My Crash Story

This is me and my instructor when the plane was still in one piece.

     

        It was the middle of July and I was learning to fly on my 
Great Planes PT-40.  The day before, I had spilled gas on my 
reciever battery pack, but thought nothing of it.  I was about 2 
days away from getting my wings.  I had a great take-off, but 
when I tried to turn, it did nothing.  My instructor took control 
and managed to get it turned a little. It started climbing, then 
he had no control at all.  It flew over a forest and out of 
sight.

        My instructor and I looked for about an hour but could't 
find it.  There was so many mosquitos that we couldn't bear it 
anymore, so we left.  Me and my dad went out every night for a 
week looking for it, but had no luck.  

        One night, a club member phoned me and told me he knew 
somebody with a real plane who would take me up in it to look 
from above.  We aranged that he would take me up to look.  After 
circling over the forest for about half an hour, we finaly 
spotted it. We landed and drove to the forest where we met my 
dad.  We found the plane about 60 feet up a tree.  The owner of 
the forest cut down the tree for me and it came down with hardly 
any damage.

        I fixed it up and tested the engine.   It was still 
perfect.  My instructor tested my battery pack and found it was 
dead.  I got a new pack and was ready to fly again.  I went to 
the field with my instructor and started flying again. On my 
second flight, I had a mid-air.  The other plane went right 
through my wing and kept flying.  My plane came straight down.  
When I found it, the wing was missing one end,  and the fuse was 
broken in many spots.  The needle valve on my engine broke but 
the radio was fine.  

          I bought a new needle valve and the engine started 
right up again.  I put it as well as the radio and servos into my 
newly finished Cloud Dancer.  I'm currently rebuilding my trainer 
just for a fun plane which I don't care if I crash. 

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