Well, I was flying my X-Treme Jets Dragon yesterday at a Giant Scale event at our club. You may recall that I lost the canopy due to unknown reasons 2 weeks ago and Skymaster/XTJ replaced it in time for this event. Kudos to SM for that.

It was my second flight of the day, approximately the 20th flight on the Dragon. My friend Nir (Yakboy) was spotting and Doane (Kingair41) was nearby. Erik (erik r) was announcing at the time. I took off normally and completed the first lap and went into a full power climb. The Dragon got to about 700 feet and was still going over 100mph when I rolled into a split S. Except when I neutralized the ailerons the Dragon kept rolling. I immediatly reduced power and in an instant the airplane was nose down and spinning. I tried adding power and in an instant the airplane was heading towards the area where the spectators were sitting. I reduced power and was able to point it down in order to intentionaly crash the model. Either Doane or Nir, I don't know which, said "shut it down". I did and then I was able to regain marginal control. At this point the airplane was at about 100 feet and on the down wind end of the runway and is still had loads of energy. Nir calmly told me to "just fly the plane" which I did although it seemed to handle really weird. It may of been me because at that point I was pretty shook up. I was able to glide the model to the other end of the runway, perhaps 500 or 600 feet and make a 180 degree turn and still have a good approach although still moving fast. I kept the flaps and gear up thinking that I didn't want any extra drag. But as I approached the threshold Doane barked "full flaps". Thank god he did! I blew the flaps and gear and put it down pretty far beyone the centerline (by design) and really smooth. But still to fast. After a brief rollout it bounced and hit again with the nose gear which took some damage as did the front of the fuselage. But nothing that Dan (split s) can't fix. Upon approaching the airplane we noticed that one third of the windshield was missing which we first assumed was from the bounce. But upon further inspection I found the pieces wedged in the rear of the front compartment by the fuel tanks. I would assume that if that happened on the bounce that they would either be outside the airplane or laying inside right under where it broke since it was not moving very fast then the nose hit.

The point of all this? I believe (but will never know) that it broke in the air and the sudden air pressure inside caused a severe handling problem at all but the slowest speeds. The new canopy was reinforced so as not to loose it again and the new method of attachment worked to good. The first time that it came off was due to an opening in the top of the windhield which let air in and it instantly blew the canopy off so I never even felt it. I put more glue under the windshield except it cracked this time.

Again, this is my theory of why the event occured, I will never know. I am also treating this like a radio problem and will be sending the RX back to be checked, will change the switch, batteries and inspect all servos and servo leads and extentions just in case my theory is wrong. BTW, much thanks to Nir, Doane and Erik for your support!

Jim

Here is a picture.