Hmmm

[mensa180]

He really lawn darted that one well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T6HnDkigeo&feature=related

I don't think it's a coincidence that the pilot's name is Dan .

[bergy]

He started with a million pieces of balsa, and he ended with a million pieces of balsa, quite a shame really as it was a very nice model. Thanks for posting

[sunfan1121]

How much does one of those cost?

[bergy]

Hard to say Sunfan, could have been in the $2000 range depending on what he had for engines, retractable gear and the like, the major investment was time. I'll bet the builder (who was not flying the plane) had a freeking heart attack when that thing was going down!

[Maverick]

That's such a shame. It looked like a really nice piece of work too. 

[NUKE]

That was a good looking plane. I'm sure that took lots of time to put together. The canopy frames should not have been painted black though.

One thing that always gets to me with these big RC planes is the scale speed. They look great sitting there, but once they start moving they look like toys. In flight, that thing was flying like an f-16 at times.

Remember that B-52 r/c plane that crashed a few years ago? That was really cool too.

[eagl]

Nothing like a good re-kit effort...

I was thinking the whole time "dude throttle back", and sure enough something came off the plane.  Dumb.  Do your trimming at 1/2 throttle, and make multiple med-alt passes with gradually increasing speed so you can check for flutter.  If the throttles aren't at 100%, you should be able to hear flutter before the plane self-destructs, and also parts falling off at lower speeds may not cause fatal damage either.

I doubt he learned the real lesson though, even though the guy coaching him was telling him "take your time".