Well, after a 15 year retirement from the sport, then 23 straight days of rain, followed by a 2 week business trip, I finally got to the field to fly with an instructor to get my solo certificate. Even though I'd flown for 32 years before stopping, I was a little nervous. Of course the weather was marginal, fog with about 1/4 mile visibility so you could barely make out the trees in the distance (remember this). I was impressed with the Seagull PC-9 quality but did a lot of beefing up in the firewall and landing gear area especially. after bench break in I installed a new Enya .60 and a 10oz fuel tank in the bottom of the nose. After fueling, i still need to hold the nose up to stop the siphon effect and prevent flooding, but it stays dry after that. I replaced all the hardware with better quality except the attachment of he nose steering wire at the servo. I will need to replace this (I hope). Engine started and out at the runway, the instructor offered to fly it, but I said na, I'll give it a shot. It took off like a shot and luckily i had set the rates to lo so I was able to handle it but it was like a dam bucking bronco! In my ear I hear !QUOT!let it fly!QUOT! so sure enough,I relaxed and realized that it was in perfect trim and didn't need to be fought. But it was so fast, about the time i!QUOT!d get settled, it would be heading into the fog. Oh yea, i have a throttle control! I reduced the power to get a feel for it and it was just what I hoped. Rock solid. At slower speeds, i needed to go to Hi rate on the throws, and then left it there throughout. the roll was very fast and good, crisp action. I expected more float on landings then I got but managed to do good. It just surprised me when it touched the grass. I hope to try to mix in some flaps later because with that >60 in it and the clean lines, it is fast. Unfortunately as the fog lifted, i extended my downwind too far on the 3rd flight and clipped the top of a 75ft tree. I felt like someone punched me in the gut as i looked at it hanging there like a dam fly in a spider web! WE got it out of the 1st tree by tying a rope to it and with the help of many new friends, pulling the tree until it relinquished my model. Our cheers were cut short as we watched it majestically dive down and wedge itself into another. No pulling, shaking or praying was going to make it budge. The fog was closing back in and it was getting dark. I made a stop at the hardware store and bought a bunch of PVC pipe that I hope to couple together at the tree and plan on gently lifting it out of its wedge and placing it on the ground. If that doesn't work I'll simply keep bashing it until it gives up all the salvageable parts I can get. Any way the point is that this airplane built, and flew real nice. be ready for some speed, and when it is slow, watch out for stall and mushy controls. I will keep one of these in my hangar for a while.
By the way, I did get my certificate, if only for the guts to try a new airplane, engine and not having flown for so long on such a foggy day!
You meet a lot of wonderful guys out there too willing to help a stranger try and get his plane out of a stand of trees (surrounded by blackberry bushes) for hours. Luckily, I did take a picture before I flew
John

Great story!

Love the P-12 in the background. Where did you get the little P&W sticker?

Thanks, you can't tell from this angle, but it's an F4-B4, flew once long ago - real scary after a 3 year build. The stickers I got a few years back while attending a Pratt & Whitney engine school.
JOhn