A novice pilot in our club was flying this same ARF and was having terrible trouble. He apparently used elastics that had seen better days and the wing was not holding tightly to the fuse. He called for help and I took control (partially). After a fairly wild ride at low throttle, I made a less-than stellar landing in the tall grass just off the edge of the runway. Didn't land hard, but when we approached the plane, it was apparent that the firewall had pulled out. I was a bit surprised that there was any damage! Examination of the plane showed NO wood had pulled away from the firewall or fuselage- hardly even a splinter. Clean separation along the glue line. It was evident that this joint had never been glued properly. Two lessons learned:
1) Elastics are cheap; planes are not. Use lots of fresh rubber and check them before assembly.
2) DO NOT ASSUME that an ARF was put together correctly at the factory! Check all of the stress points and reinforce as needed.

He was probably lucky that this happened on a slightly rough landing rather than pulling out of a loop at 200'.

Ross