I've been getting into RC Helis and Planes, and after flying a couple different Hobbyzone planes, and a cheap micro heli that's been waiting for parts to repair more than I've flow it.

I went out on a buying spree, and picked up what I needed to get started, and keep things going for a while.

Radio: JR 6102, very nice, and the price makes it even more so.
Charger: Duratrax Intellipeak Ice, More charger than I'll need for a while.
Planes: GWS Slow Stick (Talk about that one in a bit)
E-Flight Ascent (It's in the building stages right now)
3 Cell 1600mha battery for the SS.
2 Cell 2100mha batter for the Ascent.
Realfight G3 Flight sim(Hey, cheaper than breaking planes)
Servos and other misc parts.

Don't ask how much I've spent, I'm not wanting to know that myself.

Now this weekend, I built the Slow Stick. Tthe winds were behaving themselves this morning, so I decided to take the SS out on the maiden flight.

First attempt was a ROG, and the prop just broke, couldn't figure out why. Replaced prop.

Second attempt, Decided to do a hand launch, started off smooth, then I go to pull back, and it decides to nose down instead. Pushed up, and then it started climbing...Yes, the elevator was reversed. So what I did next was say: "I can fly this back close to me.", instead of just cutting the throttle and letting it glide back down. 30 seconds later, the plane did its imitation of a lawn dart into the parking lot, the gearbox shattered, saving the prop, and the landing gear fled like a rat on a sinking ship. I pulled the Lipo off, and let it sit, then looked over the damage, and then I found that the control rods had also come loose in the conectors, even though the screws were tighened all the way down.

5 min later, looked at the lipo, and it was fine, unplugged the motor, plugged in the battery, and did a quick check on the rx and servos, and they were working.

Here's the pics of the crash damage on my gallery.

At least it was as fun building it as it was crashing it

Good news is that a new SS would only cost me $35

New gearboxes with a motor run about $10 each, I think I'll be picking up a couple anyways.