I flew good today; until the 'last flight.' First flight was good. Had a crosswind and ran off the runway when I landed but other than that it was a very smooth landing. On the second flight, I wanted to practice landings, so I took off and flew a couple of laps. I was going to do a loop, then come around and land. The engine died in the loop but I had plenty of altitude to bring it around for a deadstick landing. I still cannot figure out exactly what I did wrong, but I must have given right aileron when it needed left; and I smacked the runway pretty hard. The fuselage looks OK but the wing appears to be hurt pretty bad. I'll strip off some covering in the next few days to see how big the repair job will be.

I share your loss.

Sorry to hear about your crash. Hopefully the plane is not too bad.

Have you and your instructor practiced any "dead stick" landings ? A lot of people (even experienced people ) "choke up" or they don't think clearly when a dead stick occurs. By doing some practice runs (with the engine at idle ) you can often overcome the "choking up" that occurs.

I have 2 Alpha trainers, one was converted to a real fun taildragger. I was letting my son in law have a go at it and it ended up getting planted. Hard. The fuse was broken into 3 main pieces, the wing was only cracked. It took about 2 weeks of part time work on it to repair. It has taken longer to re-cover it with ultracote. Looks as good as new now. This didn't look like it would go back together, but once I started on it, it took a lot less than I figured. Try to repair it. Once you begin, you will probably find that it is quite repairable. Don't be afraid of removing the covering to check it.

Isn't it strange how we always crash on the "last flight"?

Sorry, couldn't resist. I am sorry that you experienced damage. It happens to everyone sonner or later, and WILL happen again. Take your time and you should be able to fix the damage.

Good luck, and get back in the air as soon as possible.
Dennis-

I realized the silliness of the ‘last flight’ comment after I posted.

I have landed deadstick a few times but they were all planned in advance, or were a result of my idle trim being a little low. Either way, I was on approach and it was just a matter of continuing as planned. This time I was upwind, had a lot of altitude, and was doing a loop. I got it headed downwind and then turned for approach. I was coming down pretty fast and trying to get headed up the runway. I needed to turn left and pull up. I ‘think’ I turned right and didn’t pull up but I’m not absolutely sure.

My instructor and I agreed before flying that he would not release the trainer switch unless I asked for help. By the time I realized I was crashing it was too late to ask for help.

I’ve inspected the fuselage twice and do not see any damage. I stripped some wing covering today. I can repair it. The left wing is missing the LE and sheeting for the last 6 inches or so. That should be fairly easy to replace. The right LE, LE Sheeting, & TE are broken just outside the center sheeting. I should be able to clamp them straight and glue a doubler inside. The main spar is fine.

SOunds like you have the repair well thought out. Good luck.
Dennis-

I just finished training a friend of mine for about 6 months and I would rather have him mad at me for taking control if I thought he was getting into trouble than have him get really mad at crashing his plane. He could always come around again. If you died in a climb(loop) your to lean. Run in it at full throttle, nose up for about 10 seconds in your ground check and carefully adjust your high speed needle until your 2 clicks rich past peak RPM. Check your low speed too to make sure your transition is smooth. That could also kill your motor when you goose it to climb.

Just to say you do not always crash on your last flight. sometimes the plane can be patched within an hour to keep you flying. Just because you crashed doesn't mean you are done.

Fix it up Carrell. It's all part of modeling. I have a 9 year old GP Easy Sport with over 2000 flights on it. I have rebuilt each wing and one 3 times and I mean I really crushed 'em. Last time(two years ago) I pieced together a rib to use as a pattern and made a bunch of new ones. I made a couple 3 1/2 inch staples to bond the main spare back together, and recovered the whole plane. Flew it three times yesterday. I have 14 planes in flying condition and all but two have been bashed at one time or another. Fixing 'em up good as new is part of the hobby. Not as hard as it looks nor does it take the time you might imagine at first. Almost any crash can be repaired. After all, you started the kit with a bunch of sticks in a box. Even with a crash you have more than that to start a repair. Get it back together. The whole sky is waiting.

Fix it up. Take it easy and split it into sections. right now, I have been doing crappy repair jobs on my trainer because i am trying to hurry it up. But i plane to go back totally re do it. When i get money that is. lol. Have a good one. At least you havent done ths 2 times in a row

carrellh - you most likely stalled... it's really hard to judge what kind of speed you need to be going to maintain lift and flight control when you're going downwind. it may look like it's going fast enough but relative airspeed my be far below the stall speed. when i'm dead sticking from a high altitude down wind situation, i always make sure the down wind leg and turn are down with a slightly nose down attitude. this ensures that i am not going to stall. then only when i line up for approach against the wind and you feel that i have enough speed, then i ease the nose up.

i saw two plane literally fall out of the sky last weekend due to the winds. they all tried to turn in the wind with too little speed and ended up losing flight control. luckily both are easily repairable.

Just hang in there. I've crashed every plane I've had but my Twist. And the list is long and costly. Even considered giving up the hobby two times but my wife talked me out of it. How's that for love??