I finally got my 'Mach Racer' flying wing, complete with 0.50 size glow engine, finished and running OK. The thing only weighs about 3 and a half pounds and I've read that they fly fast, certainly well over 100mph stock.

 I finally took it to the field last Sunday. The idle was a bit dodgy and when I lined it up on the runway I wanted to run it briefly at WOT to clear it out. There was no one else there and the plane was awkward to hold (normally I just stand infront of the horizontal stabs including for planes with twice or thrice the power). I went WOT and the thing wanted to leap into the air.

I could feel my grip at the front starting to slip and I had my other hand on the receiver. I couldn't easily reach the throttle on the transmitter while I could feel the plane starting to slip away. In those few seconds, I could either drop the transmitter and get my other hand on the plane (thereby restraining it, but having it stuck at full power until I could figure out a way to get to the receiver) or tough it out and get my hand to the throttle or kill switch and hope the plane didn't slip out of my grasp. I hesitated, did nothing, and the plane slipped free and took off along the runway, bounced into the rough, leapt into the air about 20 feet and the motor promptly stalled. By that time I had picked up the controls and managed to steer it into the long grass. I was lucky, a broken prop is all and I'll try again next weekend.

Lesson learned is a wing is diffeent to a normal plane and awkward to restrain. A small engine has plenty of power paticularly on a light plane that is greasy with spilt fuel. I can still feel it, trying to hang on with one hand on the greasy, smooth wing with the prop wash blowing into my eyes, vibrating away  and slowly slipping away....where it goes nobody knows.