Been flying since June 09 and have completely demolished 4 balsa planes. 1st was part of the learning process, can't remember exactly what I did wrong, finally got my wings after about 12 months. 2 days later demolished my second plane, I was flying two mistakes high and made about four. Main problem was I couldn't find the trim lever and instead of going higher and looking again, I took my eyes off the plane to look at the receiver and wasn't high enough to stay flying. 3rd crash I have no idea why / what / etc. 4th crash was because I didn't accelerate strongly after aborting a landing and tail wind pushed my plane into the ground.

I've had a number of smaller crashes that have done minimal or no damage, for example I landed a low wing sport plane and cartwheeled it at the very end of the landing thus bending the tail plane over (fixed in 10 minutes).

I've since bought an EPP foam wing (S & B Models Komet). I've crashed it many times and broken it in half a number of times. This is because the plane is so indestructible (and easy to fix when it finally breaks) that I try all sorts of things I wouldn't dare try with a balsa. I'm learning heaps from the process and having fun.

Except for the 3rd crash, I'm getting at least 50 and usually more like 100 flights before a plane is demolished.