Got to the field this morning and got things going as usual. Got a flight in on my Funtana, then was working with a student. He brought a 4* 40 out to the field, and was insistant that I fly it. So I got it up, do a couple of knife edge passes, then take it up for a flat spin. He didn't have the throws up very high, so it wasn't a very flat spin. But I get half way down, and stop the spin, only to realize I no longer have elevator or rudder control. I'm pretty sure that the entire stab came off, resulting in a power dive straight into the ground. I wouldn't have minded, but this was my students plane, and even though it was failure of the plane, not me, I still feel like crap for it.... It did a pretty good job of killing the plane, maybe it's repairable...

Next flight I took my funtana back up. I've been having a few small glitches with it, so one of the more vetern pilots at the field was helping me with it. So I took it up and started putting it through its paces. Snap rolls, torque rolls, hammer heads, the usual stuff. Decided to put it in an inverted flat spin. Still a bit nose heavy, as the nose dropped quite a bit and wouldn't flatten out. Pulled out fine and stopped the rotation, only to have an unresponsive elevator. Nothing I could do in time to save it. Totally demolished it. We were checking it out after, and we think the cause was weak pushrods. The stock setup is 2/56 rod with plastic clevise, and when we applied pressure to the elevator, the rod flexed and the clevise bent right after the rod ended. So we're guessing the rod buckeled under load and resulted in the crash. Although there's no way to be for sure....

Not a good day then.

I hope you have better luck next time out.