Yesterday morning I packed the Stinger for its inaugural outing with its latest colour scheme; the two red stripes supplemented with a third stripe in black, which I hoped would embolden the graphics as well as broaden it.
The morning was beautiful, cool and still with hints of mist on the lower ground. I managed to launch the Stinger a little straighter, although with a minor wobble, and I had it swooping across the field and climbing steeply into the air.
The supplemented graphics seemed to be working better, so I decided I'd be a little more adventurous with the flight manoeuvres. Despite the thrilling sound and dashing looks, I usually fly the Stinger quite conservatively because of the orientation issue; in fact flying on the Radjet turned out to be much more entertaining.
I did a few high-G pulls and then looped the Stinger down for a low pass overhead. However, when it was coming down, I somehow got confused as to which way it was facing. I'm not sure whether it was that I could see the reverse markings through the wing, but the split-second mystery was enough to cause panic, hitting full elevator in a desperate hope for salvation.
I'm really not sure exactly what happened then, however I do know that shortly afterwards the Stinger smote the ground mightily, disintegrating into high-speed debris. I'm thinking it's going to need a new fuselage...
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