What a great day last Saturday was.....I flew my NexStar a couple of times with my instructor. Took off about 5 or 6 times (ugly, but without incident). I was really cookin, and felt like I was coming along great.

I then took the wing off, and began cleaning the fuel off of the fuselage. I was using one of those "Box of Rags" from Home Depot, and I had it on the stand with the fuselage. The fuse bobbled on the stand and my elbow pushed the box of rags off of the stand. Wanna take a guess where is landed?

That's right folks....the corner of the box punched right through the Monokote on the wing laying on the ground next to me! I thought I was going to be sick. 6 flights without issue, and a stupid box of rags is my first aircraft damage! Everyone else at the club just looked at it as "it is one of those things that happens", but I felt like a new car owner who just got his first door ding.

My instructor told me to put a piece of clear packing tape over the tear for now, and we are going to patch it up later.

I think the lesson learned here is when you are done cleaning your wing...put it back in the car out of harms way. I always joked that one day I was going to step on it, but I never thought that some random item could fall off the stand and hit it. I am just glad it wasn't something really heavy (like the starter or the fuel jug).

Sux to have that happen. Never lay the wing on the ground under you. Too easy to drop suff or step on it. Seen it done many times. Also, if there is any wind, a little gust will do wonders. When your done, put it away.

You learned a good lesson. Glad it didn't do more harm.

That is the kind of Newbie advice that nobody (even the experienced guys at the field) shared with me. That tip might have saved a bit of pride

Some stuff along the same lines here. Most of these things actually happened - some I made up.

http://www.airfieldmodels.com/inform...cellaneous.htm

It's the old Murphy thing. Last summer I was taking pictures of a brand new plane. After taking a few shots, I set it under a shade tree and went into the house for a minute. When I came back out, a thin branch had fallen fron the tree and went straight through the stab covering (Top and bottom)!

AAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

But, life goes on.

This was a catastrophe. I had just finish sanded this wing and it was ready for the finish. I put a couple nails in a piece of masonite to hang the wing from the servo hatches. I leaned the masonite against my heavy engine test stand at the end of the driveway and went inside to get my cameras.

When I came out, the board had blown over on it. You can imagine how heavy this board must be - again, it's 1/4" masonite. The wing absorbed the full impact. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling well when I lifted the board to see the damage. The entire top sheeting had hundreds of pieces of driveway gravel embedded in it. Some of it punched all the way through the sheeting.

Making it worse, this plane is getting a natural finish, so I can't fill with putty like I would any other plane that is getting painted.

Anyway, some water and a hot iron took care of most of it, but it was still a sickening experience.

One day at the local field, I pt my Telemaster 70 (wing off) under the work bench (It would be safe there, right?). My son walked by and put his can of pop down on the bench and eventually knocked it over and it leaked between the boards on the bench right into my fuse[:@]. Needless to say, the electronics were covered in red stickey stuff by the time I noticed.

Dave

I'd say you got off easy!

I've seen some pretty nasty stuff happen at the field, and my worst personal experience was stepping on my stab. Had the engine running, took the plane off the restraint, and decided to run up the engine again before heading for the runway. Well I went to step over the tail of the plane, you know, to put one foot on each side of the stab, miss stepped and "crunch".

An easy fix, but more than a little annoying. [&o]
Dennis-

LOL I did what DB did...the part ... one foot on each side of the stab. I didnt step on the stab but when the plane was ready i took one foot off and acidently swung it across the rudder fin, when i felt it, it was like a kids tooth waiting to come out. So I packed up and went home, no flight that day. A lil bit of expoxy made it as good as new.