ORIGINAL: show871
yea, I was flying at our local airport with a dx7, and my plane was working great for my first three flights.
my next flight, I took off, dove down to do a high speed pass and when I needed to pull up, my plane did nothing, and I crashed.
Now I am scared to fly my other plane, cause this was not Pilot error (I wish it was).
Eh this may indeed be pilot error.
When this happens newbies tend to blame the electronics or the plane.
They've forgotten or don't realize that when the plane approaches a high speed, there can be so much pressure on the elevator surfaces that the servos cannot keep the surfaces in the desired position. Particularly if they haven't set up the linkages for maximum mechanical advantage.
This causes the plane to appear to fail to respond.
Typically it happens in exactly the scenario you stated... a dive attempting a high speed pass over the field.
Since you are low to the ground already, and the tail surfaces have minimal effectiveness, the result is that the plane does not have the room to react ( albeit slowly ), and you "lawn dart" in.
I'll bet your plane had big tail planes too.