As much as I hate doing repairs that is a very cool plane and I would take the time and fix it. It looks a lot like my Swoose. Flaps are fun but on most planes not needed. Like everyone else I always take the plane way high and do my testing just to see how the plane reacts to different things. First time I deployed flaps on one of my planes it almost did a loop but I had time to turn them off and land then remove some of the throw. Kept doing that until the plane reacted the way I wanted. They are fun to play with but during set up can cause a lot of trouble until you have them set correctly. I didn't notice if your wing is a flat bottom or not but the wing on my Swoose is and doesn't require them for a slow landing. It lands like a trainer and slows down very well.