I purchased the Flyzone Sky Pilot RTF package and an extra battery, on recommendation of the local hobby shop guy. I watched the dvd that came with it 4 times. I also had the dvd playing while I assembled it and checked it over.

I checked, rechecked, and checked again everything that the video said to be sure of. It belive it was in perfect balance, all of the screws were tight, I cycled the nimh flight batteries two times each.

On it's first flight, full throttle-I gently tossed into the wind, and it sunk like a rock straight down. Broke the front wheel right off. Tried it again, full throttle, into the wind (maybe 2 or 3mph breeze) and again, dropped right to the ground. Upset and disappointed, I checked it all over once again-everything seemed to be in order. Swapped the nimh battery with a freshly charged one. Throttle up, into the breeze-it started to fly (or at least didn't immediately drop to the ground) and then the left wing folded right up straight, and kaboom. It hit the ground-this time breaking the prop, crushing the cowel, bending the motor out of whack, and breaking the wheel shrouds-not to mention the broken wing. Put the wreckage back into my car, and went home with my head down.

It is quite disheartening to have this happen. The guy at the local hobby shop said it would be a piece of cake to learn to fly with this model. I told him I had ZERO experince with aircraft. He said it was one of his best-selling models and I would have absolutely no trouble. Well, here I am, a few days later, with a badly damaged plane.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why it would'nt fly? Does anything come to mind to for any of you pros out there that I might have done wrong? Is there a better plane to learn on than this? Was I duped by my lhs into buying this, just so they could make a sale? To have this happen right from the getgo is not the way to get into the field, as I am seriously considering never trying again.

Any help would be appreciated.

Sorry to hear your bad luck.

I'm new to this too. I bought a skyfly by hobbico / fly zone.
Very easy to fly. I bought it for 99 dollars. I would give one a try.

Sounds like you never had enough airspeed for stable flight, as evidenced by the tip stall on your third attempt.
2 to 3 mph wind is not much with a gentle hand launch. I would guess that airplane has a stall speed of near 10 mph.
I see landing gear and am wondering why they suggest a hand launch on a 3 channel model with gear. Seems you would get a much better take off from the ground?
Most people here (myself included) would recommend you contact a local club and learn to fly with them. That would eliminate alot of the heartache and be alot of fun.

Riggie,
Sorry for your loss, however welcome to RCU. I went through a similar experience several weeks ago. I bought an electric RTF on the recommendation of the "hobby store guy", before finding a club or this site. I had 5 unsuccessful "first flight" attempts before I broke a wing. I'm now waiting to coordinate schedules with a trainer from my (new) local AMA club.

I'll echo Missleman, in the suggesting that you find a local club. The first day at a local field I had no less than 3 guys offering to help me out and offering to help me maiden my bird. I've found that the guys in the hobby are very helpful to us "new-uns".

I go with Missleman on everything he suggested and add the following.

I'll apologize now as what I am about to say is going to sound rough and you are most likely pretty upset right now hence your statement "as I am seriously considering never trying again"

This is probably one of the most heard of thing we see here on RCU. Most local hobby shops are willing to do what is needed to get a sale but others still want to make a sale but not stear the person wrong. Learning to fly is not that easy. A good pilot makes it look easy but there are hours required to learn just to master the basics. I read the web site and the add that makes that plane and I can understand why someone would want it, it's a typical sales ploy.

All that being said, I would not worry about the Sky Pilot any longer until you get some good advice. Track down a club close by to you and go visit with them. A lot of clubs love having visitors and most members will bend over backwards to help and explain things. Some members, and I have been known to do this, will even break out the club trainer if the club has one, or in my case, if I have my Four Star with me, I'll hook up a buddy box ad give the person a shot in the air. They must show me some decent enthusiasm though.

You can go to the AMA's web site and use the club locator function or check out the local hobby shops since they are more likely to know exactly how to get in touch with club members

http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubsearch.aspx

Again, I know I sounded crass, I just hate in when someone new wants to learn and gets discouraged because someone wanted to make a buck.

Now to answer what I think happened is not enough initial flying speed with the hand toss either because you threw it up at an angle instead of level or not hard enough or both.

Hi, Riggie. Sorry to hear that, but it happened to me 2 months ago. Only difference was the airplane brand. I might be wrong but I believe you have 2 ways now: either you insist in flying your wrecked airplane by "repairing" it, or buying costly parts from the manufacturer to end in the same spot you are now, or you forget about this plane, try to salvage all the electronics and sell them on Ebay to get some money back and then you buy a real glow fuel airplane kit if you like building, arf if don't), get an engine for it and a radio and servos (don't go too sophisticated here: you are just starting) and then join a club and learn to fly. Be patient. You don't need to do as I did, but just for info: I bought from Tower Hobbies the Sig Kadet LT-40 kit and the engine they recommend for it for less than $150.00 both. Then I won an auction at Ebay for an older Airtronics 6 channel radio with 4 servos, receiver, batteries and charger for less than $50.00. The Sig Kadet comes with everything you'll need except the covering Iron on film. Sure you will need to invest in some extras as a covering Iron, CA glue, etc. If you don't like the idea of building it yourself then you can buy the same Kadet, almost ready to fly and covered for around $130 (engine apart). Well, than by all means join a club and find an instructor! Believe me, you will save $$$ at the end. (Of course, if you REALLY like this hobby or sport!)

If you start with electrics, you are missing a lot of fun. I believe you can switch later if you prefer electrics. I believed I did, and now I don't want anything but glow fuel r/c airplanes. Good luck! I'm also a beginner, but if I can be of any help please don't hesitate and let me kniow.
Good luck!

A few things....first...nothing wrong with trying electrics out as your first. One thing the hobby shop neglected to tell you is that new nimh battery packs need to be cycled at bare minimum a few times before the cells in the pack get their peak power and longetivity. Always fly these packs right off the charger. They should still be warm. And, if you hand launch, give it a straight sturdy toss into the wind. Some models require a strong throw, let the plane drop a bit and then feed up elevator but not violently pulling back on the stick. What you did was to stall the plane and thats why it nosed down.
My opinion, majority of these rtf's don't have enough power out of the box, are cheaply made and just don't fly worth a crap. If you want to learn to fly, I'd go with at least a 3 channel machine. Multiplex makes a model called an easy star which flies nicely. Since the motor is in the back of the cockpit/canopy/pod, no broken props if you land on the nose. There are quite a few others that would fit the bill pretty good.

Dave...