ORIGINAL: FentressJets
Falcon
Unfortantly "that day" comes for all of us-just a matter of time.This hobby can be truly brutal sometimes.We spend months & months building then head out for that madien not knowing what's in store.I spent approx. 5 months off & on finishing my YA F4 then she went in on the maiden-to this day I dont know what caused it.This was my first jet crash(knock on wood) We do our best to check & double check but sometimes there is something we miss that sends our babies to a early grave
F16's are great fliers -a very forgiving airframe but not as much so as a F15 or F18.The only thing I didnt like about my YA F16 was the "silouette" from straight on-you can lose orientation of them very easy straight on due to the thin stubby wings
Steve
The most time I ever spent building and painting a jet was a Y/A F-4 back in 1995.
I wanted everything perfect. The final result was a mirror finish, absolutly the best jet I ever had. I spent so much time setting it up and breaking in the engine. Everything was perfect.
On the maiden flight it rotated perfectly.
At the field I was at, when taking off to the south you have a highway, powerlines and tress about 1,000ft off the departure end.
As I made the initial turn out to the left, I thought all was good, but amazingly I misjudged how far from the trees I was and a tree branch reached out and hit the wing tip and elevator.
The F-4 must have hit every single branch on the way to the ground.
Result was about 1200 mirror finished confetti pieces scattering with the wind.