Personal Observation

[Gimpster]

Well a few weeks ago I managed to put my 260 Hybrid in to the dirt in a hard way. I really was not too worried as it had previously survived a full speed wingtip to tree branch impact with little damage. Just before it went in from an episode of dumb-thumbs I managed to pull it close to level. But the reality of the crash was more then I was expecting. The plane was a wreck.

Looking at the damage one thing keeps popping out at me. The most damage was caused by the landing gear folding backwards and ripping the center out of the fuse which weakened the center section and allowed the wing zone to rupture out to the sides.

I do not think I will build the next one to use the stock landing gear. It may be light but it has the potential to cause major damage if enough force is applied in the right manner. Might be worth looking in to as an area for improvement in a future model update. My next one will use surface mount gear or run without.

In the pic you can see the extent of the damage. Impact was at a shallow angle at the end of a death spiral. The only grass stains were on the underside of the nose. No new impact points could be found on the wings and the engine did not hit the ground. The wing that failed was damaged in a previous tree impact only the skin was repaired but the spar was likely also damaged where not visible.