RC airplane crashes are all part of the hobby, there's absolutely no doubt about that. Any RC pilot who tells you that he/she hasn't crashed his/her model plane obviously hasn't been flying for long enough!

Don't get upset if you crash your plane. It happens. Be a man about it. Smile about it, even laugh about it. OK, so maybe a few bad words might erupt from the pilot's mouth before the smile, but the smile always happens, especially when the pilot turns round from the flight line to see a row of faces staring at the point of impact!

Yes, it's a great shame that your model has met an untimely departure, but move on! Look on the bright side - you can have an early beer, even get home in time for the big game. Not to mention the sympathy you'll get from your other half, when you do return home, plastic bag in hand ;-) In fact, milk it all the way. Phone home in advance and give the bad news. There'll be a cold beer in your hand as soon as you walk through the door.

And if you happen to witness an rc airplane doing something that the pilot didn't want it to do, here are some tips on how to react:

• Keep quiet for a bit - let the pilot have the first word
  
• Cover your ears if you don't like swearing or blasphemy
  
• Let the pilot walk back to the flight line, don't go running over to him ready to initiate a group hug
  
• Don't offer him $10 for his transmitter
  
• Don't hand him your plastic bag, let him use his own - it's part of the wreckage collection ceremony
  
• Offer to help look for the wreckage if the plane came down out of sight, but don't go sprinting across to the crash site - this indicates your urge to salvage the good parts to sell on ebay
  
• Don't offer to take photos until the pilot mentions the idea, and hide the fact that you had your camera turned on before the plane reached the ground
  
• Don't make comments such as "I would never have tried that maneuver myself", or "It's so easy to get disoriented sometimes", or "Are you sure you remembered to put the radio gear on charge last night?"...
  
• Offer constructive, tactful comments such as "Well, think of what your Christmas present will be!", or "Well, it doesn't look so bad - maybe a bit of epoxy resin here and there", or "You said you wanted to build a new model"...
  
• Never ever ever mention pilot error! Instead, just sympathetically nod your head in agreement with whatever the pilot blames. And if he blames himself (very rare), disagree with him completely and reassure him that the crash was caused by an outside influence beyond his control. You'll be friends for life!

And the most important point of all...

Don't let this page put you off rc flying!

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