Don, fixing a long over beaten airplane by somebody else is like wearing somebody else's dirty socks.
if it was flying several loops you would invest more into it to keep it flying.
if it would fly and cruash you would feel worse because the airplane seems OK but its really not, its your experience that made it fly and you would fight with it to keep it in the air.
crushing right from the start just made the described above process shorter and educational.

Think positive what is the next on that gonna do list?
Alex