Hi Dan,
The story about the PA-2 fin confirms what I had heard. I moved to Wilmington, NC back in 1989 and met Brian Doxey who had placed 2nd in Expert at the '88 nats with a Ten Plus Aurora (MK kit). Larry Phillpis was selling the basic PA-2 kit fro about $150 at the time and Brian saw an opportunity to make some money custom building PA-2 and the occasional Mistress kit. When I met him business was booming (I think he priced his finshed PA-2 about $200 cheaper than the TEN Pus Aurora which also had a waiting list). I asked about the chopped off PA-2 fin and he told me the same story. My 'Mister Obvious' question was: why didn't Larry fix the plug before he made the mold?
It would be great to get the original plug, fix it (if that is possible - the fin was off by a small amount - maybe 3 degrees maximum) and make new molds.
I built 4 Phillips Mistress kits (3 basic and 1 deluxe). The glasswork was the same for all 4. They were all straight, but there were sometimes small areas where it appeared the mold release either was missing or didn't work. Brian said the PA-2 was pretty much identical to the Aurora.
Happy Hunting Dan!
-Will B.