Answer: It was today!

This morning I drove over a mountain range and along a river valley to get to another club's field. It's Saturday here so I thought I'd just get a feel for the new field and do an engine test and maybe fly tomorrow. Well, the engine just couldn't have been any more perfect. It started immediately with the high end at 9800rpm and the idle at 2700, after not running for a year. And it ran consistently all during the test. Add to this, that it was a beautiful day with a nice breeze blowing right up the strip. So I knew I had to fly.

I final pre-flight check showed that all the rigging and assorted nuts were still tight...but that a couple of the screws holding on the radiator were a little loose. So I tightened those up and added a drop of CA to the wood underneath for good measure.

Then I fueled her up, started the engine, and taxied out onto the grass strip. The grass was a little thicker than the dirt field I'm used to so I had to taxi slowly to keep the tail down. Then I eased on the throttle and off she went right down the middle of the strip and then climbed gently into the air. While it did need some trim, I knew immediately that the prior serious problems were gone. The balance seemed fine. And a couple of clicks of right aileron and one of right rudder got it flying fairly well thumbs-off. It banked easily (in fact almost TOO easily) both to the left and to the right. It also needed a couple of clicks of down elevator. By the time I had gotten all the basic trimming done, the 5 minute warning on the Tx sounded and I called for a landing and settled into the pattern. I eased off the throttle and it settled right down onto the field and rolled out without problems.

This was the only flight of the day. A post-flight check revealed that two of the scale aluminum brackets that hold the radiator on had broken through (from vibration). I'll need to make some stronger ones from brass. Also the 5 minute flight looks like it used a little less than half a tank, so that's fine.

But it's good to know that I once again have a flyable model...and that flying really is like riding a bike.