Hi guys,

Well finally got the "Phoenix" done and flying. YIPPEEE!!

It came out at exactly 9.5 lbs with the Kioritz 23.6cc stroker motor. I'm running a 16 x 8 APC prop, the wing loading came out at just under 22 oz/square foot, and it balanced with no added weight. It flies really great!! Rolls are perfectly axial, it has tons of power, and floats on landing. I couldn't be happier!

Now the scary part. On the first landing, I was a little hot and high. I thought about going around, but I had lots of runway so I went ahead and brought her in. After landing it was getting a good ways away, so I did a low speed ground loop to get her turned around. When I went to give her power to taxi back, nothing happened. I thought perhaps the throttle linkage had come undone, but when I tried the other controls, they didn't work either! Long story short, the extension I had made up for the battery pack out of some connectors I had lying around had a bad connection at the connector. If I would have gone around on the approach, I would have lost the airplane. That's the second time I have run across a bad connector. I have now thrown away all my older connectors I had in my parts bin, and bought new ones!!! Something for everyone to watch out for. BTW, the connectors looked perfect with no signs of corrosion, but you could touch the connector and it would make contact, touch it again and it would lose contact. Very spooky. I had even had them tie-wrapped together for security, but it didn't help.

Hope this helps someone save an airplane.

Take care,
AV8TOR