well......tonight was going great at the field....i solo'ed for the first time, and was doinbg some sweet landings, take off's, and aerobatics with my semi-new trainer. i was going up on my third solo flight, and right before i was going to land, the wind really picked up. i(i hat to admit....but it WAS a pilot error)cut the throttle a little too early, and was gliding in OK with the wind, when a huge gust blew the plane straight down. i had full up elevator, and it was too late. i stalled it straight into the ground. will try to post pics soon, but the damage was minimal. i chipped a little piece of the fuelsalage off, and busted a few supports, but luckaly for me the only thing that broke on the wind was a busted aleiron. i am like already 2/3 done with the woodwork, just need to touch up a few things, get new aleiron, and cover the bad spots with monokote and i'll be flying again.....luckaly for me, the plane was a kit in the first place, so i know how to fix it.



p.s.....Minn. can i have an attaboy to Phil please...even though i dont deserve one!!!!AAAHHH[>:][>:]

When you fall....you get up and try again. The only time you trully fail is when you give up and stop trying. Rebuild it and fly again!

Good luck!

There is a say'n at our field,,,if the plane is new to you and you crash it...its not a crash..period,,,,,its the glues fault or something like that....hehehehehehe,,,,wellllllll,,,i dont think you crashed,,,,uht- uhh,,,nope....you just landed really hard..hehehehehe....isnt this hobby the greatest...man this is fun....congrads on the solo...and welcome to rc...just think,,now you know what it feels like,,,,and now you can really have fun with that plane...but guess what...all the feeling of oh my god....another new one...will get to you again...as soon as the new kit arrives...LOL...just tell the wife,,,that it didnt fit well ,,in the car..so you made it smaller and now it fits in a bag....LOL....pat on the back to ya....Rod

the real pisser was that my instructer was JUST getting ready to tell me to throttle up, but he was like .5 seconds late! darn....i look at the bright side....i get to keep building, without buying a new kit...(if you dont know...i like to build just as much, if not more than i like to fly)

A good thing to do is not to try to land in the shortest distance possible. I have that problem as well... I try to lower the speed so much that often it only takes me a 1/3 of the runway to land. Stalling at that altitude will surely lead to some needed repairs. Learn to use more but still a safe length of the runway so that you can eliminate a chance of stalling. This becomes even more important with other planes that have terrible stall characteristics.

By the way, what is likely is that the wind was gusting and instead of being stronger, it died for a second around your plane. (I assume you are landing into the wind) What this does is dramatically lower the airspeed of your plane, wings lose lift and plane plummets to the ground. If really there was a downburst right as you were landing, I doubt a little throttling up would really help. Those microbursts bring down airliners.

Direct,
First, congrats on the solo! Feels great doesn't it?

Second, I agree with fourstroke. It was likely that the wind dropped suddenly letting the plane fall out of the air.

Whatever the case, it taught you a valuable lesson, at a fairly reasonable price. Keep the airspeed up a little when landing in the wind.
Dennis-

You soloed... You desreve it!

Always remember that the throttle is as important as the elevator when landing!

Congrats, and condolences LOL

it sucks that you wrecked your plane but luckily not that much damage was done. and since it was a kit you already know how to put it back together now b/c you built it one other time before. anyways everyone crashes sometime in this hobby it just happens. but stick w/ it and you'll have fun. just don't ever quit.