"Long story... don't ask"
August 14th, 2004 was the fateful day that 41 Sniper first took to the air. Unfortunately this first flight was also her last. Not exactly sure what went wrong, but basically she snapped and stalled in a banking turn and went int a tailspin after about 4 minutes of flying laps around the field. She hit the dirt straight down in a cornfield at high speed. Total loss of the airframe, but all mechanics survived. Cockpit and most scale details survived as did the crew which fortunately decided to sit the first flight out.
Mechanical failure? Doubtful.
Radio problems? Doubtful.
Tailheavy? Possible, but checked out fine.
Overweight / Heavy Wingloading? Probable.
Inexperienced Pilot? Definitely.
A more experienced warbird pilot probably would have recognized the need for more speed and rudder in the banking turns. My best guess is that was the fatal error. However, I haven't ruled out all other possible causes as it seemed to do OK up to that point and came on quite suddenly. Below are a couple pictures of the aftermath along with a video clip of the fateful flight of 41 Sniper.
