Aussie winter flight report

Well today was a beautiful calm sunny winters day here in beautiful West Gippsland. I had run out of excuses. I needed to go and fly, which I haven't done for a couple of years, having learnt in the meantime that I now have an Acoustic Neuroma (benign growth in my head) which can, at times, effect my balance, as well as the sound of a jet engine constantly in my left ear.
I spent some time yesterday trying to rig up a wing-stooge and settled on a "Rusty style" rig using a piece of folded carpet on top of a sawhorse, held in place with a block of wood and a G-clamp rather than Rusty's brick. It seemed to work pretty good on the Li'l Bat combat wings.
I made my way to our vintage club rally grounds which would be vacant and far enough from any houses so I wouldn't annoy anyone- rules out here are ridiculous. A slight breeze had picked up but was manageable I thought.

I have two Li'l Bats I built with my now-not-interested son and found last time I flew one it was awfully hard to control, as Rusty has previously commented. I reduced the control throw on one & though to fly it first until I got accustomed to it. First launch it flipped straight over in a 3' loop. Second launch it hit the ground about 6' in front of the stooge. Third time lucky. Not very pretty, but the launch turned into a figure 8 which I did manage to catch, but man, that thing was all over the sky. I think the breeze was having the effect of making it dive and clumb suddenly at particular points in the circle. The engine is just one I knocked together out of parts and didn't sound particulatly strong, possibly because of the Cox exhaust collector I fitted. It was effective in quietening it down and certainly made it easier to clean afterwards with only one line of castor on top of the outboard wing. I started getting pretty dizzy and regretted filling the tank so one of the dives eventually caught the grass and she went in- no damage. I had a reasonable second flight with a similar result.
I decided to try the second plane with the full-throw controls and a low time SureStart. It came out of the stooge and got straight down to business. It flew flat and fast- the extra speed seemed to overcome the effect of the breeze and was actually easier to control than the one with less throw. As I flew I though I noticed something fall from the plane. Everything seemed to be acting the same so I continued. Later I noticed the washer used for a tip weight had dropped off- didn't seem to matter. This plane was fitted with the Tach Race prop Mark Boesen donated me. Sorry Mark, it didn't survive the first incident.  
Next I though I may as well try the old stick plane I bolted a Gilbert 7 to. I wasn't hopeful it would fly from the stooge but I had no strip to fly from. I had to adjust the stooge for the narrower wing but unfortunately it was a lkittle tight & when I tried to pull it free the sawhorse tipped over, snapping the wing in 3. Turns out that the 3 screws holding the wing on had allowed fuel to soak into the balsa in the last 35 years and it was just all pulpy and soft. New wing and a runway coming up. I have to get a Gilbert in the air somehow.   
Anyway, that's my day's flying- first in a while. Thanks for listening.

Rod.