Hi all. I wasn't sure where to post this, hopefully someone here can benefit from it.

Went to the field Monday. About 60 degrees and perfect flying conditions. It has been too hot for about 2 months straight now. Anyhoo, one of the other members has his scratch built 76" biplane out. He built it about 35 years ago and has a beautiful silk and paint finish. He can't/won't fly it, but he does like to see it fly. He made some aileron and tailwheel mods after another flyer took it up for him earlier.

He has a ST 90 w/13x6 prop. Sounds a little underpropped, but it is running fantastic. Mistake #1?? He asks me to taxi it to check the ground handling as it was real squirrly before. We do a radio check and find the flying surfaces going wacky with the engine at full throttle. That was with the radio near the airplane. The Tx has a short aftermarket anntena, so it can't be collapsed. With the radio away from the plane, everything looks good. That was mistake #2?? Not knowing/trusting the radio.

Ground handling is still a bit squirrly, but I manage to run it straight down the runway a few times. After letting the tailwheel come up, The plane is getting light and gets airborne. I chop the throttle both times and let it settle down. It's looking good so far. So now the owner wants me to get it in the air and he is chomping at the bit to see this fly.

We check the battery, looks adequate. Mistake #3?? Check fuel level, OK. Fire it up and get lined up for take-off. Another straight run down the runway. I let the tailwheel come up and feed in more throttle. Airplane doesn't seem to be accelerating at the rate I am hoping for. Lift off is nice and smooth again, looking good. Now it is climbing and building speed.

All of a sudden it rolls hard right ~ 100 degrees! I bang the ailerons full left and get it leveled. Without any elevator input, it snaps into verticle climb. I feed in down elevator to get leveled out. All I can think of now is get it on the ground. I have no trust in the radio at this point, felt it best to land way out in the field.

Pull the throttle back and nothing happens. Go to full throttle and back to idle, I pull the throttle trim all the way back. After what seems like forever, the engine dies. I am feeling helpless at this point. Had maybe 30' altitude heading straight into the wind, plane looks like it is just hanging there. Now I am thinking stall. I get the nose pointed down a little, coming down OK. Looks like it is going to land in a wind break. Gets lower and lower, start to think of flairing. Now it is a ways out there and judging the flair is tough. The plane hits and flips onto it's back. I am feeling so sick now.

We drive over to pickup the carnage. It's not looking too bad. Landing gear on right side bent up, but that is about all. Now I am feeling better. We get to looking it over and see the left aileron loose. One of the hinges had pulled loose. When it came out of the wing, it deflected causing the roll to the right. The nyrod came loose from the all thread. So the aileron was completely loose and floppy. Mistake 4, not tugging the control surfaces.

We got real lucky yesterday. Sorry for the long post. Hopefully someone may benefit from it, I know I learned a lot.

Cleaning my shorts, MikeB