more common today with electric aircraft and li-po batteries. Never, ever saw a fire with a glow powered model crash, but li-po powered planes and helis? Seen it more than once. Of course, turbines causing fires in crashes goes without saying...
LOL and Jets are more
LOL and Jets are more hazardious? Oh boy......
But...
Is this a LiPo fire or a glow plane? I have never known a glow plane to ignite. So the advice only holds true for crashed planes involving LiPo batteries. I think that should have been made clear.
Lipo usage
I don't know about everyone else, but I use lipo's in my gas powered aircraft to power the ignitions and electronics, and I have seen what can best be termed as a "post crash explosion"
the LiPo was damaged on impact and started a fire which made its way to the gasoline, as you can guess it destroyed the plane and started a field on fire
Yes this was a giant scale Nosen 310 with a fair amount of gasoline on board, but the point is dont assume no LiPo because of it being a glow or gasoline plane
battery
When you do recover it don't throw it in the trunk of your car without pulling the battery!
Battery?
In 31 years I have never seen a crash where the immediate response wasn't to go pick up the pieces. This makes me wonder if this pilot crashes all the time. I not so sure it was the battery, Sounds like an excuse, I would lean toward pilot error.
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