Yes the struts are critical. mine did the same thing as yours broke after just a few flights. the fix I did was to take some coke bottle plastic and cut it to fit all the way into the wood of the strut and the wood that the bolts go thought to hold them to the plane. used some epoxy and drilled some holes for some wood pins and redrilled the holes for the bolts and have not looked back since. if I have a pic I will post it but if I do not I will post one in a few days. I am going out town later today