Originally Posted by
Clean
Ya, sounds like my brothers P-51 experience. He was 3 years older and so much more capable, intelligent and gifted athletically then my silly 5 year old rear end. After his figure 9 from launch we took turns flying my PT-19. Wasn't his fault, most of those scalish Cox planes were nearly un-flyable but the PT-19 was level flight flyable and little extra.
It makes no difference how capable, intelligent, and gifted he was - it clearly wasn't the airplane's fault - no airplane should be able to survive a figure 9 impact with the ground.
All the scale Cox airplanes were absolutely flyable and flew well in experienced hands. The problem is many of them were a rank beginner's introduction to control line and got the bad rap because nobody without prior experience possessed the innate ability to fly successfully right off the bat.
Fixing broken plastic is best accomplished - not by repair - but with replacement of broken parts. Most kids couldn't afford to wait 6-8 weeks for replacement parts from the Cox factory. This is why most ended up in the trash can after a single unsuccessful attempt at flight due to lack of necessary skills.