So guys, see if you can picture this:

I just came back from professional rc flight school last night.

I have wanted to fly these planes ever since I flew model rockets when I was about seven years old and now about thirty years later I finally have the resources to get serious about this hobby. With much anticipation and having been an AMA member for almost a year, and getting almost no airtime, I left early Sunday morning and drove over 500 miles to be at this school bright and early Monday to start my training. From the beginning the school was everything I had hoped it would be and I got about two hours of flight time per day. Take offs and landings were the overwhelming focus of the school, which makes total sense to me. After all if you can take off and land you can fly right? Within the first 30 seconds of flight time at the school I had already done my first takeoff and my first landing, with the instuctors help of course. From Monday morning till Wednesday afternoon this is all that was done and I must have hundreds if not thousands of take offs and landings under my belt now. Thursday morning came and my instuctor and I feel that it's time for me to solo. We decided that I would use the instructors trainer instead of mine just because it was bigger and reacts quicker than mine. I was extremly nervous about soloing until I finally got the radio in my hand. All of a sudden all the practice I did turned into instinct. I went around twice and did two beautiful touch and goes and on the third one his requirement is that I land and I rollout. I did it unbelievabley well. Not only did I do it, but the instructor also capurted all of it on DVD video. Boy I sure was releaved and excited. Not only that, I've also got video documentation, a certificate and even a t-shirt in honor of my solo. I couldn't have been more thrilled. I have waited thirty plus years for this moment in time.

After talking about it for a little while and getting over the intial excitment of being able to say that I'm now a solo pilot. We decide it's time for me to take up my trainer and do some solo flights. My trainer starts right up I taxi it up and now it's time for lift off. I give full throttle but hit a couple bumps in the runway which sends my plane off to the right. I pull back on the elevator, the plane gets off the ground barely missing a bush and heading to the right I try to correct. Oh no, no......NO! I do a cartwheel right into the ground busting my plane right where the fuse meets the landing gear. So much for icing on the cake.

So I drive 500 plus miles home and have three days of vacation left in which I was going to spend practicing what I had learned out at the local field and now I have no trainer plane to practice with. Instead I'm telling you all this story.

What a donkey I am.