Not so long ago I bought a Flitecraft Bonanza. My first scale and low winger. Apparantly they didn't make em anymore, and the company had shut down some time ago,so it seemed pretty good. I got it real cheap with servos and a receiever. I bought and engine and a battery pack and got flying. I had only passed my A test and had begun to get to grips with having no instructor around. I took off and another member with the club was with me as whe wanted to see how the plane flew. At the time I was flying there 5 other people in the air but I was at the back then suddenly and for no reason my aircraft went into a spin. I stood there like a muppet and didnt do the correct recovery procedure (opposite rudder and down elevator) but at the time I didn't know the recovery procedure. So it crashed, pretty gutted I walked over (a damn long way) picked up what was left (suprisingly damage wasnt as bad as I had thought it from 100 feet) and got back to do a post mortem. After discussing with the test pilot of the plane he concluded that it could not have stalled because he test stalled it and it did not enter a spin. Little did I know that the score was Receiver-1 Me-0.

Soon I obtained a plane for free (!) from a friend who handed it over becuase it was lying around his apartment and taking up space. I had no name except for some stickers saying Panther. It did not seem like an ARTF or anything. No one knew what it was.Some one mentioned that it could have been a homebuilt or heavily repaired and modifyed plane. A description would be a pattern model with the most amazing blue covering that I had never seen before. Ok so at the field and whoever built it, built it crap cause at full up elevator at full speed she wouldn't take off! Careful adjustment gave me enough up elevator to get off the ground,then BOOF I lost control and it went down. I laughed. Thinking of it now, it was me who crashed it but the reciever survived! So it is still Reciever-1 Me-0

Ok now to a crash which happened yesterday. I had got a Blackhorse Travel Air and was having it test flown and the second flight I took off and was flying happily aorund when suddenly the plane decided to have a mind of ts own and went haywire at full throttle! Quickly losing sight of it I forgot to cut the throttle. Squinting I saw it diving into some trees managing to fly half way through and then it hit a branch. Walking over I expected to see a wreck but no! Only the tailplane had been damaged! Smiling when I got home I cut out the old tailplane made a template and made a new one. So tailplane replaced, and back flying. On the 3 rd flight after the 1st crash I was flying down the back end of the patch when SPIN! This time I had no time to react (I knew the procedure by then) and she went down. I walked over. Looks like a bin job I said to myself. This crash happened yesterday so Receiver-2 Me-0

Back home and my suspicion about the small Hitec receiver which I obtained in the Bonanza was very high. It must be the receiver I thought....and got a hammer and smashed it. Now the reason why I was suspicous was because there had always been little problems with it but on the day checks were made and it was fine. Looking at the circuitboard nothing seemed wrong then flipping it over. Oh LOOK! What a nice piece of rust where receiver arial is soldered to the circuit! Therefore it WAS the receiver, and the solder joint must have been a dry joint. Vibrtaion probably shook that joint up or something. Jolly good fun....