I soloed on my Alpha 40 trainer just about a week ago. Yesterday I crashed. The plane was about 1200 feet from me in level flight at about 200 feet high, when it just nosed over and went in. The charger plug stripped off leaving the 2 leads touching, so the battery was toast when I got to the plane, no way to confirm if it was a battery failure. Someone at the field said that you have to be careful not to point the antenna on the transmitter directly at the plane which is kinda natural to do. They went on to say there is a signal weakness directly in front of the antenna. Anyother advice would be welcome. I'm here putting her back together.

There IS a loss directly off the end of a whip type of TX antenna and it would be better not to point directly at the plane. That being said I must also say I have never had a problem doing so as the loss is relatively small.
My biggest concern is "What the heck were you flying so far away for???????" As a relatively new pilot this is a very poor idea and it is easy to become disoriented at distances and this may be what actually happened. It may also have been the RX battery or another problem of course.
1200 feet?, that's 4 football fields away. Much too far for a novice IMO.

Sorry about your loss.
I have a number of times got my heart racing when I got a bit far away and temporarily lost orientation. It can happen so fast.
Sadly after a bad crash the real reason may never be known.

its called "the cone of silence" I am not sure if it pretains much to our stuff but when I was going thru some training in the military, they taught us that. But out of habit, I try not to point directly at it. I always stand a few degrees off.

That sounds very much like what happened to me when someone turned on another transmitter on our channel. Down elevator and BLAM! The offender owned up and bought a whole new Superstar Select.

Ken Erickson
Not as old as "Old Guy" but hoping to get there.

There is a dead spot on the tip of our antennas but it really does not matter all that much. At the distance you were out you could have simply had a low battery in either the plane or transmitter which somewhat decreases range, again not all the much, something on the plane that was vibrating that would easily decrease range and is more likely (called RF or interference so the obvious question is when did you last perform a range test with the engine running and what were the results)

But at 1200 feet out, I am surprised you had a decent amount of orientation. Even my big planes (80 inch or more wing spans) at 1200 feet straight out get kind hard to see and if the clouds are low or just late in the evening then it is even worse.

I am sorry about what happened but you may never know what the real cause was

One of the most common beginner's mistakes is allowing the airplane to get too far away. Either by simply flying it out too far or not noticing the distance due to concentration on keeping the aircraft under control. I know, because I lost my H9 Alpha the same way. I was practicing some very basic aerobatic maneuvers and the plane had crept far enough out that I couldn't tell the orientation of the aircraft and when I attempted to pull the nose up it crashed because the plane was inverted. Keep the plane in close to you and at least 2 mistakes high and you will generally stay out of trouble.

Regards,
doubledee

Thanks guys!! This site is great; always a grand number of big "shoulders" to cy on. I'm gonna get back out there this weekend and keep her in closer.

That will be great. Keep up the enthusiasm. Stuff like this happens.

I got waaay out one time...and learned my lesson, though it didnt cost me a plane, just a 10 minute walk...

I was probably 800-1000 feet away when what little sound i could hear of the engine stopped. I was upwind too...i had some altitude...but not enough to glide back, i just kept it pointed into the wind, got into a glide slope that looked about right...and just held the sticks there...after a 10 minute walk, the only damage was my nosewheel.

Never again will i do that...i really dont know why I did it in the first place...just wasnt really thinking about it. Luckily, we fly at an airfield, so we have a LONG LONG LONG runway (~2500 feet ive heard...but i dont knwo the real number) It felt like a mile to the plane...and back was worse...