I flew the maiden flight on my Bobcat today. It was bitter sweet.

I'll describe it. Take off was a bit interesting. I used [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJZE3&P=7]these retracts[/link] so I had to make bushings in order to use music wire. Anyway, the Tower .75 was a bit too rich and on our dirt runway, the nose wheel was bouncing off the ground all the way down the runway which caused a pretty early takeoff but fortunately I had enough speed to keep it in the air. scary but OK. It took about three clicks of aileron and two clicks of up elevator and it was tracking well. About four minutes into the flight the engine died. It was heading away from the runway at the time so I yelled dead stick and tried to make the 135 degree turn to line up with the runway. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough air speed to make the turn. I stalled it and nosed it in from about 20' up. It cracked the fuse in three places. When I got to it I saw that the back of the muffler had fallen off which explains why the engine died. Well now I have to decide whether I want to try and fix the fuse or get another kit. I hate the way gelcote looks after it had been repaired.

Blessings, Terry