This was my attempt at enlarging the standard .46 sized SPADstik. This one was a .60 size with a GMS .76 on the nose. It had a wing span of about 66" and was put into the air before it was completely finished. I was in a rush to see how it would fly and I had not reinforced all the control rods the way I wanted to. I promised myself that I was going to be very gentle with it. Well, one thing led to another and the next thing I knew I had it about 100 feet in the air. I put it into a power dive. When I was abou 25 feet up, I tried to give it some up elevator and nothing happened.

While it lasted, this bird actually flew very well. Roll rates weren't half bad and I think it had the makings of being a nice flying plane. Unfortunately, when I tried to pull out of the dive, it appears that the elevator control rod failed and when I tried to give it some up, the 2-56 rod just collapsed leaving me with no elevator control at all.

Needless to say, it went in. It actually buried the nose all the way up to the firewall. Once I got it dug out of the ground and figured out the elevator failure, I found that the plane was pretty much a complete loss. Not only was the nose destroyed from the impact, but the wing was pretty well tore up. Ultimately, I learned that I could enlarge the original plane and it would fly just as well. I am looking at building another one in the near future, but this time all the control rods would be reinforced and I'm planning to hang a Thunder Tiger .91 four-stroke on it.

Love my SPADS!!!