Outing #2 report. I wasn''t up to full power yet and the plane rotated on its own and lurched about twelve feet up before I could react and get the pitch leveled. It was fortunate it didn''t snap. What in the world was going on?

As the P-51 climbed for altitude, I was mystified that Sunday it required great amounts of elevator to break ground and now it broke on its own and no changes had been made. I''d discussed the Sunday issue with the few guys gathered at the field and they all concurred that the plane could be nose heavy and some flight observations were in order.

One of the guys hollered... I thought you said that it was hard to get up. Before reaching safe altitude to relax a bit... it hit me. There was only one thing that could possibly have changed between Sunday and Tuesday.... the wing incidence.

The wing is bolted at the front. The back of the wing is trapped under the P-51''s radiator scoop, which is part of the fiberglass fuselage on this kit. It had to be a variance in how tight the wing had been seated to the saddle, which could change the incidence slightly. The incidence had been checked about a year ago after re-sheating the wing and drilling and tapping for the hold down bolts and was satisfied that every thing was zeroed.

Evidently, the wing bolts had not been adequately tightened on Sunday and overtightened today. About four clicks of down were needed to trim whereas Sunday, no pitch had been needed.

I hollered back at the guys that it had to be incidence changes due to the wing hold down bolts. Flipping to low rate on the elevator, the plane flew fine. With plenty of altitude, stall test showed that the plane is not forgiving and will stall a wing if the elevator is horsed too much at slow speeds.

The center section leading edge of the wing is faired to the fuselage underpan and after landing was checked. I''d tightened the bolts so that the fairing was perhaps 1/32 - 1/16 beyond the belly section whereas perhaps on Sunday it had been left short of reaching flush.

Loosening the screws very slightly so that the leading edge fairing was flush with the underbelly produced a sweet spot where the plane required a small amount of elevator to break ground and climb out beautifully and experience no nose dropping issues on landings. My great surprise is how such a little bit of change in those hold down bolts effects the flight character.

Guys... forgive my carelessness in not considering this before laying this on the group. This is the only plane I've had with forward wing bolts and the pitfalls that can result.