Im wondering if anyone has even done significant damage to their planes the first time they ever tried to land (With Instructor too). Im going to start flying right before summer, and I know im going to be nervous the first time I touch down, even with the instructor there. So has anyone crash doing this for the first time? I mean more than like a broken prop. Like you tilt the wrong way and snap a wing or something like that.

I'm sure it's been done. However, that's what your instructor and buddy cord is there for.

Dr.1

Not if you have an instructor and you're using a buddy box.

Ken

I stuffed my LT40 into the high grass on a landing attempt in a high cross wind. I broke the wing hold down with a thread insert. I also broke the tip of the wing. A little CA and some new Mono kote and it was ready to go agian.

Good luck
Andrew

I'm sure it's been done. Biggest thing I did was to watch the instructor land, and watch his finger movements on the sticks. If you have a good instructor he will talk you through it and have you do practice landings first.

do a couple of slow fly by's first and learn what the plane will do at slow speeds. you can do it.

No i havent,i didnt use a buddy box though,i had my dad stand beside me and i greased it in first time was a good feeling ,most people at my club say landing is the hardest part,i honestly dont see why.It's the easiest and most fun part for me,taking off is the part i dont like but thats just me anyway,Good luck and happy flying.

i remember my first landing....it was really quite easy. after the first one, they are nothing. but....my second and third landing were forced.....i had to dead stick them in there. thats actually a bit easier because you're not running the throttle and just concentrating on gliding the thing in. you instructor will be right there to help you. just go nice and easy....dont try to force it down. let gravity ease it in for you. like extra said.......you'll have an unbelievable feeling when you've done it. "unbelievable!"

With a buddy box and good instructor you won't have a problem. Before you ladn for real though practice landing at 50-75 feet up. Let off the throttle at 100 or 150 feet let in slow down and float down to about 50-75 as if you were landing there then throttle back up and do it again. Too many times I see instructors just say ok land it. Work on slowing it down and see how it handles before bringing it all the way down.

i agree 100%, but the first time i landed i think i broke my wooden prop. after that i bought plastic ones and rarley brake a prop even when most people worry that my plane is destroyed.

as for how much your worried with landing do approaces over and over and over and over and ... well you get the idea and as you get better slowly get closer to the ground and even though some may disagree, if you have the right amount of speed cut the engine a foot or 2 above the ground then just let it slowly glide down with some up elevator.

Remember 1. never be affraid to recognize a bad aproach and abort

2. after your on final use the aileron to keep the wings level then use rudder to steer and let the plane slowley sink in.

3. never be afraid of the wind, my second landing was at half throttle sitting still.

Dave trimmer

You shouldn't be even thinking about landing on your first couple of flights. First couple of flights should be just flying around getting to fly level and turn the right directions. Then add in take-offs and landing approaches. Finally begin actual landings. By then you should be feeling comfortable enough near the ground to land.

If you rush it - you'll stuff it.

My first flight i had an instructor beside me and i flew around in circles and flew in circles till my eyes fell out it got sooo boring,then on my 4th flight i think it was my dad let me take off his nexstar,on my 5th flight i was flying my tower trainer and my dad wanted me to do a low speed pass across the runway to get use to it well that didnt happen i went to come in and i didnt notice i was out past the tree line and then my plane disappeard and my dad was like PULL UP PULL UP PULL UP!!!!! it was to late wasnt to bad just knocked the firewall out (first rebuild experience) i felt like i was about to throw up seriously and anyways we got it all loaded up and i went and sulked in the truck then my dad let me fly the nexstar and land it,Then i cheered all up was awesome.Then we went hope and dad showed me how to fix the firewall.

Planes crash. If you have problem with that, get out of the hobby now before its to late. Having said that, using all the good advice given before me should keep it to minimum.

If you were truely having an easy time of it your instructor could/should have added additional elements to the lesson. An instructor has to remain flexable to the students abilities and progress. The schedule I gave is very rough but I believe covers the sequence in which a student usually learns best. It can vary greatly in either direction depending upon the student and even the weather.

I had to learn in wind which sucked but oh well,And NO i didnt get to do nothing but go in a circle dat was it,it got boring after doing it a few flights,i still have to do it with new planes i get but only for a flight or 2 to get use to it.

I am teaching my son with an 1800 wingspan "old timer" with an OS25, mode 1 with the rudder where the ailerons ussually are (with the throttle).

He is having a ball, I took it up and handed the radio without hardly any instructions and he started to fly lower and lower until he was doing take offs and even a couple of landings on his first day.

I just told him if you get in trouble power off and take your hands off the transmitter - the thing stabilises itself. Yes, he thrashed it a bit, but you really have to want to destroy one to really wreck it, this thing is so light that takes quite a bit of thrashing without damage.

Second weekend he tells me he's not nervous any more and he's really enjoying flying, that's a lot more than I had to say after three months with an instructor. I asked him if he wanted to move to the trainer, but he wants a few more hours on the old timer before he does and I'm not pressuring him (he's 22 by the way).

Sorry if I can't tell you the model, I picked the airframe from ebay for 20 bucks and spent 200 on the covering and accessories (arggg ARFs from China are so much cheaper and give me so little trouble I wonder why they don't make old timers ARF....), but I had a Powerhouse, a Red Zephyr and Simplex in the eighties and for those who remember them it looks and flies like the Simplex.

I'm no expert but I believe that trainers are crap to learn with, make your student fearful, remove all enjoyment and perhaps even turn people off from the sport.

I heartily 2nd this opinion. You should be prepared to to go home with a broken airplane or you will be devastated when (and I mean WHEN) it happens. It is part of it. I'm not encouraging recklesseness, just don't have any illusions.

The very first time I landed my Nexstar, the instructor that I was working with had been running me through slow approach drills. When I landed the plane all on my own, he was talking me through it so naturally and calmly that I didn't even realizing I was landing the plane until I chopped the throttle as instructed and put it down on the main gear like he told me.

It was so easy to land that it freaked me out a little, and I'm still kind of in awe of the job he did instructing me that day. The ironic part is the instructor is an older gentleman who has a bit of a reputation for wrecking his own planes on a rather frequent basis now.

My wife happened to be out at the field that day, and this is an actual photo of me flying my Nexstar right before I made my first landing.

First, I'm 65, a little late getting started, but better late than never. I made my first flight around mid July. I crashed my trainer a number of times, not always on landing. The first damage was when I hit the runway hard and broke the main landing gear mount out. Not a big deal, a little balsa and some epoxy and it was stronger than new. The next crash was on take off, the plane was getting sideways and I though I had enough speed to pull it off. Wrong, it did a nose up, half cork screw and hit at full throttle nose first. It took out the fire wall and broke the carb mount. A couple days later, it was back in the air again. Then, I was getting disorentated on landing and decided to go around and as the plane was headed over the flight line I started a turn in the wrong direction. My instructor grabbed in and dove a bit because I was headed at the power lines. The trainer reall dove fast and it hit the top 2x6 rail on a fence. Scratch the fuselage this time. It just wasn't worth trying to rebuild. I did a home brew on a stick type fuselage, change to a tail dragger. The trainer wing was used on this new plane, only a minor patch job. This new one flew really nice. Things were looking up and I was making good progress. The one day, don't know what happened, but it went down like a lawn dart from about 750 ft. Neither me or my instructor could do anything. We never found the plane. There is a cree bed behind the field that is really rough and it has claimed a number of planes, mine being the last. I had aquired a second wing set for my trainer because I knew the wing would be the first thing to go. So, I built a clone of the lost plane and it flys better than the first. It got the wing lug broke last Friday though. I had made another great landing and taxied back to the flight line and ask the instructor to kill the engine. He still had full throttle on the transmitter when he let up on the trainer switch and the plane was off like a rocket straitht into the netting between the flight line and the pitts. It whacked the wing on post and folded over the front locating tab. I was out with it again today and it was a great day. Three takeoff and landings without a restart on the engine, and one more clean one for good measure. I'm about ready to cut the cord.

Oh yes, get your self a couple rolls of the colored plastic tape for patch work.

Don

On my first flight someone else tookoff then handed me the transmitter, I flew around then handed it back and they landed.

On my second flight I tookoff flew around practiced some low-slow passes, then handed off the transmitter and had someoneelse land the plane.

On my third flight I tookoff, flew around, practiced some more low-slow passes, then landed. the nylon bolts holding the maingear in snapped and the landing gear knocked the stab loose on its way out. That was the end of the day for me since i didn't have any epoxy on me

G'day Mate,
Have you flown yet?
Or are you just worried about what might happen?

well I did great on my first 10 landings with the NEXTAR, then at about 10ft off the groung with no speed I went full throttle for another pass well that lasted another 10 ft untill I tip stalled and the nose of my NEXTR looked like a squashed bannana.
lesson learned coming in to land don't expect a trainer to power out of a approach.
a good drill do fake approaches at about 20-30 ft off the ground when its time to land then throttle down when you have lined up the runway, it doesn't have to be perfect just flyable when it lands, perfection takes practice, just get it on the ground for another round is what I say after each take off.

just be sure to keep the throttle down way low and dont cut it off too fast because you will stall and fall out of the sky. goodluck.

you crashed on your first flight with an instructor??????first thing to replace.....your instructor

My instructor grabbed in and dove a bit because I was headed at the power lines.

If your instructor let you get into so much trouble, and let you crash so much, I'd have found another instructor, QUICKLY!

Dr.1