Trees, Trees, Trees....I think they are model airplane magnets!

I was on my trainer learning to fly with my instructor and all that was left was to land the thing and he would allow me to go solo. However I had to wait for the following weekend to have a go at landing so instead on the following Thursday, I took the afternoon off work with the intention of heading to the airfield & trying a landing myself. My justification to my disbelieving wife was "see, if I try to land it with no-one around then no-one will laugh if I crash it". She finally gave in and went along to help me out (I reckon she just came to see the crash).

Anyway, we arrived at the field and no-one was around so my plan was working. Of course, cocky ol' me had done 4 or 5 take-offs so that part would be easy. I started her up and taxied her to the concrete runway. We have a woodland all around the pit area to the left of the runway and an open field to the right of the runway so my intention was to take off and bank to the right and over the open field. I went 3/4" throttle and she rolled down the runway without much effort then I PULLED back the stick and she went straight vertical for about 50ft and banked to the left - towards the trees! I foolishly thought I might clear the branches but being a .46 engine, I couldn't keep it going vertical like a F15 Eagle and she stalled about 1ft above the tree line and gently floated into a tree.

Wearing shorts and sandals there was nothing I could do but to climb the tree and retrieve the plane - although on two occasions I had thought aboout leaving her there until I could get help on the Saturday but the shame of it all, drove me through scratching twigs and snapping branches! The only damage was a tear in the monokote which we strapped up for the weekend without anyone noticing!

Don't tell Pascal or he will kill me!

Name ommitted.