So...

They (the infamous 'they' that alays know more than you do) say you should do a thorough pre-flight before EVERY flight.

Of course, we (the infamous 'we' that live in the real world) will frequently ignore this sage advice. I mean, ok, sure...we check our planes thoroughly upon arrival at the field, and always check te control surfaces before and after starting the motor...we may even do a range check before every flight.

But sometimes, on say...our 3rd or 4th flight of the day, 'we' overlook the obvious.

You know...when we're in the pits, diagnosing a throttle travel issue, and start removing wing bolts...only to decide, about halfway through, we can probably resolve this with the radio settings.

So we pick up the radio, tinker with some travel adjustments, find happiness in the throttle travel, and head out to the flight line, plane in hand.

She starts right up, 'we' check the control surfaces, do a range check, set her on the ground, throttle up and check control surfaces again, and then taxi off into a nice takeoff climb...

With, of course, 2/4 of the wing bolts loosened, and one removed.

For those of you educated in Kentucky (I was, so I can make that joke) 4 - 3 = 1 wing bolt.

Out of 4.

For what it's worth, the Hangar 9 Super Stick flies quite well with only 25% of its wing bolts orrectly installed. It even handles loops, hammer heads, and some very aggressive rolls, without so much as a wiggle.

Of course, I wouldn't suggest trying this yourself. You know what 'they' say...Your Mileage May Vary

Gotta admit though...I'm pretty confident in the wing mounting system at this point...I'd say it was safely over-engineered.

Anyone wanna bet I do more thorough pre-flight checks from now on?



P.S. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I owe the RC Gods one now...I have no doubt they will extract payment from me at some point in the future.