Only a few days away from finishing my LT-40 and maybe a week away from my first training flight... and disaster strikes this afternoon!
I am building a kit, and had my OS .46 AX attached to the finished fuselage. This is my first kit, and will be my first R/C plane. I've been building this thing in my spare time since early January, after receiving it as a Christmas gift from my wife. I've been looking at getting into R/C since last summer (seriously thinking, that is - I've wanted to since I was a kid). Well, today, while ironing the final trim pieces of monokote onto my elevator, my fuselage which was sitting next to me on the workshop table was hit by a gust of wind and fell 4 feet straight down onto the cement - crankshaft first...
Well, not straight down.. The tail hit the wall, the fuselage hit a chair and another small table, it scraped itself along the wall behind my building table and THEN fell off the desk, straight down onto the crank shaft.
My heart sunk as I watched and thought about all the rebuilding I might have to do all over again. it must have hit the fuse at an angle, because it seemed to seperate along the fuselage side and bottom. Hard to tell, since it's covered.. but it seems I can "look forward" to having to recover the fuselage again after regluing/repairing... Unfortunately the worst damage is to the engine. The crankshaft doesn't turn more than 1/8 rotation.. what little it does turn causes a horrible scratching metal sound on the inside.
This is a brand new engine... never broken in (although, now BROKEN). This won't be covered under warranty, but I have no idea what do do with it.. $114, brand new. Now, after spending so much money on an engine, TX and RX, kit, building supplies, several rolls of monokote, field equipment, AMA fees, and club fees.... What should I do?? Send the engine in for repair, or just buy a cheaper engine? How long would it take to send the engine in, have it repaired and shipped back? So much for flying any time soon... [

] I should probably take it back to the LHS where I bought it from and ask their advice, but I don't even feel like walking into a hobby shop at the moment..
Basically I'm looking for advice on how/where to repair or send it in for service, what the costs are, etc..
I should feel pi**ed off, but I just feel numb. I've had my first crash/repair job before I even touched a buddy box. In addition to the engine, I'm worried about any "hidden" damage or structural weakness that the fall might have caused that I can't see.
I almost feel like just selling off the rest of my equipment and calling it quits.. I don't know. I probably just need time to calm down.