Ah...I remember it well...'cuz it happened today.

I'm happy to say it wasn't on the maiden flight of my new Avistar. The maiden flight went well. My instructor took off, trimmed it out and flew a few laps. He then asked if I wanted to give it a go. I flew a few more laps and decided to bring it down for a low pass. The first landing attempt turned into a "bounce and go" and I circled around for another try. This one was good! My first plane had survived its maiden flight!

We re-fueled and tuned the engine a little. I took off and noticed the engine didn't pull quite as well as the first flight. (Rookie mistakes begin here...) I decided that I could turn left, just inside of the tree line and have the entire length of the field to determine if a landing was necessary. (Insert major depth perception error here...) Well, "inside the tree line" quickly became "inside a tree"! [sm=disappointed.gif]

My instructor got a towing strap out of his truck and with the skill that only comes from experience, looped it around the branch about 25 feet up and with a few shakes was able to free the plane from its "perch". My eyesight did not fail me this time as I caught the plane by the LE of the wing right at the fuse. The only damage was a three covering punctures on the bottom of the wing and some light scratching. Nothing an hour with a roll of Monokote and the sealing iron won't cure. I also think one rubber band is MIA.

I'm eagerly looking forward to the next flight!