Mad G:

Thanks for that. I guess I can stack that habit up to paranoia. I just hate to have that much (???) metal in parallel with the antenna.

But, I like what you had to say about the Excelleron. This is my first 90 size airplane, and my second patten type. I have the Venus 40 with an OS 50 installed and it flys like the wind. Very straight and does very nicely in the air.

My previous aircraft (and still is a favorite) is a Tiger 60 with a Super Tigre 75 tuned pipe. I had been 'training' myself to fly pattern with that plane. Then I decided to move over to the Venus 40 which was a delight although the Venus 40 is quite light compared to the Tiger 60. And, getting used to a tail dragger has been interesting, especially with one that is as 'slippery' as the Venus 40.

On my forth or so flight the throttle servo started acting wierd. I had been using an Airtronics micro high-torque for the throttle. It suddenly started to flutter and act erratic. On final, on my last flight of the day (because of the stupid servo), it went to full throttle then back to idle on approach. I managed to get it on the ground and got the engine shut down. We were concerned about a glitch at the field so we approached the aircraft on the ground, and then watched as the servo would move by itself. The rest of the servo's were solid. I took the wing off and watched it from the bench and it would move by itself, and actually never went back to idle position. Good thing I got it landed, and shut down. I would have had to run it out of fuel then dead-stick it which would have been interesting at the very least.. it was pretty windy that day with a fair and occasionally gusty cross wind.

I hope to fly it (the Venus, the Excelleron won't be ready for another couple of weeks) this weekend. The weather here in NJ has been less than ideal for RC'ing.

DS.