I have a hard time believing that 10% of the people in this poll have NEVER crashed!!!!
[X(]

We need a follow up poll because I'm guessing these people fall into one the following categories.

[ul][*] Have only flown 4 times with the instructor[*] Only fly their slow poke/pete and poke on sunny, no wind days and no more than twice per year.[*] Regularly play the lottery and win at least once per week.
[/ul]

I didn't get a chance. My instructor beat me to it

I crashed because I forgot to get me head out of me *****.

Well,

Let's see.. Started flying this year (July 2003)...

After solo'ing, had no problem for about 2 weeks with my trainer... Then, one day, I had the field to myself, so I decided I would spent the entire day doing touch and go's, as I was still having a problem with 'bouncing' my trainer on landing at times.. Sometimes I would do perfect landings, other times, well, let's just say that if there was a pilot in the trainer, he would have refused to go up with me at the controls again :-) Never damaged the trainer on landing, but man, I would bounce it down the entire length of the field.. My friend often would say to me after my 'bounces', the 6th landing was the one that stuck, the first 5 were bounce and go's..

Anyway, After about the 20th touch and go (And the third tank of fuel), I took it up again, and the plane stopped listening to me.. I panic'd, and just cut the throttle and let it land wherever it was, thinking, Yipes! I've lost radio control, I better kill the engine while I still have some control, and just let it go down instead of either flying away or worse, doing damage to something.. It landed in the field. The damage wasn't tooo bad, because I was still trying to fly it, and as soon as it started coming towards me I regained control (without an engine, and way too low to do anything other than crash land).. The only thing that happened was the firewall popped out.. A simple fix, and I was back.. After I told my friend who taught me how to fly about the incident, he said, yeah, your batteries were probably weak (They were at about 3.9 V when I checked them later), and he said, when that happens, just point the plane back towards you.. The range was low because of the weak batteries...

LESSON #1: Don't fly that much on a single battery charge, and always check your battery before each flight!!!

Next, I had just finished putting together my GP PT-19 with a Saito 120.. My friend took it up for it's maiden flight.. Plane flew great. The next day, I took it up.. The take-off was great!!!! Perfect take off.. I then tried to do a right turn to get into the pattern, it went left. My friend shouts, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I gave more right, it went more left... I then gave full right, it went full left, did a wonderful straight in on it's nose... The front of the plane up to the second cockpit was gone!!!

LESSON #2: Always check when you plug in your wing that you have your aileron servo's plugged in correctly.. Or, better yet, use a Y harness whenever possible :-)

After that, I had a string of minor crashes for about a month.. Mostly they were ripping tail wheels out of my little mustang as I was learning to land tail draggers... I don't know how many times I re-glued my tail wheel back on that poor little mustang. And, then, one day, I was flying the poor little mustang (GP 40 size) and I was trying to do loops with it, of course, tooo far away from me, and of course, I was only 1 mistake high at best. While I was at the bottom of a loop, it did something strange (I think it snapped), but since it was so far away, I couldn't see it's attitude, so I just gave it an input, which, obviously was the wrong direction, and it went below the tree line, never to be seen again...

LESSON #3, don't fly a plane sooo far away that you cannot always determine what it is doing!!!!


And, finally, just this last sunday, I killed my trainer. But it wasn't a flying accident... I got a 60 size mustang, and I had that one in the car, and also had my little trainer with me in the trunk. To get my flight box out, I have to take out the trainer.. Wasn't planning on flying it, so I just put it down behind my car.. Of course, later, when I decided to go get some lunch, I just closed my trunk, and since I was coming back to the field, asked one of my friends to watch my stuff, and just backed up.. After the second loud crunching sound, I decided to stop! And then I remembered where my trainer was.. OOOPS...

LESSON #4: Don't leave a plane BEHIND your car if you want to keep it for any period of time :-)

All these lessons in my first season of flying.. I'm learning fast :-)

I HAD a 40 sized pattern plane. one day I wanted to learn how to do snap rolls ( no, i did not know how). I started real high and thought to my self "this is easy" well I brought it down to a lower altitude to see it better (about 75 feet above ground) and did a snap roll. as soon as it rolled inverted, it nosed straight down and exploded when it hit mother earth about 100 feet from where i was standing (in shock). in the blink of an eye it was gone. the only thing that was saved was the TRANSMITTER, all the rest was confetti.

since then, I have learned NOT to do snap rolls.

Mario

that must not have been a very well set up pattern plane..............first crash........i had a easy sport 40 and the wing riped out in a turn the fuse blew up (my dad was there)........next i had a few small crashes with my trainer all were building faults (my dad was there)..........next i had an kaos my fist sport plane and never crashed it........next i had my first compitition plane a quest 90 with now i'm flying my second one i was at my first contest and we were flying at an angle to the real flight line (for the wind reasons) and i was coming in kinda fast and the plane ran into the flight line fence broke the fuse in half.........then i had the same plane and i had a dead stick and had to land on the grass and the LG riped out and the whole nose fell off (my dad was there far all my crashes and i've never crashed when he wasnt there) thats just not cool is it.

Well, I haven't had a total loss yet. I did fly my lt-40 into a tree and riped the tail off, but that only took a couple hours to fix, and I hit a post at the end of the runway with my morris topcap(not too bad), but I never had a crash when I broke the engine in 3 pieces and stripped all of the servos

I have been flying glow planes for two years. I didn't crash none of my planes yet. My avistar 40 and my Falcon Cessna are still in one piece. I learned to fly on my own. When I started this hobby, the first thing that I had to know was that r/c planes are not "toys" because they fly much like a full scale aircraft. I learned to fly R/C model aircrafts by reading some physic books and studying the theory of aerodynamic. I do not like R/C simulators because they are classified as games.

Crash #1) I crashed after my 4th solo flight. I was just coming in before my final turn and a gust just lifted my plane and rolled it over and away from me. It was faster than I could react. It was going down inverted so I gave it full down to do a reverse loop and it went straight into the soft swamp bed and swamp grass. Couldn't believe that the only damage was just cracks on the sides of the fuse where the wing connects. Wing, prop and engine were all fine.

Lesson? Don't fly too slow in gusty winds. Your plane is very prone to being tossed upside down. Also, I do dive bomb landing approaches (a combat pilot taught me that). They are actually a lot safer. Never a snap and you never hit trees.

Crash #2) I forgot to put up my antenna. It lost control about 200 feet out at the end of my first turn. I pulled up the antenna real quick, regained control but dead stick and almost made it back to the field. It clipped the top of the tree. Just some minor wing damage.

Lesson? Always do your check before you take off. Use a list if necessary.

Joe

This was my second crash, it was much better than the first one. I was flying my Spectrum like my hair was on fire doing aileron rolls at WOT with a Magnum XLS46. Due to my lack of experience with pattern planes and the fact that I was hot dogging, the crash was spectacular! I failed to make sure the plane had completed the last roll before pulling full up elevator. Unfortunately, I was only about 50 feet off the deck. Before I knew it I had flown right into the ground. I am much more conservative now but as 10 months have passed those conservative thoughts are beginning to wear off again. HA HA HA... Just a matter of time before I screw up again.

Started back flying in Auguest, after about a 12 year cool off period, I am only 29. I reinstated my status of Pilot with a Ultra stick .40 with a MDS .58 on the nose, and a Computer JR radio, I set the US to run the Crow mix.

Last weekend I managed to set my Kangke Cap 232 down too hard and bent the landing gear, Madian flight.

Also last weekend I put my Kyosho Sukhoi .40 into the ground after a hesitation in it's MDS .58 on the final, resulted from a nasty snap roll.

Finally, also last weekend I landed my US .40 on deadstick in a muddy field and tore the landing gear out from under it.

All in all, I had a pretty chitty weekend, my buddy managed to not even break a prop, he usually took home a trashbag on a regular basis, I had 2 breaks in one weekend, and a bent up gear.

Uh...weeks, days, hours, minutes or seconds?

I had been flying a WM Super Sports 40 for a while (my first low wing) and decided I was gonna set flames down the runway(got cocky). I rolled inverted on the downwind at about 1000ft to do a split-s. The O.S. 46fx was screamin' and I was fixin' to scorch some ashphalt.....but my little plane never pulled out of the vertical dive....the threads had pulled out of the elevator clevis!!!! all that was left was the tail feathers.....everything else was underground

my next crash?? lets just say....DON'T GO FLYING ON YOUR WEDDING DAY......your plane won't last 2 minutes!!!

My friend had an all-foam electric Cox Piper Cub, a taildragger, with only rudder and speed control for lift. He was having problems with the motor not responding but the servos did, and he couldn't figure out what was wrong, so he gave me the plane and all the radio gear (my first plane of any kind). All that was wrong was he had hooked up the speed control backwards, so I got a brand new plane for free. He got a new one exactly like it and we went flying together, taking turns hand-launching the other's plane. He went to land his and landed on the bottom of the nose, breaking his only propeller, so he was done for the day. Then I went to go fly (it was only like my third flight ever) and did a couple of fly-bys and started to circle around to land (I was about 100 feet up) and started to get kinda close to the tree line and started to turn it away from the trees a little too sharp. Since it only had rudder and speed control, any bank over about 25 degrees would stall it. And stall it did! It banked left and dropped out of the sky about 100 feet straight down. When we got to it, there was foam everywhere. The battery had exploded through the front foam windshield, the wings ripped off and in half, my only propeller broke in about three piecs, and the rudder ripped off. It wasn't a very good plane for beginners to fly anyway, so I never fixed it. I still have the motor, the radio gear, and the pieces of the plane though. My friend still has his plane in perfect condition, he just needs another propeller, but its hard to ever get ahold of Cox on the phone to get any parts. I'm currently trying to get a job (I'm 16) and get a .20 43" P-51D Mustang from TowerHobbies. This time it will have aileron, throttle, elevator, rudder, and retracts! I can't wait!

Just had my first crash on my 16th flight (H-9 Arrow) Packed it in nose first really hard, but i hit soft ground and the fuse took very little damage for how hard it hit. Tore the aleron servo out of the wing and made a hole where it was mounted and thats about it. It must have hit just right or something, left a 3 inch deep hole in the ground where it hit but the front end of the plane is still all intact. Hope the crank is still straight.

wow seen my brother pack his plane in to nice soft ground lucky dink. maybe when I go down I will have the same luck ya right!!!

[sm=RAINFRO.gif]

I was flying my lt-40 for the first time in the snow. I took off from the lake and was flying for about 2 mins when the rudder came right off. I was about 100 feet in the air and in spun towards the right so i gave it full left aileron and full up elevator. It hit and broke the engine mount, the needle vavle got ripped off ripped half the elevator apart when the rudder came off and the clevis wanted to hold it on and it smashed into the elevator. Thats it though. From that high i was surprised. About 2 hours of work and 25 dollers and was all ready to fly again. The rudder came loose cause my mom but boxes on my plane. I learn to always check everything now.

I never crashed my trainer, I had started with a Goldberg JR Tiger low wing but on the advice of some locals at the hobby store I bought a Avistar 40 and flew that first. Did two buddy box flights and did the solo no problem, well as you can imagine for a 22 year old kid my head got pretty swollen real fast lol. I flew the tiger and never hurt it either, all my problems started with my need for speed and wacky stunts. I bought a small pattern plane made by EZ, I can't even remember the name of the plane. It had a OS 32 with a tuned pipe and man it was fast, I flew it about five times and on the sixth take off it snaped to the right and went nose first from about ten feet off the ground, nothing was left but sticks and servos . My second crash was with an Ugly stick 40. I put the 32 and tuned pipe on it and flew the daylights out of that plane. One day at the field I was in the pattern for a landing and it just started going down at about a 20 degree angle, I tried some up elevator and got nothing, so I choped the power and watched hit the wet gooey grass in the pasture. It was odd to see because it hit the wing poped off and not a sound was heard for about three seconds then WHACK!!! it was about 100 yards away and the sound took a few seconds to travel back to the flight line. No major damage just a motor full of gunk and goo. So then I bought a ez extra 300 .25 sized arf and thought man I need a smoking motor for this, so I bought a OS 48 Surpass 4 stroke for it. Holy crap!!! that thing was so fast and squirly. I wrecked that plane too many times to list here I have not flown in thirteen years, and as of a month ago I bought a Hanger 9 Super stick .40 with a OS .46 and a JR computer radio. It is ready to go, I just need a nice day to fly. I am very nervous wish me luck and let's see if the thirteen years have mellowed my need for speed a little so I can enjoy the hobby a little bit more this time and share it with my children.

SeaDog, I have to say that description was beautiful, I almost feel like I was there. You should be a writer.

havent crashed yet in my 5 solo flight well... thanx now im jinxed...

First flight + "can't be that hard" attitude + uncontrolled field + Carl Goldberg anniversary Cub =nothing but dirt!!!

It took longer to type this![sm=bananahead.gif]

My first flight went like this:

Gas plane
Start plane
Take off
Circle once
Circel twice (scared to land)
Go to land
Land in a mach 3 power dive with a 20 MPH wind inverted...

I was back up and flying in 2 days. (over night 3 guys working about 24 total hours of fixing)

Second flight MUCH better than that, and it continued to get better...that's why I'm still here....

SPECIAL NOTE!!!! Never fly first flight solo!!!DOH!!!

My first crash of a glow plane was about a year and a half after I started flying. I had put a bigger engine in my trainer, and to fix the CG i moved the battery back, and I put an extension on it, which ran through the servoes (you can probably guesse where this is going). I flew it about 10 times like that, but one day I took off too steep, gave it down elevator to level it off, then I had no control, and the plane was running full throttle with down elevator.... Broken firewall, couple of peices of balsa, and a crushed LE

It has be repaired and I still fly it on ocasion