First, I'm 65, a little late getting started, but better late than never. I made my first flight around mid July. I crashed my trainer a number of times, not always on landing. The first damage was when I hit the runway hard and broke the main landing gear mount out. Not a big deal, a little balsa and some epoxy and it was stronger than new. The next crash was on take off, the plane was getting sideways and I though I had enough speed to pull it off. Wrong, it did a nose up, half cork screw and hit at full throttle nose first. It took out the fire wall and broke the carb mount. A couple days later, it was back in the air again. Then, I was getting disorentated on landing and decided to go around and as the plane was headed over the flight line I started a turn in the wrong direction. My instructor grabbed in and dove a bit because I was headed at the power lines. The trainer reall dove fast and it hit the top 2x6 rail on a fence. Scratch the fuselage this time. It just wasn't worth trying to rebuild. I did a home brew on a stick type fuselage, change to a tail dragger. The trainer wing was used on this new plane, only a minor patch job. This new one flew really nice. Things were looking up and I was making good progress. The one day, don't know what happened, but it went down like a lawn dart from about 750 ft. Neither me or my instructor could do anything. We never found the plane. There is a cree bed behind the field that is really rough and it has claimed a number of planes, mine being the last. I had aquired a second wing set for my trainer because I knew the wing would be the first thing to go. So, I built a clone of the lost plane and it flys better than the first. It got the wing lug broke last Friday though. I had made another great landing and taxied back to the flight line and ask the instructor to kill the engine. He still had full throttle on the transmitter when he let up on the trainer switch and the plane was off like a rocket straitht into the netting between the flight line and the pitts. It whacked the wing on post and folded over the front locating tab. I was out with it again today and it was a great day. Three takeoff and landings without a restart on the engine, and one more clean one for good measure. I'm about ready to cut the cord.

Oh yes, get your self a couple rolls of the colored plastic tape for patch work.

Don