Originally Posted by michaelnel

One of the very very experienced guys at our club did the maiden on my Great Planes Waco yesterday. He was really very impressed with it. He has built three from kits and said mine flew better than any of his did. All went really well until landing. When he went to flare it, he found that he did not have enough elevator travel, so it hit down pretty hard (rolled out OK, but the hit was stout). It knocked the belly fairing off where it covers the landing gear (just epoxied on, and I should have removed the paint where it was glued because it just took the paint off of the gear where it was glued).

The bad news was that apparently the hit was hard enough that on one side of the fuselage the balsa crunched and now it needs repair. He told me to bring it over and leave it with him and "it will be magically repaired". This guy has been building airplanes from kits and plans for about 60 years, so I trust him. I would like to see how he approaches the repair though so I can learn too.... this won't be the last time a plane of mine will need repairs, I'm sure.

The plane was gorgeous though, both on the ground and in the air. He did some aerobatics with it, including several hammerhead turns (which he said the Waco airframe really loves). I was impressed at how real (scale) it looks up there in all its movements. Mine has an O.S. FS-120 4 stroke pumper on it, and it sounded as good as it looked. Next time she goes up, we'll do the buddy box thing.

BTW, I don't think I have a Brotherhood number.... may I have one please?