I don't see it as anyone saying "keep your mouth shut", just that if anyone is going to make conjectures as to what happened, to try and be fair about it.

As a guy who has been a new member at a few different fields over recent years, there's always that "overcoming the objections" part of the experienced members coming to understand whether or not you can be trusted to not fly a plane into a crowd when you show up the first few times. Not such a bad thing considering the possible outcome of trusting people too much with such responsibility. Heaven forbid you crash a scale or big plane because of reasons beyond pilot or building errors in such cases, as then even in spite of the fact that you may be an incredibly experienced builder and complete expert flyer, you're going to deal with people calling you a hack....."Hey, remember that guy who showed up and crashed his plane like a rookie?" "He should fly a trainer first." etc. etc. These things may be unfair, or entirely fair assessments based on the respective scenarios, We should just forego coming to judgement so quickly. Guys should be welcome to build what they want and abide by whatever rules are in place governing these things and maybe should have the ability to do it without having their preferences for building whatever they like, or can afford to build or carry, suggested as being perhaps ridiculous or have the point of their efforts be maligned at all. To each his own, but with bigger craft comes bigger responsibility to me...perhaps not as much from a risk to people scenario (though it's always a concern), but as a responsibility to not pile up all my hard-earned dollars and effort. To me there's a practical limit for size in what I can carry. If it weren't there, I would build whatever I could---Heck I max out what I can carry now, so who could I be to knock anyone's preferences....if I build smaller stuff, it's only so I can fit more of them into the car on the way to the field....multiple high dollar small models or fewer high dollar big ones is an even trade to me.

amen brother..... build them big and keep them flying.

The airplane had enough power for flight, the rotation and climb out looked good but pilot error caused the crash. A proper pre-flight would have exposed the reversed aileron control problem. The model was attempted to be flown in very uncontrolled conditions (spectators too close to the action. Note the guy at the end of the runway in harms way). Personally, $22K could put me in a very nice ameteur built experimental aircraft, not standing on the ground watching it fly.

Well thanks Jeff! I can respect that! I will say first off that I really like your Sea Furry, very nice job on that one! The rolly eyes and the fact that it appeared that you were mocking my opinion made me wonder is all. I still don't agree that a .40 size plane will do the same damage as a 20' 350 lb Zero will do. Look at the guy from Hungry that killed two people in a crowd recently with a huge biplane. Also I think 3 others were wounded. He says he will never hold a transmitter again, and I say it didn't have to come to that. Two objects can't occupy the same space, so the space that a 350 lb plane takes up is much bigger in size than a .40 size plane. When the two hit a crowd of densely packed spectators we all know what plane would do the most damage. I just know this, if someone killed one of my family members with a plane of that size it would be my lifes goal to take everything that person owned for the rest of his life. Just the way I feel.

for what its worth I learned to fly in Japan and did so for @ 10 years (mode 1). This is typical of a flying site there. I had a 1/5th Pica Spitfire that i built and flew at a club in the Hachinohe (northern japan) area and the response by the locals was very similar. Anything larger than a 40/60 size plane there gets a LOT of attention. They understand the risks and have their own insurance. It is a basic liability insurance that covers "hobbies". Cost was @ 2000 yen/yr 10 years ago. Cool plane. Hope it gets rebuilt


Jeff