I've had this plane flying for about a week now and have flown it about a dozen or so times. It seems like every time I fly it I have something happen with this plane that gives me that "pucker" factor. Today was no different...

Decided to amp the power up with two 3S 2250 connected together on a 45ESC and the Power 25 motor. My first 45 seconds of flight was uneventful until I heard a loud screech and then realized I had no throttle. I had already come around for my approach leg and decided to land. Tried to set the gear, no gear, sooo, belly landed in a nice grassy area without any damage.

I walked out to it and checked it over and everything was fine with it. Retracts worked, all the servos worked and the throttle was fine... Decided to go for a second flight...

Take off was just as fast as the first time, nice and smooth, and then I heard the same loud screech again and 100' off the deck I once again had no throttle. In a split second I decided against circling back around for another approach and instead dove for airspeed and managed to deadstick another landing without the gear down...

I thought I was damn lucky to have saved the plane twice, and as I was walking out to it I noticed smoke coming from the plane and realized it was starting to get thicker and darker and that it was coming from the battery compartment. I immediately hit my fastest stride and raced about a hundred yards and was able to get to the plane and rip the lipos out and extinguish the smoldering mess of the ESC before it ignited the fuselage...

All in all, another RC lesson learned the hard way... I'll have a new ESC in by tomorrow afternoon and will go back to my slow but safe 3S 3200 and will not think about more power for this plane until I have a few more flights on it... I almost believe it is true about this plane being a curse for so many others, but it is a beauty to fly and handles no different than most other Texans... I just think you gotta have your game on when trying to fly this bird...