The plastic used to make the cowl and wheelpants turned out to be quite brittle. I was beginning to see some cracks around the mounting screw holes in the cowl, so I reinfoced the inside with some 1.5 oz fiberglass cloth and epoxy. After a "hard landing" the wheelpants cracked at the axle and were repaird and repainted. The next time I went flying, there were many people at the field. This means that there are several planes in the air and attempting to use the runway at the same time. Of course, everybody waits for his turn, but there are smaller gaps of time in which you can land. I was flying, waiting for the runway to clear, when I ran out of fuel and had to land "dead stick." I landed in the weeds just next to the runway and my wheelpants were damaged again! I decided that they were too brittle and needed to be replaced with fiberglass. That cost me another $50, as the wheelpants were $20, with two colors of paint and one can of primer at $10 each. I have recently finished prepping and painting the new wheelpants, and am waiting for the paint to fully cure to fuel proof stage before finally putting them on the plane.
The fuselage under the landing gear also needed some reinforcement, as I soon found out after flying. My friend and mentor, R/C Guru Tom Wolf handled the first takeoff at the Santa Barbara Radio Control Modelers Field in Santa Barbara, CA. After about two passes, one of the landing gear mounting gear screws vibrated out and the landing gear had turned 90 degrees. This, obviously, caused some problems when Tom came in for a landing. The wheels were not facing forward, but were in line with the fuselage, causing the outside of the left wheel to contact the runway first. The gear and part of the fuselage ripped off and my brand new Extra skidded to a stop on its belly. This was quickly fixed with some medium CA glue and threadlock on the landing gear mounting screws.(I always use threadlock now!!)
The Extra then had several successful flights before another hard landing at the Santa Clara County Model Aircraft Skypark. The gear and a chunk of the fuselage were disloged where I had glued them with medium CA months earlier. This happened on a touch and go, so I was airborne again before I realized there was a problem. Again, the gear was hanging at a canted position when I had to land. The gear ripped off and the Extra was again skidding on its belly. This time, the leading edge of the wing was dented when the plane collided with a metal post that holds up the protective netting on the pilot's side of the runway. I realized that it was not an intelligent move to trust the medium CA that I had previously used to permanently hold the fuse and gear in place reliably. I have since used a liberal amount of epoxy to remedy the problem and have had several successful flights, and even some bouncing "hard landings" without any problems. Epoxy is worth its weight in gold!
I cut a section out of the leading edge of the wing, and put in a block of balsa wood that I cut and sanded to fit. So, the profile of the leading edge of the wing has been restored and the plane is flying great again. I still need to repaint that section...which leads me to another rather odd element of this airplane. Hobbico covered the plane at the factory, but not with the traditional MonoKote heatshrink covering, but with what is essentially one large decal, shaped for the contours of the plane. This means that when making any repairs, you cannot use MonoKote, but have to use paint instead. For the recent past, I have been living with the sight of my balsa repair in the leading edge of the wing, as I am afraid of the results that will be achieved if I paint the section. Most of the paint will be applied to the balsa itself, but around the edges it must be applied to the 'decal' covering. I am not sure if I will attempt to mask off the decal covering and simply paint only the balsa repair, or if I will attempt to blend the paint on the balsa into the decal covering. As for now, the defect cannot really be seen when looking down at the plane, but can be seen if looking underneath. Nobody has noticed so far...but I still know it's there and it bugs me! Also, fuel proofing the repaired balsa section is becoming an issue. I'll have to take care of it when I get some more time...