Ralf's notes about this photo:

Hello!

Herewith a photo taken on our Model Flying Club field in Bitburg (MFG Bitberg-Falken). As discussed in our pleasant telephone conversation last week; this model is pranged due to selecting another model on the transmitter display. Thanks to the all Balsa construction and instant glue in the splits, the said model was flying shortly afterwards.

Greetings from Trier.

Ralf Lambert

Ed Pot really enjoys building. He is very unhappy when he cannot spend a couple of hours each evening in the building room. When it becomes crowded at home and the models are in the way, he sells his last years model like some do with their cars. He does not need to seek buyers ever.
Eddy once tried another variation. On the way to La Ferte Alais the other year a storm suddenly blew up and heaved his caravan from the autobahn. Eddy fortunately was uninjured, but the CAP 21 in the caravan was flattened. This was not a problem for Eddy. He had the next CAP ready before the new caravan was delivered. Just as an aside, Eddy's building board has seen eighteen Pitts Specials completed from our kit.

You are mistaken if you think Eddy is either pensioned off early in his working life, or unemployed. He has a full-time job as sales manager with Sun Electronic. Eddy's tip for modellers who think they have too little free time for modeling: Simply turn off the television after the news!

The third or perhaps fourth CAP 21 from Franz Maier in front of his homebuilt RV-4.

Coincidentally Franz sat next to me, right at the front in the first row, for our first lecture in aircraft construction. He was (and is) as I quickly established, a real model aircraft enthusiast also. From this first meeting a life long friendship immediately developed.

Some years later as I began to start every take off with my CAP 21 with a snap roll, Franz came along and surprised me with a one and a half snap at take off and at a much lower altitude. (Franz was always the pilot with the least nerves.) After a fair length of time I overcame my nerves to try this out and discovered one and a half is easier than one! Only once it did not work out as it should and my CAP 21's wing tip touched the ground in the knife edge position. Many hundred of takeoffs later, Franz was ready to go one stage better, on a very hot day and with a very stress laden drive. Immediately after take off, a one and a half snap roll, he landed his CAP 21 with full power on it's back ...

Conclusion: One must only continue to try, and then the CAP 21 will inevitably bight the dust. But please do not make the beginners mistake and snap roll using only the elevators and rudder. The CAP 21 definitely needs the ailerons as well, otherwise you will successfully crash the CAP 21 with the first attempt.

Franz's notes about this:

Hello Gerhard,

it is very nice what you have written! By the way my blue CAP 21 is still flying after the inverted landing. Prop bust, fin and rudder ripped off, split in fuselage. That was the shortest demonstration flight at the Plattlinger flying day.

Actually she almost crashed on her first flight, similar to her predecessor, because I used the servo cable from my same stock (trouble with cold solder joint inside the plug) luckily I noted a certain twitching with the elevators before take off. New cable from Conrad-Electronic OK; from Modellbau dealer junk!!

Regards,
Franz

Eric Müller, beside Louis Pena an enthusiastic pilot for the CAP 21 Prototype (F-WZCH) writes in his book Flight Unlimited a knife edge loop is not only nonsense it is impossible. At a flying meeting in 1988 I was able to show him the knife edge loop with a model of "his" CAP 21.