Took her out again today with the CG set about 1/2 inch behind the spar. It flew even better! I need to go back another 1/2 inch or so to get it where I want it, but boy did it come alive. Everthing was better, and the landings were some of the slowest I've seen.

I'm having to replace the 1/4 20 nylon bolts that are used to hold the landing gear on with 5/16 nylon. I ripped the landing gear off twice today, and that was on pavement!. The first time was a dead stick about 4 ft off the ground on takeoff. I had her at about a 75 degree angle with almost zero forward airspeed. It came back down at about a 40 degree angle and sheared the nylon bolts. That one was acceptable because of the situation, however the second time was not. The second time was after a perfect landing. I started to taxi her to the pits and the wind kicked up a bit skidding the plane sideways on the runway (I used aileron to keep the wings level). Well, the fact that one of my wheels locked up and the jarring from skidding sideways sheard the nylon bolts on the landing gear yet again. I believe it was a combination of bad nylon bolts and the fact that the diameter was too small. All said and done I have to redo the bottom of the plane with monokote.

The flight characteristics of this plane were unbelievable! Knife edge all day long. I just circled the field over and over in knife edge, quite unbelievable because I could never hold knife that long with any of my other planes. I tried a knife edge loop a few times and did get an ugly one. I will have to dial in more rudder... right now I have my ATV set all the way around at about 80% (auto travel volume of the servos). Didn't get to fly too many times due to engine trouble and the fact that I had to work again tonight. I plan on taking her out again on Sunday, so we'll see what happens.

Cheers,

Kevin