In the late sixties a friend, Larry, received a biplane from an old buddy from high school. We were in our late twenties so you know that bipe was OOOLLLD - Larry called me to tell me and we were so excited to have a bipe to fly! Out behind the local school we started the old O&R 60 glo and I launched it. That black bipe looked awesome in the air - for about five laps. When it came around over the release area it suddenly did a complete, yes, and I DO mean complete, roll in on the lines. Looked so cool doing that, but then it rolled back out until it hit the end of the lines and just, literally, exploded into nothing but balsa dust. The top wing fluttered to the ground in two pieces, the bottom wing didn't even resemble a wing, and the old O&R only missed me by a few feet!
Larry and I laughed so hard we rolled on the ground until we suddenly realized we no longer had a bipe to fly. However, we agreed the short time we had it was well worth the time spent!
True story. Yes, Larry still flies, but all R/C, and no, he doesn't have the O&R any more, we just talked about that at the club field last summer.