ORIGINAL: DBCherry
...I will say however, that I've heard of people losing their planes becasue they took off with the Tx antenna collapsed. I have flown twice now with a collapsed antenna with my Futaba equipment...
Haha... I have a couple of hand launched SPADs, and I can't you how many times I've walked out onto the field with my TX in one hand, and my plane in the other hand with the engine running, only to realize my TX antenna was down.... DOH! Have to go back to the starting bench, set the plane down on it's stand, extend the antenna, and try again. Luckily the only times I've actually flown with a collapsed antenna, it was at least out about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way!