I had a good one last weekend.

My Aerobird took a minor crash a few weeks ago, on a Saturday. Nothing serious. This plane can
really take punishment. However the wing, which is just a foam wing that
rubber bands onto the plane, had a minor crease right in the center, between
the rubber bands. Looked OK, just superficial.

Sunday comes and the wind is hitting 12-15 MPH. Now I know that this is tough
flying weather, but what the heck, I came to fly, let's fly.

So, I put on the creased wing, with a little reinforcing tape, and send the
bird up. She is doing great. I am up about 150 feet. I have drifted out
over the woods that surround the field, so I decide I want to get back over
open land. I hit the throttle to fight the wind and bring it back to the
clearing. Bad move!

Between the wind and the full throttle, the wing couldn't take it and folded
right in the middle. Down she comes like a duck that has been shot, right
into the woods, maybe 150 yards in.

My buddy and I go charging into the woods.

Now, normally I keep a locator on my plane when it is windy, but on this
particular day, I had put it on my friend's plane because he was new to the
plane and I feared he might get blown into the woods. Ha Ha Ha.

So, we are traipsing through the stickers and weeds and trees looking for the
plane when a hiker comes buy. I ask if he saw the plane. "Oh yes", he says.
" I took it up that trail and put it in the open field because I didn't see
anyone."

So this nice guy has taken my plane 1/4 mile from where it crashes about 90
degrees from where we saw it go down. So I run up the trail..... of course it
splits and I don't know which one he took. I go left and go on for 300 yards
till I come out - no plane.

I go back down the trail and pass they guy again. He had taken the other
trial. So we go up the other tail about 500 yards and come out..... no plane.
But there are a bunch of teens having a picnic. They have my plane.

So I go over to see them. Turns out these are two guys I had spoken to the
previous week about joining the club and they recognized my name on the plane.

So - the moral is:

1) My plane locator goes on my plane

2) only perfect wings in the wind

3) even when you know where it crashed. you don't know where it is.

From crash to recover was about an hour. I have since fixed it. The
Aerobird will fly again. I now call it the Phoenix because it keeps rising
from the Crashes.