1st Crash
Still new to the hobby - at least the flying part of it. I was out at my club on Tuesday for my second round of flight training. My club is very serious and well organized about training. It seems that I have a knack for flying, because I am getting very close to a solo and very close to getting my wings. On Tuesday the head instructor wanted to see me fly just above stall speed, land, stop and take off. I wanted to show off that I could land the plane at the beginning of the runway and take off with out having to reposition. I wanted to show off my skills!
Everything is perfect, good speed, good control, I was turning on to the final approach, and the instructor said "you should ......." this is when the left wing hit the short little tree at the end of the runway. The instructor said, " I thought you were a bit low". I thought I was over the end of the field, not the trees! A slight error in judgement caused my little accident.
I got very lucky - I hit a small, soft pine tree when I was flying just above stall speed and I was low to the ground, the plane actually ended up on its wheels. The only dammage was a small dent in the wing - you could barely see it.
I gave the plane a quick inspection, took the wing off to make sure that all of the servos and rods were in place, refueled and took her up again. Flying slow again, I came in for a touch and go, I was a couple of feet off the ground, and too close to the end of the runway so I decided to go around, throttled up and the motor died. I was just off of the field over some small trees , I turned her down wind to get away from the bush, then cross wind to try to land, I had little speed, altitude or time. I was very calm and landed her about 6 feet from the bush. My instructed suggested I was a very lucky SOB, while the head instructor said, "i guess we don't have to test you on dead sticks".
I did three other deadsticks - all perfect - because my motor was having trouble, I have no fear of that happening any more!
Not sure what else I need to do to solo - I am ready now and want to get it over with!
manks