The big things will take care of them selves...
...It's the little things that'll bite ya in the A$$!
It was a few summers back and I had just started flying my new Big Hots. My first BIG airplane, my first gas engine (G62), etc, etc. Stressful day at work, and all I could think of was getting the heck out of there and going flying. Was so focused on getting to the field that I didn't see the train that almost hit me until there was just a big headlight in my passenger side window. Very close call. That should have told me call it a day and go home, but I didn't listen. Got to the field, got the fuse and wing out of the trailer and started getting things put together. Hooked up the flaperon servos to the reciever, got the leads marked so I can't hook them up backwards right? Got everything together, did a quick control check (but I guess I wasn't watching very close) and took off. Ah, in the air at last. Planes starts an ever so slightly left bank. I correct with the slightest amount of right aileron. Plane is banking harder to the left now, and I'm giving considerably more right aileron. (My brain is in 'coast mode' obviously). Plane is going hard left and just as I was about to break off the transmitter stick from excessive right aileron input, the plane hits the ground. Snapped the wing in two, snapped the fuse in two, plus a lot of these little pieces that I couldn't readily identify. WTF? After all that hassel and hurry, I managed to hook up the flaperons backwards, even they were marked so that wouldn't happen.
Since then, I've learned to slow down, check thing once, twice and even thrice. I haven't had a stupid accident like that one since. Would still like to find a cure for the occasional 'dumb thumbs' though......
-Mark
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