I second your thoughts, Crashem. A lot of people still haven't figured out that lighter construction = less mass = less destruction. Even though I know it to be true and have proven it with a few of my models, I still sometimes build "durable" airplanes and I'm sorry every time. They are more likely to explode on impact and don't fly as well as they could.

On Saturday I was flying Great Gonzo at our field. It was a bad day to fly because the wind was blowing straight from the pits which meant take-off and landing were 90 degrees crosswind. That's not a big deal in itself, but directly behing the pits is a large stand of trees.

These trees create all kinds of vortexes that make planes flip over or fall out of the sky on landing. That's exactly what happened to Great Gonzo. She fell directly on a wingtip from about 15 feet or so straight down. Then she slammed down on the tail and flipped over on her back.

Damage? The tail mount has a slight crack in it (3/32" balsa sanded pretty thin). On slight crack in the leading edge where it impacted the ground. Had it been a standard sport model, there's a good possibility the wing would have been broken off and possibly taking some of the fuselage with it if the bolts failed to shear. The tail would definitely have been ripped off.

As it stands, I have a repair job that will take 30 minutes or less and most of that time will be cutting the patch of covering and ironing it on.