I was off from work last week and took it out to the field to do the maiden on Friday. When I rebuilt the engine, I had to use a metal epoxy on a portion of the muffler. After the first start, the vibration caused the repair to fail, so I packed up and went home. On Saturday I mounted the muffler from my 55AX and tried the maiden flight again. At the completion of the first circuit, just as I was going to add some up elevator trim, the engine quit and I dead-sticked into the dirt across the runway. I let it settle in a little too flat and kind of pancaked it[&o]. The soft aluminum landing gear spread out and bent backward some, so again I packed up and went home. I pulled the gear off and straightened them as best I could in a bench vise. Sunday morning, while it was still charging, I mounted the landing gear back on it and packed up for the field. After about an hour of chit-chatting, I got down to fill the tank and realized I forgot to put the muffler back on after re-installing the landing gear[:@]. At least I can say it's still flyable. Hopefully next weekend (2/7-8) I'll be able to get a real flight on it (after I figure out why the engine quit).