With great anticipation I opened the box to be greeted by the decal sheet, manual and wings.

First things, stick the decals on. Unfortunately, there is no plan on where they must go! Some you can see from the photo's where they must go, others you must guess. I spent 1.5 hours patiently cutting them out and tried to stick them without the normal bubbles trapped underneath.

Main wing.
Oops, the manual show the main wings in one piece, but there are two halves in the box. Simple enough to glue. Just remember to cut the hole for the aileron servo first (half for left and right wing). You can just see the lines through the film covering. Except the two halves of the hole does not quite line up. You will get a good lesson how easy it is to cut through balsa and difficult it is to cut through epoxy and plywood. (watch your fingers, blood does not look good on the model)
Now glue the wings together making sure that all the edges line up. Once the glue has set, assemble the servo frame and glue it into the servo hole.

Finally, after 3 hours, I had everything as it should have been from the start. Now you can follow the manual as much as possible. A few tips though.
1 Do not use instant glue for the flap hinges. Instant glue does what it says. You need a few seconds to position the hinges. Rather use a fast-cure epoxy.
2 Use a 8 gram servo (Turnigy 1800A) for the ailerons. The 9 gram servos (HXT900 or Turnigy TG9e) protrudes too much from the hole and fouls the internal framing on the fuselage when you assemble the wing to the fuselage.
3 Find some way to strengthen the nose gear attachment. Else, it will break on your first landing.
4 The brushless outrunner goes on the outside of the bracket, not the inside as shown on the diagram. The diagrams show brushed motors.

Maiden flight!
Before taking it to the field I spent quite some time ensuring that all the flaps lined up. It does look very beautiful and sturdy. Only problem was that the left wing tip was warped down about 2 degrees.

On take off, the left wing dropped alarmingly. I spent half the battery to trim it for level flight. Once trimmed, it flew OK and it is responsive to the controls.

On landing, I experienced a tip stall for the first time. The plane was still slightly faster than running speed when the right wing just dropped. I just had enough time to correct before touch down. The grass was slightly long and the nose wheel caught, breaking the flimsy little frame it was attached to.

Final verdict
Lot of work to assemble, but does look nice once done.
Flies OK when trimmed
I will not recommend this model.

From: vanman | Created on: 4/8/2012 10:22 AM