RICKSTUBBZ, bad news- it was beautiful in the dozins of build pics and flew well in the maiden vid. I think that somehow you will salvage what must be 200 hours of build and mods. Uberbuilder is the word that comes to mind. A setback at most, eh? (but a biggie)

Stevo, that on sure looks pretty- if I remember right you had one before this, did you recover it or is this a new one? Nice mod on the firewall-I have heard of people getting into a bit of hassle tuning AX motors with pitts mufflers, due to different backpressure characteristics. So your work should payoff. With the exception of less fuel draw, I found my 46AX to be a nice motor. Lean it out early per the book.... then run it 5or6 click rich of peak if you can for 10-20 flights. Then you can lean it down to 2-3 rich of peak later. That m.o. worked great for my 46AX. Once in a while I'd run a click or two leaner for a "special" flight, but then back to normal rich mode for durability. That's a 21 oz 3 Hp motor so you should be able to get below 7 lb- and it will punch out vertically for sure. I, for one am jealous- flying it on an 20oz Saito 91 at 1.6 Hp. Mine climbs forever, but no punchout-still havin a ball!