Fat OV-10 Damaged

The single biggest cause of (rc) plane crashes has been the insistence upon flying in too much wind.

July 10, Sunday I was hoping that the wind would die down at dusk yet at 6:30 pm it is still blowing at a mighty 5kph with gust of up to 8-10kph. wind. Well I know my plane would handle such wind but the question is, can I handle such force. About 20-25 minutes in flight I was preparing for a landing when a strong gust of upwind forces my OV-10 into a loop which i didn't recover. The result, my plane went into a nose dive from about 30 ft. right straight to earth. The damage, surprisingly the nose which absorb the impact suffered only a minor dent, however the force travelled through the wings which sustained most of the damage. The left wing was almost ripped off from the fuselage. Both left and right boom wing connection suffered a crack about two to three inches long. Other than that, there are no other damage. Conclusion, I need to make a new pair of wings for my FAT OV-10 and I am going to reinforce it with carbon fiber tubes.

FAT OV-10 maidened

i finally maidened my fat ov-10 yesterday (sunday) at around 6:30 pm in sta.lucia - just beside sm fairview. the reason for a sunset test flight is that the wind is calm during this time of day and with a plane that has a wingspan of 30" and weights only 12 oz., it can easily tossed around by a slight blow of wind.

handlunch was at full throttle but i full back at half when i reached a flying altitude of 75' to 100'. this plane is basically a slow-flyer, perfect for a beginner like me. it glides very well and very stable at half throttle, and i even performed a powerless landing without any trouble at all.

i could have stayed a little bit longer in the air if not for the darkness that is setting in. according to my tx, i posted a flight time of 34 minutes in 3 breaks with plenty of power left on my lipoly.

this plane is definitely a keeper.

(no in-flight photos... my cameraman ...ahhh woman... is not available during the maiden flight)