Well I did it. I destroyed my new 2 day old Nexstar today.

I was a "ok" flyer about 8 years ago (trainer 40 by great planes). I wanted to get back into the hobby. I knew I needed to re-start with a trainer so I bought the NexStar.

On my first flight it was a bit windy. I took her up and flew it for 5 minutes or so. Not sure how long she could fly for on a tank and considering the amount of taxing around I did I felt it was time to land her. The landing was pretty good. One bounce but she came back to the ground intact. What a rush it was.

On the next day, Christmas day, I was less nervous since I felt good that i flew her and landed it sucessfully. I was in the air about 2 minutes practicing my landing aproaches. I misjugded the distance the plane was from me as I brought it over the tree tops. I thought the plane was between me and the trees....my mistake. It was still above the trees. I hit a small pine as she descended for landing about 30 feet up. It hit hard on the wing and them smashed into the ground. It broke the fuselage in half near the servo tray and broke 1/3 of the wind in half. 2/3's of the wing made it to the ground the other 1/3 was in the top of a pine tree. Needless to say I was heart broken. My wife bought it for me for christmas.

The engine and radio seems ok. The tail section is ok. I had to use my shot gun to retreive a part of the wing left in the tree. I limped back home not looking forward to telling her about the crash.

Now what? The fuse kit is $62 and the wing is $69. Both are on back order at Tower hobbies. Part of me thinks I should just buy another type of trainer ARF. Not because the Nexstar is a bad plane but because I can buy another plane for the cost of a wing and fuse for the Nexstar. I do agree with others the AFS system is of no use. I disabled it. So without that it is more like any other trainer. Any sugestion?? ...besides getting my prescription glasses checked. How about the Hobbico MKIII.

Man....depth percepiton is a bear. I never thought the plane was any where near that tree. Boy was I wrong when I heard the loud crack.