The maiden flight of my ASP 400 radial engine powered CMP Zero did not go well today. The flight started well, it took off nicely, had plenty of power and only required a small amount of left and down trim. However, a minute or two into the flight, the engine began to loose power. We pulled the power back and gained some power back but not much. We had plenty of altitude so we set up for landing. The weather was a bit on the breezy side with a quarting wind. Everything seemed OK on the landing aproach until about one foot above the runway we caught a strong gust that popped the plane up to about three feet above the runway at a speed that was too low resulting in a stall and fall to the runway. We could have prevented that if the engine would have responded to throttle but it would not. The fusalage is in perfect condition but the stall and fall did considerable damage to the wing. The landing gears went through the wing on both sides. My good friend and I do these maiden flights together and he felt so bad about the damage that he took the wing home to repair it (he was on the sticks for the landing). The plane seemed a bit on the tailheavy side for landing but seemed OK for flying with the CG set per manufactures specs at 145 mm. I am not sure why we lost power on the engine but the most likely cause would be going lean during the flight. I had the needle valve open two turns and the engine ran great on the ground. This was a disappointing day but all is not lost and the Zero will probably fly again.

Best wishes and good safe flying.

Heli-NuBee (AKA Roger the radial rabbit)