dumbest moment (an inspired thread)

[Quicksilver]

Inspired by the "another dumb ?" thread What are the biggest mistakes you've made
These mishaps occurred over a wide range of ages from 9-26 in chronological order

this one sucked mainly because of my age, ~9. Father buys me a nikko seawolf sub, first run, I decide to take it a bit below the antenna length.........never saw it again, seriously had ran it only like 5 minutes

Didnt test out boat before run, forgot battery connector. 12yrs old

Forgot to affix the hatch 14

installed bigger motors, didnt upgrade anything and lit the boat on fire15

Testing a way overpowered Nikko boat with the top off, with no flotation...I later got it 16

driving my jet boat up rapids knowing full well the dangers, sucked up a pebble and didnt hear it happen, ran it a 3 minutes before I pulled it, couldnt notice the difference, take it out and the pebble was there, but about 50% of the impeller wasn't. 25

jumped my boat over docks(jet boat), after about 10 jumps I hit the dock wrong and t-bone a piling about a foot up, lands on the dock too. temporarily destoying the boat. 25

most recent I flipped my jet boat, ok, flipped back over, drain water and put her back in. Took off and 5ft out she dies. mind you I'm wearing a 3 piece suit(on my way to work), so the boat floats in eventually, I open it up and what do I see, the receiver pack went to the other side during the flip and landed on the motor coupler, I don't even have to finish that story :p 26

That's my big ones, when it comes to my memory.

[Jeepers]

TODAY 7-7-07 I took my unfinished Miss Vegas conversion with me to the lake to take some pics of it, I put it in the water a few feet from shore but in easy reach of a fishing pole. I forgot to put the DRAIN PLUG in and it SANK, luckly I had no electronics in the boat, but it took me like thirty minutes to get it out, the worst part, I was in a suit getting ready to go to my cousins wedding. I guess thats what I get going down to the lake to kill some time. :D My wife thought it was hilarious and laughed at me the entire time.

[Quicksilver]

nice, lesseon learn dont boat in a suit you're simply asking for something to happen

[andym]

Lets face it if you can afford a suit your not spending enough on boats !

[Mich. Maniac]

Ive not only been into boats but all rc, I learning to fly a 6ch heli and smacked the back of my leg, cut through my jeans and left a huge welt. was in a apartment parking lot everyone saw! how embarassing! waded out to collect my boat once and left my cell in my pocket, 100 bucks lost. landed my heli on a deck and the skid went right inbetween deck boards and destruction! drove my rc10 in the snow and left battery pluged in after I was done. Ruined a foot round spot in parents carpet from esc burning and melting. The worst was having a traxass nitro vee and ran it on lake michigan. radio went dead and boat took off across lake full throttle half tank of gas. could hear it going but never saw again.

[saleens7]

lets see...

running the High Wind (w/ duratrax esc (NOT WATERPROOF)) without lid...everything got wet....luckily the Rx was in a ballon and didnt get soaked....the esc was in a balloon too, but its position allowed about a teaspoon of water to get inside....thinking all was right, i let the boat sit for a few days before i ran it again....when i did, it worked for about 30 seconds before it just stopped...luckily, it still worked aftr sitting for a few days drying off..

another high wind "moment"....when i tossed the boat in the water (as in i had to toss it about 2-3 feet to get over all the weeds in my lake) it landed at and odd angle and flipped over (no hatch)....surprisingly, the hull stayed afloat upsidown, but the batt fell out and was only hanging by the tamiya plug....anyway, i got it back in and let everything dry....the batt still worked too...

SW26 "moment".....i was turned it upsidown with the hatch off to get the water out of it....the batt slipped from my hand and broke the tamiya plug holder thing and fell in the grass and bounced into the water....this time the whole batt went under....i pulled it out and havent charged it since....

SW36 (when it was still nitro) "moment".......i let my friend drive....he usually drives an rc car, and he always turns it full over, so he used to driving like that....the SW36 has alot of rudder throw....enough to spin it out of you turn hard enough...well....my friend turned full right at WOT and it doesent take much to guess what happened next....it spun out and then barrel rolled i think twice (heppend quick, i couldnt tell)....landed on its side and spun backwards and stood on its transom for half a second and dropped back down right side up....and it was still running...lesson learned, dont let friend drive your boat...

Carolina Red (airboat) "moments"

this is probably one of the hardest to control airboats ever....doesent matter what rudder movements i put in it...it goes where IT wants to....i could turn right and it spins out going left....it also spins out alot...it will never go strait....i even put a water rudder on it once and it still spun out....

so here are the moments:

almost hit a group of ducks...twice in the same day, and the same ducks....

almost hit my neighbor (for some reason it lost control for a second and just took off going WOT)

did a barrel roll/spin out/front flip all at the same time and it landed sideways and then slowly flipped backwards and landed upsidown in the water...

[Mich. Maniac]

Hey quicksilver, I saw some of your you tube vids. awesome stuff. MORE RAPIDS!!!

[Diegoboy]

Bought a new X440/3 prop from the LHS ($16). Had it Sharpened & Balanced ($30) Installed it on the Miss Bud w/ prop adapter (free-TY Doby). The steering rod boot had recently torn, leaving a hole, but I wasn't concerned. Forgot to tighten the bullet nut, lost the prop to the bottom of the pond, and the prop adapter. That left the boat stranded in the middle of the lake. She started to take on waterbecause of the torn boot, and the rescue contraption was @ home. Ran home to get the contraption, by then the Bud was floating with only the 2 sponson tips out of the water. Took everything the contraption had to bring her back full of water. Later found out that the water is just over 2 feet deep, I could have walked out and grabbed it.

[greenblast]

here is another one of my ''incidents" i don<t know why i am telling u this i,m not really this dumb. got boat for christmas. pond wasnt froze used once. speed control broke. by time esc came pond was all ice so finally one day there was a 20 ft. open area.ran boat almost dropped controller, hit throttle boat jumped on ice knocked off stock hatch.trying to save hatch still connected to antenna managed to flip hatch back on boat with 20ft window washing pole but there was water in the hatch yup you guessed it speed control gone boat ran fresh pack full throttle until dumping on the ice.hatch sank to bottom iwas so much better off with my rtr.but i am still trying.maybe i really am that dumb!

[Quicksilver]

Hey quicksilver, I saw some of your you tube vids. awesome stuff. MORE RAPIDS!!!

thanks, I will after I order some impellers, still havent done that. I'm not running rapids only possessing one impeller and now having this much power. However once I do order more impellers I'll be rippin up that creek some more and of course there will be video, on my new camera. :)


great stories guys, keep em coming, it's amazing how many of these stories you can say "oh I've done that one before."

Another moment, which was on those videos you watched, just very hard to make out. The first time I really went nuts on that creek, I jumped the boat into a tree, ok it was more like a shrub type thing, but none the less the boat was hanging precariously 2ft over the creek and I was on the other side. Was not an easy retrieval.

[hammertime]

my lake had a 1/4 mile strip down the bank with a 3-4 foot width before ice started..........boat lost control and went up on the ice.......... i had to walk out and get it...........worst pain ever........... tried to run a novak ss motor and esc...........worked great until i realized i forgot to connect the cooling back up......boat filled with water first time out and killed it..............300 bucks down the drain......... tried to run a 10t motor in a 36" hull need i say more............sv fliped and started to sink to the bottom......... only the nose was sticking up....... decided to pull the throttle and it jumped on plane and came back....lol........ that was cool...............ran a speed 600 on 8 cells and blew it up......... ran my stadium truck on ice........cool yes....weak spots are not.....it sank........

[ReddyWatts]

Brain fart moment

I had a hardened drop of epoxy on the bottom of a finished ABS boat. I thought what do I have that would soften it up for removal? Hmmmmm.............. BRAKE FLUID SHOULD DO IT. (I knew drops of Brake Fluid would take the paint off a car from another dumb moment) So I placed a drop of it on the epoxy that I wanted to remove, then there was some kind of chemical reaction with the ABS hull and the entire bottom of the boat became brittle like an egg shell. It is still sitting on a top shelf and I am afraid to touch it.

[SJFE]

Let’s see. I paid to much attention to my hobby and was so totally inept to what was going on around me...I almost lost the most important person in my life. It don't get any dummber than that........

[Quicksilver]

After all these experiences I thinkwe all learned quite a bit, several of us, probably learned to do a pre-flight check list. Some of us also learned to judge the conditions and surrounding area better. my pre-run check list has gotten huge and no one but me knows I'm doing it. There are many many times I just say nope. Then again sometimes I'm just stupid.