Originally posted by AndyF
I'm sad to report that my Patty suffered a major crash this afternoon. I was flying, (my actual first flight, take off to landing) an on landing approach I clipped one of the light poles in the parking lot, but the plane didn't go down then. We all heard the noise but the plane never acted like it hit anything.
I was too high to attempt a landing so I went around, slowing and low. I lined up for a normal landing approach but it appeared to be coming in too fast and I was afraid that I would over shoot the runway. I killed the motor about 8' above the ground and the moment I did that Patty stopped flying and dropped straight down.
The right gear touch down and stuck in the soft ground tearing it loose from the fuse, this caused the nose to pitch forward which caused the exhaust pipe to dig in tearing out the firewall and destroying the header pipes that held the muffler to the cylinders.
Fortunately the engine is fine and will live to fly again. Both wings have holes where the wheel pants were driven up through them and two servos were stripped, one in the right wing and the throttle servos.
I am not sure if I am going to rebuild it or trash it at this point. I am so disgusted with myself. I never expected it to drop like it did, If I had been 10 feet further south I would have hit the runway and it would have been a rough landing but not a crash.
I had finally got the damned wing tubes sanded and everything fit nice.
Oh well...
Andy
Andy,
Sorry to hear what happened. I can't believe that she dropped like a rock. I seem to land better deadstick than with power. I sure hope you can salvage her. Don't give up! We're all behind you.