How to crash someone else's RC airplane (with photos) LONG

Photos inline -
I was out flying my .45 Big Stik
with a few
friends at a local Santa Rosa CA abandoned airport on Sunday. My friends
solely fly electric, while I do both glow and electric. After flying for
a few hours, we decide to call it quits as we were going to make a
flight in my friend's new Cirrus. As we were packing up, a guy drove up
the muddy road/path to where we were based (we walked in). He hopped out
and said, "Hey, I could hear you guys flying from my home, a few miles
to the east. Will one of you fly my plane for me?"
This was an odd request, and my friends pointed at me and I said sure
before seeing what it was he had built. I walked around to the back of
his van and introduced myself as he was pulling out a very nice looking
hot-rod of an aircraft. Take a look -

Though a little intimidated at this point, I was also excited to get to
fly such a hot rod. I was thinking, "Hey, if it has wings I can probably
fly it!" :)
But still I wondered - why would someone buy a $300 kit, a $125 motor,
plus ??? for the radio, receiver and servos and then spend the time to
build it only to have someone else fly it? He explained that he had been
flying electric park fliers for some time, and had decided to move into
the fuel + aileron world. He had already built two other gas guzzlers
and crashed both of them upon take-off. There were actually still bits
of his crashed planes scattered along the runway. We asked why he didn't
first progress to an electric RC with ailerons, and he merely shrugged
that off and said he wanted to get a *screamer.*
So, we started up his .65 *screamer* and spent a few minutes tuning it.
During pre-flight, I noticed firstly that the controls were activating
the wrong servos. Hmmm, maybe cause #1 for his first two crashes? We
took off the wing and fixed that problem. After running the engine for a
few minutes on the ground, some of the cowl screws started backing off,
so we tightened them back down and I started my taxi. -
- Once in the
air it was business as usual and I was able to get it trimmed out
without any extra adjustment to spare. She started to make an odd
clanking sound, and it was time to bring her in for her first landing. -
- No problem!
The sound was the muffler hitting the cowl - so we tightened the muffler
(as it was rotating on the shaft), and I took it up for it's FINAL
flight! I was pretty comfortable with his plane after a few more minutes
of flight testing. I started looping and rolling it, along with a few
hammer heads and higher speed passes. It flew pretty good, though I
could tell that the CG was a little too far aft of where it should have
been.
Disaster strikes! On what was to be my final low pass, the elevator
stopped responding. No, really. :) I would admit guilt if I thought I
had made a mistake. This photo, taken just milliseconds before the crash
shows the elevator in the neutral position even though I had the control
still pulled back -
The planed smacked the concrete (what a sound!), leaving three big gouge
marks and slid 25 yards to where I was standing. Without moving from
where I was standing I put my foot out to keep it from sliding into the
rest of my gear on the ground. Here's the mark where it hit, and you can
see the plane further in the background where it came to rest -
(look at all the
balsa on the ground!).
I just stood there in disbelief. The last moments kept running through
my head, and I kept muttering, "It wouldn't pull up, it just wouldn't
pull up. Oh my god." The owner really seemed indifferent, and told me
not to worry about it. Truly amazing. My friend Ryan reached down and
wiggled the aileron wherein he noticed it wasn't connected. We took the
wing off, and sure enough his home-made clip (he lost the original) that
connects the servo to the control rod had come off. We weren't entirely
sure at that point if the clip came off before or during the crash,
though the photo clearly shows that the elevator was non-responsive.
The plane is toast and the engine block is cracked near where the main
shaft connects to the prop. Post-crash photos -
and

Here I am, crowned king of the day -

I'll leave it to you to find a moral in my story. This was the first
time I have really crashed and destroyed an RC. I'm not beating myself
over it, and though I feel bad for the owner of the wrecked plane - I
still found some excitement from the crash. :) *evil grin*
Here are all the photos from the day. The series starts off showing the
flight we took in the Cirrus SR22-G2 later that day.

Happy, crash-free flying!
Randy