Well guys, here is another dissatisfied customer of Austars Models. I put the maiden flight on my Austar 98" Cesna Bird Dog today which except for some down trim and a little aileron trim went off without incident. I can't say the same thing for the second flight. After flying for about 3 minutes and about 20 seconds after turning upwind, the left half of my horizontal stab fell off the airplane, taking with it the left elevator. Fortunately I was able to land the aircraft with no additional damage; but, after examining the plane I also discovered that the left wing strut had pulled out of the wing (seemed as though it was only screwed into the sheeting with no plywood under it for support). I suspected this but not wanting to remove the covering off the wing to examine the strut mounting location, I screwed the screws in until they were tight and hoped that there was some hardwood beneath the sheeting into which the screw could bite.....Wrong! The brace for the stab screws into nothing but soft wood as well. It's really too bad because the rest of the model looks as though it is built well.

So now I have to rebuild the stab and figure out a way to install a plywood spar across the rear of the stab at the front of the trailing edge material and a spar across the front of the stab behind the leading edge. Then finding a covering to match will be a challenge. You know this model was not cheap, but I cannot recommend it to anyone because of the issues that I have encounterd. I've been modeling large scale warbirds since 1994, building all of my own airplanes. My only ARF to date has been the Top Flite Giant scale Mustang which is very well built. This was my second one and my well be my last.

See my post under CY Models L-19 Bird Dog in the ARF forum for the full story. I'll try contacting Austar Models to tell them of the problems I had; but, I'm not placing a lot of hope on getting a response from them. I tried contacting them about the strut mounting issue and got no response

At least you got it down in one piece. what motor?

She's got a Zenoah G-23 in the nose turning a 16 x6 Prop, so it's not overpowered. Instructions recommend a G-26. The 23 pulls it very nicely