No way, given your stated flight envelope (i.e., gentle) up to and during the failure.

I've had one of these for a long time... many flights. I have an O.S. 1.08 up front, and nylon-geared digital servos. I do not thrash the modl (so-called "3D"), but I do fly it aggressively.

Mine has been a great pleasure, even though the wing incidence was off and caused me to nearly lose it on the first flight... the one time I didn't apply an incidence meter during assembly; go figure.

My point is that, while it is lightly built, the design is not fragile. Like someone else said, yours had weak/bad wood or no glue somewhere.

My experience with Horizon customer service is that you generally have to "persuade" them to do the right thing; like when the rudder departed on my Extra 260. The first guy on the phone said all they could do was sell me a new rudder. Excuse me??? I told him fine, let me talk to a supervisor please. That worthy hemmed and hawed, so I went up the food chain another notch and finally got a new rudder sent to me. I have other, similar examples. I guess many folks like you, take the first "no" as a final answer. I wouldimagine they are counting on that.

I understand completely your desire to avoid throwing good money after bad. Your solution is simple; avoid Horizon products from now on. There are plenty of other vendors out there, and life is too short. Hey, the power company rapes you every month, yet you put up with it, eh?

You lost this round; the next model will probably be just fine. Sig ARFs, while a bit pricey, are excellent. Goldberg used to be; although I haven't seen one since Lanier bought the company. Great Planes ARFs are usually good too.

IOW, Horizon doesn't have anything you cannot live without.

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