Thanks for the welcome. Before I flew my Aerobird for the first time, I made a modification based on one of your posts regarding the weak motor mounts and using a plastic tie to help protect it.

Before my first flight I also put clear packing tape on both sides of the wings based on someone's post, and along the edges to protect it from the propeller and rubberbands. I can't remember whose post I read that from.

I also read some posts about putting in some screws for added support where the black rod connects to the fuselage for added protection, but I was afraid of cutting through the control lines so I did the lazy way out and just wrapped a little duct tape around that area for some added support. I don't know if it will help, but I figured it can't hurt. So I learned a lot from reading these posts by posters like yourself.

Reading other people's experiences regarding crashes, I picked out a super big grass lot in a park on perfectly calm days to fly early in the morning before anyone was at the park. That way I don't have to worry about anyone getting their hair clipped from my plane. Besides a few poor launches on my part which took out a chunk of wing about the size of half a quarter, I didn't really have any problems with crashes the few times I flew it. But I was extra conservative since I'm so new to this. I basically got it up in the air only 100 feet or so, and I would pull back on the throttle to half and would simply fly in large circles. If I felt uncomfortable that I might get in trouble, I eased back on the throttle more and let it coast in the grass. It was more like gliding than flying on my part. Not very glamerous flying on my part, but very fun for a first timer and it helped save wear and tear on my plane knowing I had a huge area to easily glide my plane to a landing if I ever felt shakey. I'll keep flying it in that very conservative style until someday when I hope I feel more comfortable and confident to fly more aggressive stunts.

Regarding my stretched line, it still flies OK, but since I don't know what I'm doing, I turned the control spool way to much when I was trying to remove the line so I could move it to a hole closer to the tail for better response. I misunderstood how the control spool worked when I tried to remove the first line. I eventually moved both lines to the lowest hole for the best response and it flies OK, but near one of the control horn spools, I have an area where about 1/4 of an inch is stretched kind of funny. I don't think it will matter at the moment with my ultra conservative flying style, but if I eventually progess and start giving it more throttle and start doing loops and such, I'm a little leary it might eventually snap.