Well,today was the day. I new it was coming sooner or later. I've been solo for a few weeks now and doing great...better then everyone's expectations. Was at the flying field today with my Big Stick .60 and my new Sukhoi-31. Flew a couple nice flights,then had my SU-31 up and was flying a flawless run,buzzing the field,nice stalls....looking great compared to most of the guys there. Came in nicely for a landing the same way I always do. Cleared the trees,put the nose down and leveled off for final approach and "CRUNCH" right into the ground! Theres a little bank the follows parallel to the runway and I must have been lower than usual or something and it caught me. I never seen that one coming. Seemed like a typical landing. Makes me wonder how many times I came with inches of that bank before and missed it. Everyone was shooked seeing that after my great flight. They thought I was good! LOL I thought the little sukhoi was messed up pretty bad,but my buddy there who is a pro at crashing and restored said he could have it flying in a half an hour. It smashed up all the wing mounting areas and tore the landing gear completly off and broke off the wing tab and marked up my nice cowl. Other than that it could have been much worse I guess. It was an hour and a half,but she flew again! Took a pig pile of 5 min epoxy and some extra wood and CA,but it came together not too shabby.

Welp,theres one more first experience out of the way! At least I expected it sooner or later,so I wasnt too bummed.

Pic's/video?

Yes it could have been worst. I had my first crash yesterday and I can even find my plane[] I spent several hours looking yesterday and a couple more today. No plane. The woods were mad I guess. The thing that hurts the most is that was a new engine. Anyone know where to buy a plane locator so I can put it in the next plane?
chopper man

"Yeeeehawww, Jester's Dead!" Top Gun?

I wanna get little crash stickers like the little things wwII guys would paint on there plane to represent kills and stick them on my planes each time I crash. That would be cool!

Chopper man,

You didn't lose your Kaos did you?

Hope not!

Dave

No, Thank goodness. I'm still putting the Kaos together. I'm trying to decide if I should fly the Kaos or buy another trainer. I want to make sure that I'm ready to move on.
Chopper man

Part of that decision is if you know WHY you lost the plane and what that reason is.

So very true.

Ken

That is a good question. It was the second flight of the morning. The first one was great. The second one was going just as well. All of a sudden the plane just went nuts and started getting a little bit further than I like and I just couldn't get it back before it started to dive and then the wing snapped off[]. As much as I know that crashing is just part of the hobby I think I've lost a bunch of confidence and just not sure what to do.
chopper man

The best thing to do after a crash is to turn around a get back up there with anything you can get your paws on.

I had a really nice plane several years back that went in vertical at full throttle from about 50 -75 ft. - pilot error............A buddy that I was training immediately fired up his plane right after I bought the remains to the pits and I was back up flying before I had a chance to really look at the pile of splinters and monokote that remained of my plane. Probably the best thing I could have done in that situation as I was too busy to think about my big screw-up. Oh, and it was the 21st flight of that plane.

Hogflyer

Chopper man, keep looking. I had one that lay in a creek bed behind our field for over four months before one of the guys found it, well most of it. I sent the receiver in for a check out and they replaced the crystal and two ceramic filters. The engine flew again, only to be shattered on another ill fated flight.

I keep a photo album of my "crunchys" I always figure you learn from experience, so I'm getting near Expert rating at crashing.

One of the guys yesterday though lost his 30% YAK due to a servo failure. The gears locked up to the point you couldn't turn the horn. Sure felt bad for him. He and that plane were show stoppers at the club. He fired up and everyone else sat back and watched.

So, even the really good guys bit the dust now and then.

Did any of the fellas that you were "outflying" crash as well?

Sorry, couldn't help it..

IF YOU FLY YOU DIE!
I once scratched built a little plane for my OS 10. Maiden was at a soccer field and there was a steady breaze right down the runway. I had it in a stand still into the wind and turned to tell my wife to "look". when I turned back it smacked dead center into the soccer goal. She said, "thats nice dear do it again"[:@]. Welllll a least she didn't yell GOOOOAAALLL!

Now when I go to the field she just asks me if I have my trash bag[sm=confused_smile.gif]

If you got up to a Sukhoi and that was your FIRST big crash you are well ahead of the game.

Sorry and condolences; but also congratulations on past success.

Yeah,its been quite an experience getting this far in this hobby. I credit my learning to tons of past r/c experience,years of flying game/sims,alot of FMS flight siming,a good trainer,good guys at the flying field,and alot of stick time over the last almost 2 months. And I always try to fly within my limits and try to not push it to much. I just misjudged my landing approach I guess My great flying big stick .60 provided a good learning base too. Still have a ways to go yet. There were some other crashes yesterday,some worse than mine,some not bad at all,but thats the way it goes. After we fixed it up yesterday,its it perfect flying condition,just has a few cosmetic blems,lol. Nothing some recovering wont fix!

.....until we crash again! lol

Thing about crashing now vs only 10 years ago is we now have an ample supply of third rate cheap junk arfs readily available.

So, what were you crashing 10 years ago?

An ample supply of not so cheap junk ARF's?

Almost the same thing happen to me.Having a good time, was coming in for a landing but I used a little more runway then I wanted to. Throttled up went back around to try and do better, went out just a littlebit futher to get a better glide slope which I have done at least a dozen times before. With lots of room between the tree tops (so i thought). Took 2hrs. to find my plane 70 feet in the air, and 2 days + $140.00 for the tree guy to get it out.

What's funny about that is that is kind of how I got into RC. My cousin called me one day and asked me if he could borrow an extension ladder to get his airplane out of a tree, miss-judged landing aproach. We tied the ladder to the top of my truck and off to the flying field we went. I had never been there before, never knew about the field. We set up the ladder and he got his plane down. He was talking about getting one of the guys to repair it for him and I told him that we could do it ourselves. He had an ARF so he didn't have any idea about structures. I had built a few control line planes. We had to cut out and replace a piece of top planking on the wing and it was good as new. I went to the LHS and picked up an Eagle 2 kit and started building.

That day sparked two interests. He gave me the nudge to get into RC. I gave him a little help that started him into some serious kit building. He never has had anyone else repair his planes since.

That was the most expensive day of my life.