New to RC universe. But ran across this thread (if still active).

I bought my Contender in 1975+/-. Flew it with a Fox 35 and it flew great, though a little slow. Original colors were chrome for the wing and dark blue for the fuselage. I agree the chrome is hard to see, but boy did it flicker when rolling. Crashed it.

Stayed in my garage and moved around a little, then I decided to re-build it. Wing was intact, so stripped the monokote. inspected without finding any damage, but re-glued the joints anyway and recovered with yellow. Took the plans and re-built the fuselage using ply and tail from the old fuselage. Flew it with a Fox Eagle 60. Flew great again, with plenty of power. Crashed it. Broken fuselage, wing intact with covering.

Stayed in the garage some more, collecting dust. Re-built the fuselage again, this time with a Fox Eagle III 60 (huge motor, long stroke, big props). Flew great a again. Cartwheeled it this time. Fuselage intact, tail feathers broken and loose, wing intact except broke front holding dowel.

Stayed in the garage for 10 years. Re-built it (I've sworn it will be the last time). This time a put an OS FS 70 four stroke. Flys great. Will let you know when I crash it.

From my perspective, this is a great plane for transitioning from trainer to advanced. It will do most any maneuver. It flys super slow and can stay fixed over your head in a 15 mph headwind. It does a beautiful spin and inverted spin, and hammer-head. It is generally so stable you can land it at high speed. I built the plane with stock the symetrical wing tips and with the stock rudder. The stock rudder was claimed to be shaped for balanced aerodynamics, but the first time it was built, I noticed a slight reverse roll, not bad though. Subsequent re-builds have just about totally done away with any reverse roll, and it is still the stock shape, but perhaps a little bigger when I cut it out by hand.

The only thing I have noticed about the plane, and what caused most of the crashes, is that it stalls horribly on dead stick. Seems every time I had a dead stick, I would bring it in high and hot, making a steep turn into the wind. Each time it would power stall and roll straight down into ground without any ability to recover (even at a fairly high altitude, although it might have been my lack of ability). Back in the good old days we would always blame the radio (with good reason), but with more experience, I am now sure that it was a landing stall. So watch steep turns (even at high speed) when you have a dead stick.

Hope everyone has as good an experience with their Contender as I have had with mine. It's been a great plane and still catches the eye of those at the field.

PS: As the oil has dryed and a light film of rust has developed on the rear landing gear, a fast landing will now make the most perfect "jet landing" squealing sound.