Maiden resulted in a crash right away. No pilot error (unless you blame the pilot for not double checking all electronics) but a stupid ESC that clearly states on the package it supports 2 to 3 cell lipo’s while in the real world in detected my 2 cell as a 3 cell and therefore cut out prematurely in the middle of my maiden flight.
At least that is the theory. I used the ESC with a 3 cell many times before without any issues. But after this incident I tested the ESC with a 2 cell lipo loaded for storage. It does throttle up fine but cuts off shortly after. An ESC failure for sure.
Anyway I had a lot of wind that day so took off right into it and went off the ground almost immediately. I used the flaperon mix to lower both ailerons for even more lift. I had the wheel caps and small wheels already replaced by bigger wheels that suited my landing strip better.
It flew very well. I had just enough power for that wind, so flying into it the ground speed was very slow. Since all went well I did get closer to the ground to have a better view. And that is when the ESC failed on me! I was still into the wind so needed that power and way to low to recover. It dropped right out of the sky into a corn field.
After a quick search, assisted by the servo noise (I really need to pick up some noisy airplane finder!) I found it upside down, not even completely touching the ground. Lucky me, the corn field took most of the impact.
The damage was minimal. One of landing gears was a bit looser than it should be, a nylon wing bolt snapped off (the black stock ones are very flexibel) and one wing lost the notch in front of the wings where they join the fuselage. All very easily fixed. So I did and replaced the ESC. Up to the next flight!