[DUMBGRUNT]

—”You could crash the dang thing an walk away bruised.”

This is North Carolina, with many hickory trees.

Not some weeping willow.

Hit a hickory tree and it will damn sure be a hard landing.

35MPH ~ 50 Feet per Second. Much faster than it might sound.

[Blueflag]

I was thinking more of hitting rough terrain, ie surface, not going into trees.

But yeah, hit a hickory tree trunk or major limb, that’d stop you right there.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. If you can re-use the equipment, it’s a great landing. ;-)

[LouAvul]

Exactly. My uncle crashed a plane gliding at low speed and broke his back. Which, was ironic, because he once told me that he could land a plane at low speed, etc, and walk away unhurt.

If the plane is still aloft, it's moving fast enough that if it hits a large obstacle, the pilot can easily be hurt.