Warning (beep beep beep) Warning (beep beep beep)...Pull up! (beep beep beep) PULL UP! (beep beep beep)

..."I don't have it, it's..."

CRACK!

The previous is what happened to me today.

Both me and my brother wreck our planes on our second flights. My father warned us that today may not be a good day to fly, not only because of wind..but because we are supposedly experiencing a major amount of solar flares that may cause cell phones, radios etc to malfunction.

-Today on takeoff my brother winged over, flew for awhile on a 90 degree knife edge toward the parking lot...and of course hit the hardest thing within miles...the parking lot. I watched it first hand about 20 feet away. Was actually afraid it was going to hit me. I even had a step forward to run to save it (not that I would at that speed...sigh) But it was heartbreaking to see. He rarely gets to fly and was excited to fly today, both of us were off from work. The wing hit the ground and ground up like it was on a giant belt sander. It was amazing to watch. The sound haunts me to this minute. He completely destroyed the right side of his wing and left a 30+ foot trail of balsa flakes imbedded into the concrete.

He said it was like he couldn't turn left, it just kept flying right. This happened on takeoff and didn't seem to vary from it's heading of destruction.

Then.....
I decide to get mine going and figured I would let him fly mine to 'get back in the saddle' so to speak. HARD to start today in the cold, my engine sucks, but we finally got her going. I handed the stick to him so he immediately starts doing high speed low passes and hammer heads etc etc. I grab it off of him, land and take off a few times. Nice day so far (except for his plane)
Second flight, I am flying along, complaining that my plane always feels SO squirly in the wind..even the slightest wind. Lalalal just flying along, I pull up and do a hammerhead, then turn it toward the trees on my downward leg...suddenly I notice that I am not getting the response I should from my radio > the plane. My bro says WHAT ARE YOU DOING, ...I was speechless at the time and was pulling back with all it could but it just keep heading straight for the tops of the trees and WHAM!!

It probably hit the top of the trees going 35+ mph? Full throttle full dive. I was only able to level it before it hit. I'm thinking downdraft but not ruling out radio interference.
The problem also is, if someone told me I was close to those trees I would have laughed at them. Seems I am more distance blind than I thought I was. Regardless I don't like seeing my plane below the tree lines anyway, just to be sure.

When it hit, I saw flakes of covering flying everywhere. I heard the engine continue on and then another THUD later. We assumed the fuse hit hard in the woods somewhere.

We started our journey to look for the plane. Walked into some dense woods with much covering from dense underbrush and vines. Deeper in still NO signs of my plane or the wreckage. I am starting to look up in the trees at this time. Then I look further off in the distance and notice a reflection, walk up and it is a 1" x 1" piece of my covering. I walk a bit further into a small clearing, notice more pieces about 2 feet apart. I start collecting the ones with small pieces of balsa attached to them. THen I see the pieces getting bigger and in smaller areas and spot the wing laying longways against a tree. I look at it sick to my stomache and didn't want to touch it. I just wanted to find my goods (engine, radio stuff)
We wonder into the woods further, nothing. Then finally I spot my fuse laying at a 45 degree angle in dense brush upside down...engine in mud. We fight our way over through the thickest junk in the woods and notice that possibly that stuff saved my fuse. Sure enough after about 10 minutes of ripping branches apart...IT DID.
I punched a 4 inch hole in the side of the fuse. Fin was pretty bad but the tail and major items were still all in place. The wheels were missing as were the gears. I think teh gears ripping off saved teh plane but also slowed it from lawn darting into the ground. AMAZING. The engine was covered in filth, but it was in plane, along with the radio equip..servos...and the fuse was still in one piece. Even the firewall and plastic clear canopy survived the 100 foot high speed plunge!

The wing when looking at it, was looking UGLY. It looked like a haunted wing, that pictures just can't depict. But, because I built it strong long ago using thick CA and epoxy, quality wood....where the branches hit the center spars..all they did was dent those areas.
I blew apart the thick wooden down that makes up the leading edge. And the center piece that took a big hit only needs some balsa filler to reshape. It was strengthened with fiberglass

I spent $20 bux for parts, of which I decided I don't even need the covering. So the total bill to fix everything is only going to cost around $5!

Check out the horrible pics from my horrible digital cam. Already working on fixing it..