Poll on stupidity
 

How many people figured they didn't need an instructor and tryed to fly solo only to hear the sound of crunching balsa?

sadly, count me as one of the group
 

yes, 13 years ago, I was one of the guys who thought he didnt need anybody, so my first plane was a super chipmunk, I think I shed a tear as I watched it endlessly spiral into the farmers field, hoping there would still be something left, as I came over the hill I can still picture little pieces of balsa spread out over a 10 ft. area. total life of the plane was about 40 seconds, total time to build was about 3 months, listening to my wife as she tells all our friends, PRICELESS;;;;;;;;;; joined the local club the next spring.learned yet another lesson in life,,, have a great day guys......Joey...

Deano,
I dont think stupidity would accurately describe all situations... mine for instance:

back in the early 1980's where I live, there was no organised club to speak of. yes, I knew of a few older guys (at the time, they would have been in their late 20's but to me seemed OLD :) )that I would see flying rc at the local mine tailings, but I didnt know them well enough to ask for flight instruction. I was a stubborn kid, and loved flying models (at the time, mostly rubber and gas free flight and starting control line).

So, to make a long story short, I did teach myself to fly but it took many models (mostly scratch built and cheaper smaller 1/2A kits) and many years untill I would actually say I was an RC pilot... :)

Perseverance was the key, nothing got me down. Now when I read or hear guys talking about quitting the hobby because they couldnt stand their first crash - I think to myself... "man, I would have quit every second weekend from 1983 to 1990! " :) :) :)

Today, with the local club being here I would definitely say its the better way to go. But if I had to do it all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat and stupid or not it got me to where I am today. This year I "celebrate" my 20th year in the hobby of RC models and I still crash planes, still try new ideas and not all of them work. Its a bit of stupidity I guess! But man, its so much fun... 8)

PS I vividly remember my VERY first attempt at RC flight. I hand launched my whizard, cox golden bee humming, only to overcontrol left-right-left-right- WHACK right into the ground. But that 30 seconds of excitement set the hook...

You got me deano.....

Circa 1974... CG Skylark 56 Twin.......... Took to MMFC field , no instructor would fly... said #$#%$#$#$ and went to local soccer field, fired her up , took off... everything ok till it did a 180 and came towards me :yikes:

Left wing down.. right aileron... why is it going more left?........ tip catches ground..... cartwheel..... balsa splinters everywhere.... da#n rado must have malfunctioned> :D :D :D :D :D


Learned that day.... next plane trainer and joined club..... best decissionin the world!!!!

I started as a soaring fan and got an arf glider(circa 1990). Put my dads old sanwa stuff in it and went to a sand pit.Had very little success controlling it . Later I realized this was because the servos worked when they wanted to! I quickly realized the importance of good equiptment and built a beater which I learned to fly with. Cut my first foam wing on the table saw with the help of a power planer. All that pink static fluff!!

Re: Poll on stupidity
 

Oh ya, I'll just wait till all the guys leave and then I'll fly my plane on my own :idea: Smart guy. So, it's getting late in the evening, sun is going down and it's getting foggy (you know where I'm going with this). After much persuasion the Cox 049 comes to life. I throw it in the air (my sailplane). Holy crap ... is the fog ever low, I never noticed it. I fly low (HA), below the fog, back and forth, man the Cox is really starting to scream! All of a sudden I can't see it in the fog ... *&%#@. Now what. Well I can hear it! Only it's getting quieter. Minute later and it's gone. Now I'm walking through 10 foot high corn, no luck. I pack up, what am I gonna tell my instructor? An hour later a car pulls in, hey did you lose a plane? YES! The guy says he heard a noise, he wasn't sure what it was as he couldn't see it (remember the fog). Suddenly he sees a plane fly into his barn yard, doing slow circles, the engines quits and it sets down between his kilns. A perfect landing by the way. Lucky eh? I got more but they're for later. I'm sure there must be lots of untold stories out there. Right? Oh well, that's how we learn and have fun.

Frank

Back in junior high (grade 9) we had a model group. A number of us were building balsa kits, and some of us bought some of the plastic control line arfs. Mine was the testors-mccoy p63 king cobra-rest of the guys had various cox craft.
I believe that it was ignorance, not stupidity :shock: in our case-never even realized there were model aircraft clubs.
Anyway, to make the story longer, my mccoy was the only easy starter in the group. :) .The coxs were real trouble :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: .
Maybe that is why the cobra didn't last as long as the rest :roll: :roll: :(

I started on my own for the reason nobody else was there. Built 7 Graupner taxie's before I was familiar about going up and down. Most of them were dumb mistakes between the ears. Flew controline small scale models with diesels and wanted a radio. Hated pulling the pin to release it. That was why I went with a Heathkit in Europe in 68. Built 2 radios and they worked with there servos(kps14+15s). I bought a Kraft after along with a Kwick Fli3
and proceeded to fly it through a window in the quarters on the second floor.
Flew there for awhile with the taxi but that was to much at the time.
Those were the days and I wouldn't change them if I had too. I still don't worry about crashing but try to think of why. Most of the time its a connection of brain to thumbs. Sorry for being so long.John