Yup, replace the plane...

I had one guy hand me his TX after he had fired up his new plane.

He wanted me to maiden it for him.

I ASKED him if he had set everything as per the directions, and I looked it over quickly before taking off. I checked the surfaces and everything looked ok, and the engine fired up and ran correctly.

Needless to say the plane went in crushing the airframe.

On the spot (and after I insisted repeatedly over and over) I gave him a brand new plane that I had flown TWICE, of a similiar size. It was fully decked out, anti-vibration mounts, etc. I even dumped my configuration to his TX so it was in trim, etc.

I told him to keep his smashed up plane and use it's components to put together a new one too.


Why?

Because I was dumb enough to take his word and assume that he had done everything correctly.
Had I been more cautious I would have caught his mistakes. I felt bad for him.

Needless to say he was touched by how I handled this and remains a good friend.

I ended up one plane poorer, but with no regrets about how I dealt with someone else.