Jim,

As the 'Russia Instructor' for BFSS, I'll be happy to help you. Actually, several of us would. Our little AC-4C is a popular ship with the club. Several of our members have put in 300K flights in it, have completed Silver badges in it, and have set two Colorado 13.5 meter records in it. It won both days of our 'Downhill Dash' contest this year (a story in itself).

About a year and half ago we did decide to upgrade the brake and we installed a Matco hydraulic brake. It has proved very effective. So effective, in fact, that pilots now have a habit of putting it on it's nose on roll out, despite my continue harping to go easy on the brake. One of our club members, Dave Rolley, was instrumental in researching what was necessary to install it. Not hard, but you do have to have some access to machining parts. You can contact me offline and we'll talk more.

Yes, check the S-tubes. We found the rudder cables nearly worn through on one inspection. They were replaced but now it's an item on the annual condition inspection.

Tip: Read the manual carefully and note what it says about approach to landings and braking. The manual is accurate in this regard but it's hard to get people to actually read things anymore.

The Yahoo AC-4C group didn't make the leap to another platform - the original creator of the group could never be found and so there was no ability to move the information to another site. That's my understanding - I could be mistaken.

Personally, I love the little ships and if I didn't have my DG300, I'd seriously consider the AC-4C as an inexpensive replacement.

Mark