Carl, there are those that have crashed, those that will crash, and those that will crash again. Don't sweat it, it is part of the hobby. I did the same thing about a month ago, started a roll too low, didn't put in the right elevator to keep it level, and ran out of altitude before it got it wings level.

DO NOT USE THAT RECEIVER AGAIN!!!!! OK, I'll say that again. Do not use that receiver again! You could send it off to the manufacturer and have them test it, but it is probably easier and better to get a new one. At my old club we were standing around when all of a sudden a guy yells, "Look Out!!!" I turned and watched his Bipe crash right into the pits. He told us later that the receiver in the plane had been in another plane that had crashed. He lost all control of the bipe, it would not respond at all to his transmitter. Better safe than sorry.

OK, for the fuel questions. I always refuel before I take off. The fuel does you no good in the can. Better it is on the airplane.

Don't sweat the deadsticks. It will get annoying if you have to deadstick every time, but hey, its part of flying. I also once had to fly a plane until it ran out of fuel. The linkage came loose on the carb and it stuck at full throttle. Flew for about 15 min before the engine died. Just remember, just because the engine quit don't mean the plane will stop flying. The first reaction is to get the plane back to the field as soon as possible. What I've seen a lot of people do is get the plane back, and not realize they have too much speed and overshoot the runway. I've done that myself. Take your time and judge how high you are and how fast you are flying. Many times you can just use a slightly shorter pattern and grease it in like normal.

Finally I wanted to talk about your guy in the parachute. Remember, he will follow the wind. We had a guy at my old club that would drop a GI Joe (the old ones, bigger than barbiis) from his plane. Once he dropped it and the wind was up a bit. He was too high and we watched it sail over our heads and off into the woods. We looked for over an hour and couldn't find it. Just before all of us left for the day we took another shot at finding it. After about 45 min I caught a patch of blue out of the corner of my eye. There he was, hung up in a tree.