How to get a foam ultra micro rc back in the air

Even the best of us crash but it seems the less experience we have the harder we crash. This was certainly the case when I let my buddy try flying my parkzone ultra micro p51, it is the resident learner plane among my friends and saw its fair share of the ground, trees, and roofs before my friend got his hands on it. But he certainly tested it to and past the limit, as he put it, "plane and earth tried to coexist in the same space, there was only one survivor." That is a painfully accurate description as you can see from the pictures, but I had faith that with the correct application of super glue and tape, she'd be back in the air in no time.

This is not a guide for how to professionally repair a plane, its simply a quick dirty way to get a destroyed plane back in the air. While it may not act quite the same and could require a little trimming I still enjoy the plane after the repair. This probably isnt the way youd want to do this if you have more money than time to spare but, being on a college budget it makes more sense to try get as much life out of this lump of foam before I pick up a new 12.99 body that's necessary to make the plane like new.

Step 1: Asses the Damage

First thing to do after a bad crash is to see how bad it really is. First give everything a visual inspection to see if any electronics could be damaged if you power the plane on. I got lucky here, the motor still spun freely and the board looked like it had only been knocked loose. Next step is to plug a battery in and check all functions (be careful spinning the prop up as it may be fully disconnected from the fues.) All my control surfaces moved fine and I didnt notice any binding as most of the damage was focused on the nose. If the control surfaces were messed up you should be able to strengthen them with tape or in bad cases (you can see on my elevator) small pieces of balsa wood or even fiberglass. Control surface hinges can usually be repaired with a little bit of tape, you want want to be stingy with the tape as too much will just cause binding.

Anyway you just want to look at the damage and see if its something  you think you should fix or if youd be better off just getting replacement parts/new plane. For me part of the fun of flying is putting the planes back together after a bad crash so it takes quite a lot to deter me.

The main damage from this crash was the canopy spit towards the nose, the board lifted off from its mount, and the nose split from the rest of the body. While it might look terrible I was pretty confident that I would get it back in the air.

Comments

[generalgeek314]

I have that exact some plane, and absolutely no experience flying them... needless to say, I have crashed many, many times. Any tips for a newbie? :D

[Si Thu Zaw]

Keep practicing on simulator. You can crash infinite times on it. Then you go flying in real world when you can fly on the sim without crashing at all.

[Jor2daje]

also I would recommend not bothering with the rudder when you first learn, just bank and yank, then once you get the hang of it work on coordinated turns.

[generalgeek314]

Thanks for the advice. I've done everything you said below already (minus the simulator). However, this tip was really helpful and was what finally got me under control in the air today :D. In fact, I kinda had no choice because I noticed that the rudder control was broken. The servo makes sound in response to the stick moving, but the linkage only twitches... I taped the rudder inline with the tail of the plane for now, and I think at some point I'll poke around inside and see what's wrong.

[Jor2daje]

Maybe try flying with lower rates, if youre using the stock transmitter press down the right thumb stick and you will get 75% throws on all the servos making it more docile. Also fly relatively high so you have time to recover if you mess up, and fly over grass so crashes arent too bad. Maybe practice in a simulator if you cant get the hang of it, there are some decent free ones for the iphone, theyre not very realistic but let you figure out orientation which I think is the hardest part. Just keep at it eventually it feels very natural.

[macketymac]

No offence but I think that the fuselage foam in front of the wings are too thin and dosen't look like it will support any crashes.

[Si Thu Zaw]

I don't think real planes would support any crashes and it's the same with the scale models.

[macketymac]

I used to have a Parkzone micro Trojan and I found out that it was such low quality. More of for experienced people. As you can see, the foam in the fuselage is empty in the middle, make it less dense.