Well, I just got back from the field. A couple of things happened today so I'll describe the events in sequence.

I take my tiger 2 up for the first flight of the day. Engine seems to be running poorly - it's not reaching max RPMs in the air so I figure it needs adjusting. I fly around for a couple of minutes and land.

Adjusted the engine - it sounds much better so take it up for another go. So, fly around everything seems good. Fly a couple of maneuvers and things are normal. I come back across the middle of the field, parallel to the runway and go to full throttle to do a reverse cuban 8. Just before I start the manuever myself and a friend hear a "pop", the engine seemed to over-rev for a split second then the nose dives and it starts to roll right.

At this point, controls are VERY sluggish, requiring almost full up elevator to level the plane. Almost all inputs had to be close to full for the plane to respond. Even throttle, which seemed to be the worst. I bring it around to land, again, controls are so sluggish it's difficult to get it lined up and I have a little throttle coming in but I was scared to give it more because of how badly the plane was behaving. About 10 ft off the ground, stalled into the asphalt. Hit the wing (wow, these Tiger wings are durable, just a small dent), then impacted more on the engine. Firewall is a clean break and the side of the fuse peeled back a little.

Now, a couple of weeks ago I had some fuel leak problems, happened at least twice. My thinking is that even though I cleaned up the fuel and using some absorbing powder to get the oil out the wood was weakened and when I went to full throttle the firewall popped loose to some degree in the air. Anyone had this happen?

So, I have my H9 Miss America out there all ready to fly. I was warming up on the tiger to finally get this baby in the air for the second time. I had gear trouble and completely did a lot of work on the gear as well as reinforced the elevator and rudder servo mounts after the maiden - still, I had a fear of flying it. Something about that plane just brings me to my knees

I'm thinking, ok - three day weekend - tiger is down, only other plane I have flyable other that the mustang is the nexstar. It's time to break this fear....
So, I taxi the plane around a bit, checking to make sure it rolls straight then bring it back to fuel it up. Light up a cigarette, think about it some more then start her up. She taxis for a bit, I bring it back in front of me and ease on the throttle - she tracks strait, tail lifts up and I give it more power then pull - gorgeous scale take off! Well, she wants to roll to the right a hell of a lot so I'm

A) trying to get used to the saito 100's power
B) getting used to actually flying my first warbird - even though I had flown it before I was too nervous to remember anything and no idea why it was out of trim again and
C) Realizing just how important coordinating rudder and ailerons are in the turns and finally
D) Ailerons out of trim.

I was shaking so bad (hence the name) during the trimming I thought I was going to put her in but I got it all trimmed and was loving every minute of it. Raised the gear and just enjoyed seeing it in the air, taking in the sound and then got a little brave....took it up high to check the roll rate by performing a couple of split S's and a full roll. She definitely needs more aileron than what I have it set at. Anyway, throttle up in a 45 degree climb, throttle down, roll right inverted and pull - pseudo split S.

Hmm, I can still hear the engine going full tilt as I pull through the half loop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How bad can this day get? So now I'm flying this P-51 around with a Saito 100 on it (which is overpowered) stuck at full throttle just waiting for it to drain the tank and go dead stick. I brought it down and around but realized I did not have the altitude to turn onto final - it would have been a nasty stall so headed straight out into the field. Wind changed, and the last I saw of it as it went behind a small hill was the right wing dropping along with the nose. I immediately corrected with left rudder and it was out of sight.

Walk down to it and it had landed in a 6-8 ft tall patch of weeds and briars. ZERO DAMAGE except for 2 small scratches in the covering.

Well it seems that through the engine vibration the screws on the throttle servo came out and popped the linkage loose. Not a good day but I still have my Mustang.