ORIGINAL: flyinrog
I won one on the bay by accident,,I bid $41 from a new seller plus $20 s&h...well a $61 MO in the mail and I wake up to a bay red alert buyer has been pulled!! crap there goes $61...well 2 weeks later I have a big ole package on the porch.. its here!?....I finished it up and set it in a room....I fly 1/2A, .049-.074 well in between builds I decide to play with this thing today,,only 1 other plane I have even has wheels,,,when you have a 1 lb plane you just belly in on a deadstick....this plane seemed pretty well built ,,the landing gear proved pretty weak as did my landing...but it was rolling on 3 wheels and hit the higher grass on the field and tore out the front wheel bracket...the screws were barely in the wood,maybe 1/8th inch into the wood...I put an OS .40 in it ...I dont hear much in the way of good about this engine,,but I must say it ran great and I ran it between 1/4-1/2 throttle the whole time.........like a clock,,no way I would need full throttle on this engine...of course being a 1/2a flyer I am used to flying close in and you dont generally do this with a 5 foot wingspan.......Rog
Unfortunately, this is pretty common for the generic ARFs being sold by some of the ebay and cheap online vendors. They look just fine on the outside, but don't peer under the covers. Replace the gear screws with some bolts and blind nuts. While you are at it, look inside at the mount for the main gear and the firewall, these areas may need reinforcing. Once you've beefed it up, get it back up in the air. Nothing wrong with flying these larger planes close in, gives the heart a good workout.
