[kizza42]

Thanks for the vids/pics Rob and to you and Steve for helping with the search, the vids will make explaining it to wifey much easier ("See I CAN fly it, even if its only for a short period!")

This was a classic case of lost orientation and dumb thumbs, I simply let it get too far away from me to see it. The great amount of distance to the crash site is because the flymentor just prolonged the inevitable crash. There was a point where I almost had it back but just kept drifting away again so I thought I'd ditch it before it ended up in Parra (It will happily hover till the battery runs out) I was hoping for a soft landing but in the panic I forgot I was in idle up so when I dumped the collective so it probably drived straight into the roof and begun chicken dancing, it wasn't till after I heard the crack that I hit the throttle lock!

As for salvage, well I haven't had much of a chance to look at it but the damage is pretty substantial, the main shaft actually drove down into the gyro case so the flymentor may be damaged. The motor has had its cooling fins snapped off and all the cyclic servo arms were ripped clean from the servos! ESC, RX and tail servo should be ok.

The question is now whether I go another 450 or just step up to 500, seeing that all my crashes thus far have been due to it getting too far away to see it...