I'm starting to think it was a stall, too. I had low power and was using a decent amount of elevator into base. I can't remember all that clearly, but I think I might have been turning too hard with the ailerons, and using more and more elevator to complete the turn. The bit above about the control surfaces actually worsening the stall makes a lot of sense, and this could have been exactly what happened. It seemed like what I would expect a hit to feel like; I lost total control of the plane, and it seemed to be flying on its own. What I am guessing happened is that it was in a bad stall, but the forgiving nature of the plane allowed it to mush into a position to gain some airspeed, which made it seem like it was still flying. Since the plane was getting far away, and flying away from me, there was a bit of a lag before the throttle input was received, the engine sped up, and the prop got enough RPM's to actually start flying.

I'm actually hoping it was a stall (both times!) so that I can feel safe flying over that spot again. The president, treasurer, and safety officer of my club all checked out my plane and receiver, and all gave me the go ahead to fly it after my crashes. We have A LOT of unoccupied real estate (big farm) and I was flying it up to great distances with no problems. The only times I had a problem were turning in to final at low power.

I thought I knew what a stall was; didn't realize they could get so drastic!