Well, sorry about taking so long to update. After searching on the internet for pictures of real P-40's and seeing how much dihederal they have. Comparing these pictures to what I had, I decided to leave the present wing alone. During this time, I took a break and built a website for the R/C club I belong to. www.jetero.com A month ago, I began working on the p-40 again and finally got it ready. After waiting for a perfect sunny, non-windy day (procrastinating), which hardly happens in Texas during May, I decided that if I try to wait for someone else to maiden flight this plane and it crashed without me doing it, I would never have had the satisfaction of flying something that took me so long to get ready for flight. I had an experienced person check it out for me about a week before and when I tried taxiing, it would nose-over. I was advised to bend the landing gear forward a little, but I tried and upon bending them, it made the wire loose in the mylon gear (that screws into the wing). I was advised to put a little thin CA in there and be careful not to get it in the part the moves. It worked. I was told I could put maximum throw on the elevator and put dual rates to switch when in flight as well as throttling up a little faster and smother than slow and deliberate. A week later, I decided to try to maiden. There was about a 45 degree crosswind to the runway at about 10 mph. I should have waited, but i figured I had enough experience with sport tail-dragger planes in crosswinds to be able to compensate. Well, with a quicker throttle-up, and full up elevator lessening as it gained speed, the plane did not bounce as it sped up. Being nervous, I guess I was over-controlling the elevator (with high-rates on) and the p-40 was teeter-totting on its mains as it gained speed. I guess I over-compensated with up (on high rates) and all of a sudden, the p-40 lept into the air straight up and began to roll right!! I immediately inputted in some left aileron as well as too much elevator (high rates). The p-40 immediately flattened out and since it lost all its forward speed, belly-flopped into the ground at about a 15 degree downward angle. I didn't have to cowl on, so the pitts style muffler (2 pipes straight down) were broken off, but the engine and prop was okay! The chin wood structure that is just before the wing was broken backward and the plastic middle piece tha goes in the center bottom of the wing was broken up. The landing gears were torn off the plane broken at the nylon main piece that screwed into the wood structure of the wing and tore into the bottom covering and broke some ribs. The ailerons were even torn off and luckily only the control arms to the servos were borken. Everything else looks okay. If I didn't roll left, it could have rolled and crashed on the wing or upside down and really totalled the airplane, so it could have been worse. Way back, I had requested another set of wings from Nitro. I'm putting things together again and will be ready soon for its second maiden flight. Next time, less wind (or no crosswind), maybe get used to switching to low rates elevator during takeoff, practicing control during takeoff roll with my club 40 taildragger, and put some exponential on the right stick.

Well, this ended up being longer than I thought, but I figured I owed this forum an update. Nitro Models, I"ll soon be ordering some parts from you.

Thanks for reading,
Bryan