RE: Crashing - a part of the hobby?
Sadly yes..........a part of the hobby it is. I've lost 3 to equipment failure (bad radio) and one to "I'm an over confident idiot failure". The key to getting over my crashes is closure. If you never learn why you crashed, it's alot harder to go out with confidence the next time you fly. After I buried my top flite p51 .60 I almost lost it literally...............my wife was with me and couldn't understand why I had to find the remains in a field of grass 4ft tall and probably filled with rattle snakes. Now that I look back on it, it wasn't about retrieving the $600 of engine and electronics on it, it was finding out why it crashed. I forgot to hook a clevis up properly on the flaps...stupid, stupid, stupid mistake. But dont think I wasn't right back out their a few days later flying again with a smile on my face. I can say that it would have been a very long time before I tried again if I hadn't gotten the closure that I did. The key was getting the closure to learn from my mistake and move on.