Finally got to maiden my ‘Corn last Friday. I got to the field early and was the only one there.
A nice gentle breeze of maybe 4-5 MpH. Range test went fine. With the Tx antenna in, at about
75 meters distance I got a light buzzing sound from the servos.

Glide test first. Nosed in; nose heavy. I took 20grams nose weight of. Another throw, and she
floated of straight without any Tx input. Decided to not land, but go fly! Very sluggish feeling,
nosed over, and augered in. While trying to pull up there was some “porpoising” as if the servo reacted
to my input, but was over powered by the windforce.

The damage:
-A small tear in the foam on the TE on each side of the motortube, and the foam in front of the motor tube is cracked.
-One of the servos dislodged.
-Covering in some places not attached to the foam anymore.
Unortunately (or fortunately) there was no one around to see my walk of shame, so I have
only my own observations to go on.
Sluggish flight possibly because of the weight. Or too much expo. Or both.
Uncontrolable nosedive & porpoising; several possibilities:
-I’ve never seen my 48" ‘Corn do one, but it could have been a tipstall.
-I noticed (post crash) an unhealthy amount of slop. I could move the elevons by hand,
and the servoarm moved about 3mm both ways.
-Nose heavy.
-The pushrod was connected to the bottom hole of the elevons’ control horn. Could it be
too much force for these servos (keeping in mind also that these very same servos came out of
my old ‘Corn, and are maybe not as strong anymore due to age and/or crash)?
-Dumb thumbs?
-Despite positive range test, ESC trouble? It couldn’t have been the Rx. Afterwards I put the
Rx in my Multiplex EasyGlider and specked out several times during a 30+ minute flight without any problem.

To do list:
1.Remove all covering and tape. Sand all over.
2.Dig up pushrods, and re-install so the exit at the TE is high enough to connect to the
2nd or 3rd hole of the control horn.
3.Invest in two new servos (HS85’s, HS225’s or maybe the new GWSmicroBBMG's).
4.Carbonfiber strips with CA either side of the motortube at the TE, and in front of
the motortube, both topside and bottom.
5.Apply fibertape on the TE only where realy necessary, ie either side of the motortube at the TE,
the outer 2” of the TE, and about the middle of the TE a 2” piece (where the pushrod exits), all
of the LE and nose, on the bottom from wingtip to wingtip.
6.Make new elevons from 4mm balsa with 1/2” fibertape wrapped diagonally.
7.Re-cover with Oracover.
8.Re-set expo on my Tx to 0%.
9.Maiden with at least one reliable witness…

Oh well, it’s building season…