Hi, PC,

I stand by my posts. Question: Did you balance your ailerons and seal the control surface gaps? Those are the two things I think are a must for preventing flutter. As has been stated on this string many times: If full-scale aircraft use balanced ailerons, etc. why shouldn't we????? I'm aware that some builder/flyers feel that an ARF should be a "turn-key" operation, but that thinking and the unwillingness to go the "extra" mile and make those additions to some airplanes has lost a few aircraft! These large surface/slow flying 3D aircraft with their (relatively) low weight and high horsepower to weight ratio open up a whole new can of worms not seen before in small-scale aviation. The bottom line is that the successes of the DPM Extra 330L and Edge far outweigh the failures. I dare say that any kit one can name has suffered failures of one flavor or another. Keeping in mind the infinite number of variables inherent in small-scale aviation, who, short of an investigation by the NTSB, and probably not even then, can definitively say what was the root cause of any of them? I personally think we should be very careful in assessing blame for an unfortunate incident which causes much grief and monetary loss when quite possibly it could have been prevented...............
Whether or not it has hapened to me has no bearing on what I consider to be the truth of the matter, and to be sure, I have lost two aircraft to flutter; one which I let a friend fly and forgot to caution him as to keeping airspeed down, and one which I momentarily lost in the sun and let get too fast. Consider this: The fact I forgot to caution my friend about speed and losing one in the sun are neither the cause of the flutter or the loss of both aircraft; speed was in both cases. In other words; both were preventable.

I do not think either side in this debate is going to convince the other that they are right. We will just have to agree to disagree.

Regards to All, Charles Earnest