Never stop flying your airplane!
Recently I had an experience that could have gone very very badly. I also had a lesson I learned many years ago be further reinforced.
While enjoying a day of flying, my 3rd flight of the day went horribly wrong. On takeoff, while climbing out, I lost my elevator control. The servo had shorted out and seized during the climb out. At first I feared a lockout, but I realized I still had aileron, rudder, and throttle control. Since I still had those controls, my first thought was that I would have some ability to direct the crash to the best possible location. I could still control altitude with throttle (remember, throttle controls altitude, elevator controls attitude). After pointing the model away from the flight line I was still in control of the circuit. Being that it was only myself, a spotter, and the landowner there, I opted to fly a circuit to assess what could possibly be wrong. At this point I at least felt confident that I could set the aircraft down with some control in order to at least minimize any property damage. (Note, had this been at a busy event with spectators, or even a significant number of other modelers, my decision likely would have been to roll the model away from the flightline as soon as I noticed a failed surface and put the model in so as not to risk anybody else).
After flying circuits for approximately 5 minutes I had a good idea of the way the airplane was reacting with no elevator control. In the end, I was able to get lined up to land, and while I bounced the hell out of the airplane, bent a couple gear parts, and ended up with some cracks in gear mounts etc, I was able to save the model with minimal damage.
This was an airplane that had somebody ever asked me if it was possible I'd have said not a chance.
When I was learning to fly, my father (who taught me) always said, "Never stop flying your airplane". You need to either be able to fly it safely, or at least be able to fly it away from the crowd in a crash situation. I have been in a couple of situations where it was tempting to shut off the transmitter and just start walking to where we thought the airplane would end up, but was able to at the very least control the crash by listening to those words.
Those words echoed in my head again during this most recent experience and I'm happy to say that my airplane will fly again.
What was the cause of the problem? I really have no idea except that the servo on the elevator shorted out and the motor in it seized completely. When we looked inside, the wires were melted leading into the servo case and the plastic of the servo case was melted. When I unhooked the pushrod there was no binding, nothing that could have stalled the servo. It wasn't a power issue (example, failed regulator) as the airplane has 6V nimh packs and it is a 6V servo.
I have left the brand of servo out of this post as I do not want to start any of the typical brand X vs Y vs Z wars here, it could potentially happen to any servo I suppose.
Needless to say, I'm glad I didn't go with the initial knee jerk reaction of "I'm totally screwed" and give up. I absolutely had luck on my side, had my elevator been neutral, any more up, any down, basically probably anything outside of where it was, the situation would likely have been very different. It's not something I ever want to deal with again, that's all I know for absolute sure!
As I say, my reactions (I would hope) would have been much different if the situation was that of a busy event or one where there were more people at risk. I believe that I would have done nothing further than point the airplane away from the flight line and ditch it, however, every situation has it's outcome, and sometimes what you think you will do when you are simply thinking of a potential situation is different than what happens in the moment.
Anyway, my point is, even when things go wrong, if you have the chance, assess the situation and don't give up, you might be able to save the situation.