It's a miracle!!
 

So there I was doing a maiden on a BF-109...followed the manufacturers CG exactly...but sadly it was out (can't always trust the CG spec of manufacturer)...and the BF-109 is a bit pedantic about the accuracy of that...so ended up hanging the BF-109 off its prop for most of the circuit (tail heavy)...until eventually it wouldn't take anymore abuse and gave up...spinning in...

It went down about 100m away from us out of sight, into an area where I knew there were a lot of very nasty bushes...with a very audible "thud"...to the point where a small amount of dust emanated from my transmitter.

So I began the "long walk of shame" to the site of what I knew would be absolute carnage...to collect what I presumed would be a lot of tiny pieces of foam and no more.

Low and behold, when I arrive on the scene, I find the BF-109 sitting perfectly on her feet, in a bunch of succulents...not a SINGLE scratch on her!!

The spin must have flattened just before she hit the ground and she must have just "belly flopped" onto the succulents.

I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself or the pilot...

Other guys couldn't believe it either...to this day, it remains a complete mystery to us...when we remember how "hard" it seemed to have come down with a very audible "thud"....;)

Miracles DO happen! ;)

A time traveler cleaned up the mess and replaced it with a new one ...

I have the same incident as well when I've first installed a Gyro into my SR-22 Low wing trainer, on take off, the plane are Near impossible to control that we have to let go the sticks and walk into the jungle to find it... and LORD and BEHOLD! the plane landed by it self on the flat surface without a scratch!

Good news indeed!

I can't verify this, but I believe my buddy when he told me that as a novice flyer, he lost his plane, so he jumped into his pick-up to see if he could retrieve it. This was a .40 size nitro powered plane. A mile down the road, there it was, sitting on the shoulder, undamaged, like it had landed itself perfectly. This was back before gyros & stabilizers.

That is fantastic. I have seen this a few times and I have a slight theory. I don't know if this might be applicable in your case. A plane is in the spiral of doom, it's pilot is frantically trying everything but at some point it disappears behind bushes or buildings etc. so the pilot accepts his fate and lets go or relaxes the controls. Most of our planes want to fly all by themselves without our constant input. It may have just had enough time to level off.

Jason

That’s a great story. Certainly made me smile.