No pictures, that would be far too depressing...
1.	Fury Expert: First attempt at nose-in, still had my training under carriage on... Prior to the crash I could hover side-on in both directions without getting too stressed, but had never attempted to hover the Fury nose-in. I could actually manage short bursts of nose-in with my indoor Hoverfly. Anyway, I'd had a very successful day at the field so thought I'd have a go. Maneuvered to nose-in, froze and watched the machine slide sideways into the ground! Approximate repair cost: £200		[October 2001]
2.	Logo 10: Forced down-wind decent with an almost exhausted NiCad flight pack... The landing was actually successful, if not slightly stressful. However once on the ground and with the all the positive pitch removed, the governor quickly restored a reasonably high head-speed. Then without thinking I managed to allow the machine to tip over! Approximate repair cost: £80		[August 2002]
3.	Hawk 36: Disorientation whilst inverted and too far away... Just spent the previous evening replacing various "difficult to change" drive shaft bearings, and had also fitted a modified Quick UK Freya CCPM swash plate. Of course I was dying to test it... The following day was very windy, but I decided to fly anyway. I started to practice flipping the machine to inverted, then attempted to hold a hover, and finally flipped back out for a brief rest. After about the third flip I made the mistake of noticing how far away I'd drifted with the wind, whilst still trying to hold an inverted hover. I started to get anxious, flipped out of inverted and then managed to get disorientated. Seconds later the machine hit the deck and the switch got knocked by the canopy to the off position leaving the machine thrashing about on the ground... Approximate repair cost: £230		[April 2003]
4.	Hawk 36: Perished and kinked clunk tube whilst hovering inverted... After flying a few warm up circuits, I rolled inverted at about 12 feet above the strip and then maneuvered into a hover nose-in directly in front of me. Within a second or two the engine started to go lean, spluttered and then stopped... What followed was my first low altitude inverted auto and landing. I tried to absorb as much of the head speed as I could before finally landing on the rotors. Fairly minor damage, blades, main shaft, fly bar, feathering spindle and boom... It didn't take long to realize that the Hawk's perished clunk tube had wrapped itself around the tank's breather pipes, during the roll, resulting in a kink that severely restricted the engines fuel supply. Moral of the story, regularly check the condition of the clunk tube. This one was about a year old and had seen a lot of use. Approximate repair cost: £100		[April 2004]
5.	Hawk 36: Flying to fast towards myself, safety crash/panic... This one was really stupid and completely avoidable. I was flying at new location that has a small tree to the left and within the flying area. I now know that the best way to perform a left handed landing approach is to make a nose-in turn just after flying behind the tree. Anyway, I decided to land and was flying flat out from the right towards the area behind the tree. As I noticed the tree I felt uncomfortable about flying behind it, so made a fairly aggressive nose-in turn just before it. During the turn I was momentarily faced with the helicopter flying towards myself very quickly at about head height. For some reason, rather than complete the turn I momentarily paused whilst a growing sense of panic set in. As I finally started to complete the turn, I realised that the helicopter was going to get extremely close to where I was standing, so unfortunately the safest thing to do was to put it in... Moral of the story, don't fly like a maniac at an unfamiliar site... Approximate repair cost: £100		[June 2004]
6.	Hawk 36: Lowest ever inverted pirouette followed by a confused collective instinct... This is certainly my most annoying crash to date... It's the Monday after the 2004 3D Masters, and of course I'm invincible... After a very successful warm-up flight I decided that it was time to stop messing about and get my inverted hovering down to a couple of meters. I started by flying a gentle circuit, and on the final leg rolled inverted and turned the helicopter nose-in towards me. Whilst turning, I also slowly lost height and got the machine down to about two meters before slowing to the hover - Fantastic! The thing that really surprised me was that I felt very relaxed, so much so that I had a go at a slow pirouette. This was by no means perfect, but went round without any real excitement. Previously I've only ever practiced these from a reasonable altitude. At this stage I didn't want to push my luck, so I turned the Hawk side-on and slowly flew out whilst climbing before exiting from inverted with a half loop. Whilst flying out I remember feeling relaxed and excited, but was also thinking very carefully about what I was doing. At this stage I should have packed-up and gone home feeling great. Instead I decided to try it again… After finishing my pirouette, and without careful consideration, I decided to climb vertically and flip out from inverted. My reflexes now got the better of me and I pushed the collective the wrong way and of course as soon as I noticed the Hawk loosing height I made it worse by applying even more positive collective! In no time at all I drove the Hawk squarely into the ground and managed to completely shear-off the rotor head. The aluminum/plastic head block was cleanly divided into two parts! The remaining damage wasn't too bad, just the usual bits and pieces - Blades, fly-bar, feathering spindle, main mast etc. I'm pretty sure that if I'd though through what I was about to do then things would have been different. One thing I do know is that next time I will be super thoughtful and not quite so relaxed... Approximate repair cost: £150		[July 2004]
7.	Fury 60 Expert: Swash Plate Failure... My most unexpected crash so far... Whilst flying a large clockwise circuit, I rolled inverted at the 3 O'clock point with the intention of returning to an inverted hover just in front of me. During the roll the Fury stopped responding to cyclic/collective commands, I then heard the distinctive sound of blade flutter, and watched the machine.s rapid descent into the ground! Luckily the throttle hold worked so at least the engine was out before the Fury hit the deck. The damage was not as bad as I first imagined. Annoyingly the canopy was a complete write off, but other than that just the usual stuff, main mast, feathering spindle, fly bar, blades, links and a few other miscellaneous bits and pieces. The cause of the crash really surprised me. One of the inner swash plate ball link posts had come completely unscrewed and had then jammed the inner and outer races together. This resulted in the outer race of the swash plate rotating and severing all of its control inputs! My theory as to why this happened is as follows. I had just replaced all of the Fury.s plastic links, so they were all reasonable tight. The crash occurred on the fourth flight of the day after this .maintenance.. I believe that the inner swash plate link post must have already been slightly loose and that during the earlier flights the up and down motion of the attached push rod slowly unscrewed it... Approximate repair cost: £150 (excluding a new painted canopy)		[February 2005]
8.	Raptor 50SE: Forgot to click the idle-up switch! This was a really stupid crash! I had been practicing side on take-offs with a nose down flip to inverted close to the ground, roughly a meter or so up. Anyway, after a good number of these I landed in order to get ready to pose for a photo... Rather than leave the model in idle-up revving away, I switched back to normal mode, then as soon as the camera was ready I span up the blades and flipped. The head speed decayed and the model gently landed on its blades - Bugger! The machine was remarkably un-damaged, just the usual suspects. blades, fly-bar and annoyingly a blade grip. The main mast and feather spindle did not appear to be bent! I changed them anyway just in case as they are so inexpensive. Approximate repair cost: £75		[July 2005]
9.	Raptor 50SE: Inverted pirouetting teething troubles... Having become reasonable happy with low inverted pirouettes, I thought I.d have a serious go at moving the helicopter to the left and right whilst flying them. After a couple of minutes of successfully flying the above, I found myself over to the right and feeling slightly uneasy. So I decide to flip out, but forgot one of the golden rules - When pirouetting and things get uncomfortable, stop pirouetting before doing anything else! So I flipped out, but because I was still holding in rudder I was suddenly presented with an unexpected view of the helicopter and suddenly became overwhelmed by that horrible feeling of disorientation... By my second wrong stick input I knew I was in trouble, I was already very low and even thought the helicopter was the right way up I just knew it was going in! So hit the hold and let it happen... Remarkably the damage was minimal, skid supports, blades, fly-bar, feathering spindle, main mast, and a set of 8231 servo gears. Not too bad really, considering... Approximate repair cost: £100		[January 2006]
10.	Hawk 30: Unknown Failure... It was a particularly calm Sunday afternoon, and as my trusty Raptor 50SE was grounded for some routine maintenance, I decided to fly the Hawk. I always enjoy flying this machine as you have to treat it gently, 30s just don't have the same grunt as the 50s and 90s... So, gentle aerobatics on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, what could be more fitting? It was my third flight and I was just beginning to get low on fuel. I started to perform a forward bunt to inverted in my right hand field of view. As the machine gracefully flipped over it literally fell out of the sky like a brick! Unfortunately I was very low when I started the maneuver so I had no real chance to try and save the machine, if that were even possible. I'm very puzzled by this crash as I have absolutely no idea what happened! I've flown this particular maneuver 1000s of times, and at least 4 or 5 times earlier during this actual flight. I was feeling very relaxed so I don't think it was a stick error, as I'm sure I was flying on instinct. I'd be surprised if it was a mechanical failure as I know that the model was in very good order. So it's a mystery! The damage was minimal, skid supports, blades, fly-bar, feathering spindle, blade grips, main mast, and boom. Not that bad really... Approximate repair cost: £100		[May 2006]
11.	Hawk 37: Ran out of fuel! Having a quick warm-up flight before taking part in the Fly.in Fish New Year fun competition, and after 10 minutes of 30 sized fun I ran out of fuel downwind! I almost got away with the down wind auto, but managed to tip the model over as it landed. Remarkably the only damage was a set of broken skid supports! Approximate repair cost: £10		[January 2007]
12.	Raptor 50SE: Unexplainable Crash... It was a blustery summer evening and I was about half way through my third flight in the midst of a low inverted turn. For no apparent reason the Raptor just fell out of the air and crashed from a height of only a few meters. I have a vague recollection of trying to save the model, but when you low you don't have much time to do anything. The Raptor landed on its side and as a result had minimal damage: blades, boom, flybar, tail output shaft and a few other miscellaneous bits and pieces. On reflection I now think that the crash was as a result of me chatting away to a friend whilst flying and simply loosing concentration. This would also explain why the crash came as a surprise and why I can't really remember what happened! Interestingly my friend who was watching whilst we were talking also can't remember what happened. Funnily enough I had an unexplainable crash last year (see #10 above) where at the time I was also chatting away whilst flying... I guess the moral here is to concentrate whilst flying! Approximate repair cost: £120		[June 2007]
13.	Mini Titan: Stupid Crash... No excuses here! Too far away whilst inverted on a cold dull breezy day! A shame as it was New Year's Eve... Approximate repair cost: £70		[December 2007]
14.	Hawk 37: Dumb Thumb... Not enough aileron on an inverted turn and allowed the model to knife-edge into terra firma! Approximate repair cost: £120		[June 2008]
15.	Raptor 50SE: Lockout! Locked out after a turn and whilst descending from a reasonable height. The resulting negative pitch caused the Raptor to simply fly into the ground at a fairly gentle nose down angle. Unfortunately the engine didn.t go to hold so the damage was reasonable bad, although the tail boom assembly survived intact! Immediately after the crash the throttle servo was behaving erratically and I'm pretty sure that it was also the cause of the lockout. Approximate repair cost: £130		[August 2008]
Total crash cost to date: £1735
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