My first maiden crash (except for my slowstick ) happened a few weeks ago with little 36" wingspan Extra 330L. Because I have very limited build time, it took a few weeks to put it together. I think I got too anxious once it was complete and decided to maiden it myself without someone helping me trim it out. It was a weekday morning before work, about 37 degrees (yes it does get that cold here in the winter time) and I realized when I got there that I forgot to install the servo arm screws on the two aileron servos. That should've been enough to pack it in but I thought ahhh... one flight won't hurt. I had this thing set up with an APC 11x7, an E-flite 480, a 40A ESC with separate BEC, and a 3S 1800 mAh 20C Lipo. At WOT it was pulling about 22A.

As I taxied out and hit the throttle and the plane became airborne it immediately started pulling to the left more than I expected and was a little nose heavy. Sometimes I have a hard time finding the trim buttons on my DX6 while flying. I circled a few times desperately trying to hit the trim buttons while keeping it airborne. I SHOULD HAVE JUST LANDED! But I thought I could keep flying. Well, something happened as the plane was heading right to left, about 75 feet out & 75 feet up. It went into a sharp left turn and before I was able to pull up, it smacked the ground. It shot up about 15 feet and then fell back down in a shower of balsa splinters.

The carnage was so bad & I was so mad I didn't even...Continue Reading