A surprise way to lose a plane

[patterndude at attbi.com]

THanks to everyone for their ideas.  It's funny how we all discussed backup 
battery systems last month and I was too proud/stupid/lazy to put one in.  My 
planes are built using repeatable and reliable techniques learned through 
experience.  If this one doesn't kill me, I'll chalk it up to more experience.

Separately I will post a brief engine report on how the Mintor behaved.
--Lance
> 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
> =====================================
> # To be removed from this list, send a message to 
> # discussion-request at nsrca.org
> # and put leave discussion on the first line of the body.
> #
> 
=====================================
# To be removed from this list, send a message to 
# discussion-request at nsrca.org
# and put leave discussion on the first line of the body.
#