A surprise way to lose a plane

[Michael H Lance]

Lance,

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate loss. It is a bitch to have a
simple connection rob you of your bird.

I had a similar experience several years ago which cost me a very nice
Meridian.  The battery disconnected on final and trim was out JUST
enough to cause a wing tip to drop hit first.  She rolled herself into a
ball.

Since then I have used heat shrink over any permanent connections and
tie temporary connections (ailerons) into a square knot.  While it
hasn't saved me from other mishaps I no longer worry about any of my
servo connections failing.

Mike Lance

-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]
On Behalf Of patterndude at attbi.com
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2003 9:17 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: A surprise way to lose a plane

The pretty picture of my new Aries on the aeroslave.com website is how
I'll 
remember her.  Got a full day of flying on the new bird with the Mintor
170 
pulling it before the battery unplugged while in straight and level
flight and 
she exectuted a 70 mph belly landing.  The wings have minor damage but
the 
fuse is toast.

Why did the battery disconnect?  This angered and surprised me.  I used
a 
Parsons yellow clip to "make semi-permanent" the extension from the
receiver 
to the Radio South 5.1v regulator.  These clips are coded for JR/Futaba
and I 
had a Futaba one.  They hold the male/female connector bodies together
and 
clip around the joined connectors. The battery lead contained only two
wires, 
with the 3rd signal wire missing.  This left only 2 of 3 pins in the 
connector.  Thinking I was doing a smart thing I clipped the Parsons
clip with 
the empty connector housing in the base of the Parsons clip.  The leads
were 
taped to the fuse to prevent flopping around.  The Parsons clip crushed
the 
empty housing and the battery lead vibrated loose.

I inspected the plane carefully after every flight, but never suspected
this 
connection could ever come loose.  If I had clipped the parsons clip so
that 
the wire and pin were in the base, I'd still have my plane.

I hope my description helps someone.  If you use these Parsons clips,
make 
sure there is a wire/pin on the side of the connector that fits in the
Parsons 
clip base.  I've used this product in the past without problems, but
never on 
a battery with only 2 wires.  If my explanation is unclear, just don't
use 
this product on battery leads.

--Lance
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