Flight #4 of the Skyshark Fantasay...I'm about 100 feet or so off the deck and moving from left to right just over the runway. She's movin at a very nice slow steady pace... I prepare for a bank to the left... and... stall. Time stops. The nose seems to drop in slow motion just as the turn starts and she just seems to hang there; nose pointed straight down. Down she goes in a blaze of prop parts, balsa, Ultracote and mudd. The front was stuck six inches in, the whole back half of the fuse broke off at the back of the canopy. The nose broke off in the ground at the firewall... the only thing holding the three parts together was the control rods. I wanted to cry.

So, here is the lesson: I am simply not ready to move beyond the trainer. I need to know how to handle those types of situations. I need to understand the warning signs, to know the triggers, to how not to have brain freeze.

Here is the question: what can I do to my Great Planes PT40 to take it up one level in terms of performance and learning potential. I've got it set to the more dihedral setting, its got a OS .40LA and standard Futaba analog servos. It really can't do many things in terms of inverted flight (the dihedral really prevents it), loops, flat spins... ect. What must I do to take this bird up one level, but not too far that I'm unable to handle it.

Maybe I am just bummed. But even before the crash I had the nagging feeling the plane was just too much for me. I'm not suffering from a lack of confidence at all... I'm just paying attention to the obvious lack of experience and skill, and am trying to understand my current limits and figure out the best way to slowly push them.

Your thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated.