about this _____ long! Royal 40T, very first flight(solo - no instructor), FINALLY got the motor started, got airborne, then got turned around somehow, and went very un-airborne - very quickly! That was about ten years ago. Not too sure what happened..... no clue+new airplane-instructor=splat!

This seems to be a common cause of crashes in this thread... I got cocky, and was showing off... inverted high speed low pass about 10' off the ground, and pulled up... I've posted this in other threads before, but hey...it's one of my favorite pictures now, so here you go again.

Man I wish I would have had someone videoing this one.....



(oops)

My first crash was with my Donald 4 Seaplane. First flight with it. I just had to get it flying I was practicing with my Aeorbird just before that so I said, no problem, piece of cake. Famous last words. I took off from the frozen lake, didn't know the rudder got bounced loose in the take off (very uneven ice). Anyway I was flying it for about 3 minutes, and the on a slow left turn, it did its death spiral, and bam, one of the worst sounds I ever heard. A guy accross the lake was watching because after it crashed I heard an AW Sh&t all the way from accross the lake. I attribute the crash to the loose rudder, not enough experience and not enough speed into the turn. Of course it had to crash in the middle of the lake, 8' of solid ice. On the sides of the lake there was about 4' of snow. Actually there was less damage than I thought ther would be. It has a fiberglass fuse, which was really beaten up, the motor mount was bent in half, but the wings actually came out OK. All electronics, and servos seemed to have survived. Still haven't repaired it yet (since last winter), but I still plan to.
Joe

You mean today ?? or yesterday ..

let me know when you get all the results in .. i think it would be interesting providing we all own up

take care

1st flight - less than 15 seconds!!!

In 1982, pre buddy-box, my first flight was on an Electric ARF called a Snark (05 sized) it lasted about 30 seconds.... Since then I have crashed MANY airplanes (40 maybe?)

These days I have learned that no crash is my fault, must be the battery, interference, or poor manufacturing-

Taught myself (with dad) at 12, never looked back!

Started flying models in 1952 -- gas &/or glo-powered free-flight at that time -- crashed the first one & every one after that. Started U-control in 53 -- crashed the first one & every one after that, as well. Started RC in 57 -- crashed em all & kept on going. Then, in the 60's, I took a long non-flying holiday & returned after the advent of proportional radios & servo motors -- things got much better -- I now have some models that are at least a dozen years old. I still crash occasionally, but it is usually because I'm doing something really hairbrained, like rudder touches on an inverted pass. Occasionally I lose one to a mechanical failure, or to radio interference.

I voted "on first solo flight" because I was self-taught with a GWS cub, and flew directly into a stop sign 5 seconds after hand-launch. Then I got good and comfortable with flying r/e/t electrics and built a Kadet LT-25. I was smart enough to get checked out on that though. The instructor took off, trimmed her out, and handed me the controls--after a few minutes he says, "you don't need me here, now let's see how you land." Still haven't crashed that plane (but I make up for it with some of my high performance electrics).

Didn't see before solo in there LOL

I got my brother involved in flying, his first gas plane was the butterfly - He has flown it for about 1 and 1/2 years. We would talk about crashing and he said he can't see how people crash them, It is so easy and would almost get mad when I mentioned first crashes - everyone has them. Mind you this was a butterfly, Glider on steroids.
Smiling - He asked me a month ago if it was worth rebuilding..........Bad landing.

Took me 3 seconds.

Damage:

Broken prop, busted wing, motor torn loose from mounts.

Result:

Lots of swearing, girlfriend will now never fly with me

Oh well, she was a better flyer anyway

I remember my first flight and crash. My instructor told me to disconect the ailarons and use only elevator and rudder control. Is this normal cause that really didn't do anything but make me crash in like 30 seconds?

There was a big hole in the ice of the lake that year. Lucky it was a UAC and I just put in a new PC and duck tape.

Gotta love the duck tape. I flew that plane til it was to heavy with tape it wouldn't *land*.

vas ist UAC and PC?

I got the type of plane wrong, sorry. It was a US AirCORE and the PC is there little term for Power Cartridge. All the electrics and motor and fuel attach to it.

c

Within the first flying season. I got to confident to make a long story short....

First plane was a Goldberg Eagle II with a Super Tigre 51. Plane flew great and I loved it. After a few solo flights, I had it up (still had not "soloed" without my instructor being there) and my instructor was there and I began to loose control of the plane (no response to stick movement). I told him this and he took the tx from me (plane was about 150 - 200 feet up, so no problem right?). About that time, wing came off. Yep, became a 5lb yard dart while the wing just ever so graciously trickled to the ground. Found the fuse no problem. All radio gear there and accounted for. Looked for the wing for an hour before we found it, no damage to the wing at all (except, lost the servo out of it). Now the wing servo was not in the fuse either, so where did it go? A mystery to this day! So, now I have a trashed fuse with a perfect wing... As fate would have it, my brother had crashed his Alpha 40 into a tree the week before ruining only the wing. So I gave my wing to my brother and low and behold, Goldberg married Hangar 9 and boy the honeymoon was great. My brother flew that thing for 3 months with that combination, no mods to the wing or his wing saddle! What happened to it you ask? Well, my dad got ahold of it and ran it into a sign, damaging the goldberg wing, so, my dad rebuilt it and it flew again, now it's in the hanger!!

I crashed my duraplane with in the first 5 minutes i soloed it. I had about 15 minutes on it prior on a different day. so i decided to take it flying in a 30 mph wind, whoops.

so i take it up and the wind grabs it as soon as i get 30 feet off the ground. it climbs a good bit, then gets drifted a 1/4 mile before nosing in.

i broke the carb and prop, the wing was ok, but i bent the hell out of the aluminum fuse part.

oh well, didn't do that again, and it have probably had about 50 flights since i got it fixed up

i picked no crash yet although i have had hard landings and some mishaps that resulted in light dmg like knocking landing gear off funtana dinging up a 28 % extra only result was a severly bent landing gear and rudder tray cracked i did learn to fly in the buddy box flight sim era so i have a lot of flying exp in the virtual world thanx to those many many hours of sim tim i can 3d a fair bit i just hope my first real bad crash isnt one of my gassers the way i fly my funtana tho it should have already been dorked over and over again as i love rolling harriers 5 feet off the deck soon ill be inches not feet

I forked my glider into a building at 2nd takeoff.
It wasnt TO bad though.
Let the pics do the talking:

Evil!!!:


Discombobulated prop:


Stripped servo gear (Only brass ones from now on!):


Funny enough, a friend of mine also darted the same wall, but he got worse off because his is balsa. :P

I went the NextStar route which was a good choice for me. Ready to fly. I did about 15 hours on the simulator that comes with it and off I went. Had trouble keeping the engine running and the first three "attempts" at flight ended up with deadstick back to earth from a few feet off the ground. No problem right? Finially got it up and flying and I'm feeling good. Keeping the throttle up so it wouldn't stall again. Dumb me, at that speed the air brakes cause the plane to climb significantly. I kept putting down trim in to level it out and then brought it around to land. Was doing good until the engine quit again about 10 ft. off the ground, had so much down trim in it, no up elevator on this earth was enough to keep it from nosing in. Took almost two months to get parts for it. I took the air brakes off and it did much better. That's one tough plane.

My first crash was in July, just over a month after my first solo. At the urging of my instructor, I entered a trainer class pylon race. I came in second in the first round, and first in the second round.
It happened in the third round. Coming out of the first turn, I found myself verry close to another plane. I tried to give myself some more space, and maintain a slight lead by dropping a bit lower. Unfortunately, I dropped quicker than I expected, and didn't have the skill or reaction speed to recover before going into the weeds.[&o] At least, at the time I was the overall leader of the trainer class.[8D]
I've just finished rebuilding my 4 * from my second crash. I was flying the pattern, nothing fancy. The wind was calm. I just turned downwind and leveled out at about 60 feet when the plane pitched straight down and powered into the ground. I just stood there dumbfounded. The fuse was completely destroyed from the cockpit forward and the wing broke into two and the leading edge on one wingtip was damaged. The carb air intake had a small dent and two cooling fins on the head were chipped. I could find no problems with the elevator, pushrods or servos to explain the abrupt dive. Weather has prevented me from getting airborne again.

Scott

Ok if ya count bad landings,meaning Im rolling on the ground and smack the safety fence pole then Ive crashed about 4 times.If ya count rolling down the runway and pop the landing gear out add 2 more crashes. As far as total carnage type crashes then only once.
Lost complete and total control of my twist, think my rx just gave out. Plane was a total loss. never did find the rx xtal to check and see if the rx quit working and I dont have another one to use. Oh well LOL, replacement plane just about ready for its maiden maybe this weekend if the weather holds up.
MC

I've been flying for 30 years, in that time I've "lost" one airplane due to a battery failure (it was a glider, it landed in a tree and I carefully retrieved it, no big deal so I'm not really counting that). I've flown helicopters, gliders, sport, pattern, and scale - haven't broken anything beyond a prop or two yet.

if your like me you ve had a billion near crashes thow right

i fly my funtana like mad and like last weekend in 30 plus mph wind backward rolling harriers 10 foot off the deck cross your fingers knock on wood no crashes i know its comming thow

ow i just remembered i landed inverted doing a rudder drag with the funtana 40 no dmg fueled it back up and flew more so i dont know if you would call it a crash i did get some asphalt scapes on the cowl and canopy and rudder

No damage, no crash.
Funny thought: When your plane lands without damage but cuts the ground and grass a little, Has in fact the earth crashed into your plane?