Crashed my 8th T...T yesterday. I have been good. No crashes for about a year now. But yesterday was another one. I have gradually been increasing my throws over the past several months, as I gain experience, so that now I am at full 3D rates as set out in the manual. (I keep my lows at low, and now high rate is the 3D rate.) Plane is balanced at about 4 5/8 " OS 46 with the 12.25 x 3.75 prop. As I was completing some manouvers high in the air with switch set to high, after having been practicing houvers and harriers, a fellow flyer yelled to me that he heard a noise. He screamed "you lost your prop"....."you lost your prop." So I tried to set the plane down as fast as I could. No time to switch back to low rates. The plane got out of control on short final, and I had a rough landing 100' short of the runway on grass. Broke the plane just behind the canopy as I have experienced many times before. Although this one is cleaner. Will be easier to fix.

We examined the wreakage and found one blade of prop missing, but later found the other blade within 5' of impact site. So I beleive the prop was not the problem. But we did find that the elevator was broken clean off at the hinges. So it was only attached by the linkage to the servo. No damage to the rudder .. not a scratch other than the 3 broken hinges. Now I am wondering. Did the rudder snap off during impact, or did it break due to flutter??? I must admit that I think that I may have overcontrolled the plane in it's last 5 seconds of flight trying to get it down, or could it be that the rudder not working caused me to not be able to control it?????????????????? Perhaps my friend over-reacted when he yelled that he heard a strange noise...perhaps I over-reacted in not being able to control the last 5 seconds of flight????

Any thoughts out there from any of you who may have experienced flutter or broken hinges. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to determine if this was pilot induced or mechancial failure. But I guess ...even if it is flutter,..... that is pilot error anyways!

Jim Tucke in Clearwater Florida