F4V vertical stablizer area reduction

I mentioned earlier about modifying vertical tail area to allow for tighter roll.  Here is a picture showing the modification.

The reduction of the stabiliser made this plane rather hard to handle.  What a wild ride this was.  The chequered circles were quite helpful in determining the last know position was over San Francisco Bay.  I wish I could share the video but its "gone over the hill".  Maybe for the better.  It was failure played out by the pixel. ;-(

The observations were:
1. the inverted "V" tail is a roll and pitch stable configuration
2. typically the vertical stabiliser is the roll stabiliser
3. the failure of either "V" tail control surface results in roll instability
4. don't fly when its blustery you'll be down field so far you don't know what even happened
5. cut the power and nose it in; you can build again from the salvaged parts, but only if you can find them.

One problem with this configuration was all the hang time.  It floats and floats and floats on a landing approach.  In retrospect I should've ditched into a shrub, but when you're flying youre flying, and sometimes you just can't stop.  You tell yourself, "One more pass will be the perfect one."

This plane was last seen circling up into the sky in a votex that carried it higher and higher and over the hill, over the highway and into the bay.