I built my first Hanger 9 Ultra Stick around June 2018. The model was spanking new onto the market then and the first imported kits were hard to find at the time. Mine came from Als Hobbies in Milton Keynes with next day delivery for £206 delivered. The owner of the business is "Big Al". His son is" little Ali"... but better known to us all as Ali Machinsky!

When I was looking for my next model, I`d been impressed by the price, by its design heritage and the excellent Ultra Stick marketing videos put out by Hanger 9. It ticked all the right boxes and the videos on You Tube showed the model off to perfection with Ali explaining what he did to the original design to make it a brilliant performing all round model. I looked at loads of other competitive listings and reviews for models but kept coming back to the Ultra Stick as the one that "did it" for me. For me it would have been a "no brainer" not to have bought one.

The original model was designed by Phil Craft as the Ugly Stick back in the 1960`s. The best known version at the time was the Graupner offering resplendent in a red covering and sporting German World War 1 black on white Maltese Cross decals. It was certainly eye catching and everyone desperately wanted one. Few could afford it and the price was hard to entertain when a Skyleader servos cost around £25! Remember in reading this that my recollection comes from about 1975. The kit was an eye watering price at about £375. To put this in perspective, in 1972 my Father bought a brand new Triumph 200 estate with over-drive. That cost ex-works, £2200. Buying one of those Graupner kits was therefore a rich mans privilege!  Nearly sixty years later that the design has been modified in some form or other in shape or size and has been produced in kit form by over fifty different world wide manufacturers. It shows how popular the design became and how fond modellers are of it. It is as classic a design as a Keil Kraft Super Sixty but that kit was a mere fraction of the price of the Graupner Ugly Stick.

So the latest offering from Hanger 9 is their second generation of their Ultra Stick model which they let Ali Machinsky loose upon to update and improve. Ali hales from Milton Keynes and was head hunted by Horizon Hobbies in view of his modelling abilities and exceptionally high standard of flying. Adding his name to their resident staff based in the USA at Illinois was probably the most cute business move they were ever likely to make. His picture on the box in which the model is packaged shows Ali clutching an Ultra Stick. A good name will greatly assist marketing credibility and sales. That is a well proven strategy and Big Al can`t get his hands on the Hanger 9 Ultra Sticks fast enough. The kits sell like hot cakes and I know from experience just why that is and why this model is becoming so popular in this latest rendition.

The model comes pre-covered as an ARTF and is easily completed in around ten hours as either an electric or IC version with a power requirement of 10cc or greater. The kit includes everything needed to complete the model but not radio gear or any power package. All parts are to a good standard and there are no dodgy bits in either the parts package, covering or model structure. Put simply, a monkey could build this kit just with basic hand tools. My first example was built in my holiday caravan in the middle of the Kent Marshes without the use of mains electric power. You have to hinge and fix the control surfaces with CA adhesive, fit the control horns, run your own servo cables and/or use the piano wire inserts for pre-installed sheaths for rudder and elevators. Only when I installed a big 1.08 motor though with heavy nose weight, was I able to then fit the rudder and elevator servos in cut outs at the rear of the fuselage. The model is a light weight construction of laser cut ply and balsa. It is as tough as old boots and should last for years. The landing gear is made from painted aluminum and comes with a really nice pair of glass fibre spats (wheel pants) and bolt in axles. A ply support block is fitted and bonded into the spats and building the landing gear can be done in about half an hour. Three M4 cap bolts secure the undercart to the model. A pair of separate nylon type IC engine mounts also come with the kit with 104mm PCD bolt spacing and are capable of taking a typical 39mm crank case width 61 size motor. My No 1 model has an Irvine 72 fitted which is identical in physical size to the Irvine 61. A useful up-grade done without additional weight penalty.

Covering is Ultracover/Profilm. White is the under lying base colour with black trim and very high visibility fluorescent red/orange panels which really does make this model stand out in a stormy late afternoon November sky. The colour scheme really does pop. Now having two original Ultra Sticks and an additional self built clone fuselage, I found the cost of the fluorescent Oracover plus post rather on the expensive side. A two metre roll cost £30 with postal charges! Tough, That is what it costs and if you want it, you just have to stump up the cash. Indeed Ali said the fluorescent orange was expensive on his video!! Inevitably being a production kit, the covering although of a general high standard will need further shrinking up with a film iron to bring up top a top standard. That is no big deal and probably no different from any other factory built kit offering. Ten minutes with a hot film iron sorts the defects out without difficulty. The white and black on my clone is Hobby King and costs about £9.50 for a five metre 600mm roll. It is a shame that HK don`t market the flourescent red/orange as a product. Which is best, HK or Oracover? The HK material is lighter, covers defects more easily, has a much higher gloss and is cheaper. It is very good indeed. Anyone doubting he statement should see my Fokker Tri-plane covered in HK material. It is a real eye puller.

The kit comes with  a motor mount template for a 52 size electric motor, a 10cc Evolution two stroke or a Saito 19ccR radial. Those were engine types fitted to Ali`s prototypes. The template then is only useful if you are fitting one of those three motors. The thrust lines are laser burned onto the engine bulkhead so it is easy to mark out for your own chosen power unit. Your drill your own holes in the bulkhead, then insert T-nuts on the rear of the bulkhead. Nothing difficult about that. The supplied fuel tank is said to be 15oz. That it is not and is more like 10oz in size....perhaps H9 mean US fluid ounces? Being wise to this anomaly, I elected to buy a Jamara 16oz tank for an additional £5 when I ordered my second model from Big Al. I was after extended fuel capacity for my 1.08 powered variant and I was sure I could squeeze the 16oz tank in through the tank hatch. However the struggle was too much and I cut away the tank access panel, installed the tank and epoxied the panel back onto the model with a little re-covering being needed to cover up my surgical intervention. With the benefit of my experience, I would have thought a 14oz tank would be a better selection and would avoid having to chop the model around as I did. That tank space will also accommodate one of the 4-Max 3700 6 cell Lipo batteries with ease but fitting a similar larger 4500 battery is a bit of a squeeze. Ali`s preferred electric power combo is a 52 motor with a 5000 5 cell Lipo. An under tank floor void area is large enough to take a 60amp ESC and UBEC.

Fitting the large, inverted ASP 1.08 motor on this latest model (No 3) the front bulkhead mounting was a squeeze but easily accomplished using an ali OS 904 engine mount with 104mm PCD bolt spacing. This 904 mount has the same bolt spacing as the kit supplied nylon mounts which is convenient. My two IC variants are therefore capable of having either a 61-1.08 sized motor installed on either air-frame.

The wing is one piece, very light in weight and is fitted with aileron and flaps. Four separate servos fit on lid mounted brackets held to the wing mounts by self tapping screws. Flap actuation is simple in as much as an electronic servo reverser is not used. One simply flips one of the servos over in one flap servo bay and moves the control rod and horn further along the wing about an inch. Control horn position bolt holes are even marked and only need drilling out to receive 2mm mounting nuts and bolts. Stout 3mm control rods for tail mounted, aileron and flap servos together with clevises, lock nuts and fuel tube security keepers are included in the kit as is a white propeller spinner. Apart from RC gear and control wires, engine and possibly a larger tank,  there isn`t anything else you are likely to have to buy.

Spare parts stock in Europe is presently a little slow and separate spares are on the expensive side. A wing replacement is around £116 and a fuselage about £94. Landing gear with spats are about £60. In the event of a major smash with any owned model, it makes much better economic sense to buy a complete new kit and keep the usable parts from a stuffed model as spares for the new one. Buying from the States is possible. Assuming the replacement landing gear and shipping cost includes carriage and VAT this end, I`ve managed to save £30 buying Stateside on these. However, pricing a complete new kit from the States was just £70 but the shipping cost was £132! It gets worse. A £6 decal sheet attracted a shipping cost of £169!!!!!!! It would seem sensible to buy from a UK supplier or from the German Horizon European depot. Shopping around for best deals is a bit futile. Prices for complete kits are generally within about £5 of a best deal. As said, my kits hae come from Als Models and their service is absolutely first class, advice is freely given and deliery on week days is next day via DPD.

So far, the flying of this model type in my hands is rather limited. Steve Fysh at Riddlesdown MFC first flew the electric version in November last year. It was clear immediately that the model was as docile as it gets, aerobated well, landed incredibly slowly and would make an ideal trainer. I asked Steve if I needed to do anything to the model. Just like at the full sized Spitfire initial flight, the reply was "No, don`t touch it. Its perfect"! Now the additional models have arrived and await flight trials. Hopefully, I`ve manage to get an appropriate array of models that will lead me to A & B test levels and beyond. I suspect the .72 model will be similar in character to the ellctric model but be rather faster off the mark. As to the 1.08, model, well that might be quite exiting!

Specs as follows, all with the same wing selectively fitted and included in the total all up weight of each model. (Wing weight 2.02Lb/0.9Kg)

No 1. New and un-run Irvine 0.72/12cc motor with 12oz fuel tank. 2600 NiMh 6v power supply. 7 servos. Cloned, all ply fuselage. Dry weight 7.64Lbs/3.44Kg.

No2. Electric. 5065-420Kv, 6 cell, 22.2v 3700mAh lipo, 60aa ESC and 5a UBEC. 6 servos. Push rod wire elevator & rudder actuation. All up weight 7.17Lbs/3.25Kg

No 3. Low time, used ASP early model 1.08 with 160z Jamara tank.2600NiMh 6v power supply. 6 servos. Metal gear servos in tail. Dry weight 7.48Lbs/3.39Kg.

Manufacturers suggested guide weight, 7Lb/3.18Kg. It would be interesting to know what Ali Machinchy`s Saito 19R3 radial equipped model weighed. Rather more than 7Lb, I would imagine. Comparing Irvine and Saito weights from published data, the Saito would appear to be almost exactly one pound heavier than the Irvine bolted to my No 1 model. I would suggest then that the Saito powered prototype cannot have weighed less that 8Lb. That model flies like a witch and lands slowly with or without flap deployment. Only on that particular prototype can one see tail mounted servos used. No doubt that was actioned to off set the extra weight of the big 19cc Saito in a similar fashion to my own 1.08 powered model where I have also used servo weight in the tail to achieve an acceptable CofG position. Whilst my models are all heavier than even Ali`s electric model, Ali was using a lighter 5 cell lipo in that model.

What is also evident from examination of my own figures figures is that the 0.72 Irvine No 1 model is in fact heavier  by some 2.5oz than the 1.08 No 3 model. This is perhaps easily explained. I built the clone fuselage solely from 2.5 and 3.2mm ply. Today I closely looked at the genuine kit fuselage construction. I had not noticed that the outer skins of the kit fuselage are made from 4mm balsa with ply only being used internally on fuselage doublers. One lives and learns! I also included two more rear fuselage frames in the clone which were perhaps un-necessary.

I`m not concerned that the Irvine powered model weighs about half a pound more than the electric example. There is plenty of wing area available to support that extra weight.  Ali`s Saito example which must hit the 8Lb figure flies without issue so there is no cause for concern. That said, the proof is always in the eating. Ali Mac deserves well earned praise for this model. There really can`t be an easier kit on the market to build. The model flies superbly literally straight out of the box. I`m looking forward to a great 2019 flying season and hope to get some serious flying going. In addition, I now have a date for getting the electronic sciatic pain killing gizmo fitted which might help my mobility and make me more inclined to spend time away from home.

These models need to be flown not sat in my hangar. If any competent person would like to fly one or all of these models, then please come and talk to me about it. The more they fly, the happier I shall be. If I can source or build another wing, then we might see three in the air together. That would make quite a sight.

Images here show what has been built. Comments as always would be appreciated.

Cheers guys.

Mike

A couple of weeks ago I bought another standard Ultra Stick kit from Ali Machinchys` father at Als Hobbies in Milton Keynes. This makes the third one I`ve had from him to date. The first two have been built, one as an electric version with a 5060-420Kv motor running on a 3700 or 4500 six cell and UBEC set up. The second one has a brand new and unused Irvine .72 nailed to the front. I also have a scratch built cloned fuselage fitted with a low time ASP 1.08. A genuine spare wing will be sourced from Munich over the next few days to give it its own wing. Why from Munich? Well, even with delivery charges and customs and UK delivery added, I can make a saving of £36 on that spare wing with the complete and covered "spare part" with ailerons coming for exactly £80. In the UK, the lowest price I can find for that same part, costs another £36. In perspective, given materials and covering costs of scratch building, it hardly makes building a cloned wing a financially viable proposition let alone finding about twenty five hours of personal time required to build it from raw materials.

OK, everyone knows I have the hots on the H9 Ultra Stick ARTF kits which are not only exceptional value at £206 delivered, they fly like a witch, are very forgiving with a wide flight envelope, but best of all, the kit is so well designed and has a large amount of parts included which makes building a standard high wing kit possible in only about eight hours.

Over the past year or so, I`ve looked at a number of internet forums and at YouTube vids. This has given me an insight into the world wide Hanger 9 Ultra Stick scene. It has been interesting to see what other modellers have done with this particular H9 offering. One of the most fascinating models was a standard kit modified to take an I-beam across the engine bearers which was then fitted with two electric motors. Ungainly the model was but boy, did that model do the business when flown. The sound was amazing. Just as interesting was that the modeller was based in deepest Alaska and was flying the Stick in winter half light off a beach covered with foot high snow!

I also tripped over a 2001 vintage article published in the American RCM magazine. The writer, Jim Feldmann had taken one of the early Hanger 9  78" Ultra Stick Lite kits and converted it to a low winger. He then wrote about it for the magazine and included detailed images of the salient conversion points, miniature plans and also helpful pointers for anyone thinking of converting a kit from high to low wing. Google images also showed that several other modellers had also built similar low wing conversions. The Feldmann article gave me the impetus to perform surgery to Ali Machinchys` latest Hanger 9 kit and to get into email conversation with him at the Horizon Hobbies HQ in Illanois where he holds the position of Senior Product Development Manager. Ali was interested in my comments about the standard Ultra Stick kit and was quite amused when I said that I intended to chop a kit about and turn it into a low winger. Now the model is complete, images have been sent to Ali and I`m presently awaiting his comments. I`ve also mentioned that I quite fancied building a high wing, twin OS .40 engine version but that is a subject for another thread.

The conversion was straight forward enough and without any particular issues. I noted Jim Feldmann had initially flown his conversion with a standard flat wing that was devoid of any dihedral. This caused the model to suffer adverse yaw when rudder was applied. Right rudder input would cause the model to roll to the left which was of course rather undesirable. Jim then cut the wing in two and added an inch of dihedral under each wing tip which cured the issue at a single stroke. Rob at Avicraft and indeed our James both thought that adding dihedral would be un-nessesary. I went away and cogitated on the conundrum.  I hated deciding to turn down the advice of Rob and James especially as they are two such experienced guys. Mr Feldmann said in his article that the model improved greatly as a result of the dihedral addition and that the resulting improvement gave the low winger almost identical benign flying characteristics as the original high wing configuration. My flying abilities are presently advanced ab initio at best so I decided to err on the side of caution and give the model the highest chance of survival in my hands that I could possibly manage. So dihedral this model has gained at this point in time. A flat wing can also be trialled at a later date.

The next item that required my attention was moving the landing gear from the bottom of the fuselage to the top. The idea of the conversion was that the fuselage would be stripped of the original H9 covering and simply turned over to provide instant low wing configuration. On the high winger, the landing gear axle line is just behind the leading edge of the wing. Short of building the landing gear into the front of the wing just behind the leading edge, on the low winger I would have to accept that the landing gear had to re-locate forward of the leading edge putting the axle line about two inches further forward when compared to the high winger. Jim Feldmanns model was built to that maxim and he said there was little to chose between high and low wing versions when it came to take off, landing and during ground taxi work. That gave me further encouragement. The Dural sheet, pre-formed landing gear is standard H9 Ultra Stick which on the high wing original, points slightly forwards.  As I needed the axle line to move rearwards on the low winger, I simply reversed the landing gear and put the wheel spats on back to front! A classic case of keep it simple, stupid!!

The thrust angle for the engine was reversed at the front firewall and I left down thrust as set in the high wing kit. Only after examining images taken yesterday, did I note that the engine appeared to have a considerable degree of up-thrust. How I missed that detail, I don`t know but the issue has now been fixed by insertion of a covered 1/4" ply packer inserted between the top part of the two part nylon engine mount and the top of the firewall. The engine now appears rather better zero`d out and the panic packer is almost un-noticable!

The wing was cut in half with a modellers hand saw. Wing ribs and spars are made from lazer cut and profiled 3mm ply. Ribs are notched at the TE, LE and mid depth section to engage the spars during construction. Lengthwise, the two part spar is joined off centre from the centre section with a dovetail joint which is over plated with a section of 3mm ply which acts as the reinforcement joiner. Above and below the main spar are two conventional 6mm square spruce spars which together with the full depth ply spar, run full length to the tips of both wing sections. 2.5mm balsa sheet spans the centre section with capping strips topping the majority of the wing ribs. It is traditional construction given a modern twist.

On the standard wing center line there exists a centrally placed 3mm rib. To keep that rib in one piece to act as a pattern for my re-construction, I cut down either side of the rib in order to preserve it as a template. That done, all I had to do was cut two new and identical ribs plus one that had and extra 2.5mm of height added to wing sheet level. The three new ribs were laminated together and that gave a glue land for new sheeting to be added either side of the center line. Dihedralled wing joiners were constructed for all three spars with the LE and TE spars having long, taper scarf joints machined on their exposed faces with a similar detail being machined onto the new dihedralled wing joiner reinforcer at the LE and TE. A replacement planted on balsa leading edge was glued to the front spar and sanded to profile. Wing dowels were re-located as the wing orientation is turned up side down (or downside up) which ever way you might wish to see it! Re-building the wing took just a day and a half and although I had to cut back covering in order to chop into the wing, some of this has now been replaced with matching Hobby King white and black covering with the Oracover bright day-glow orange also requiring replacement in various areas. Inevitably you can see where I have replaced covering sections but the end result is probably a 95% good job. I could have completely recovered the wing but that measure seemed rather extravagant. You have to examine closely to see where I have cut and shut this wing back together. The wing weight gain after reconstruction was just two and a half ounces.

The fin and rudder required triangular additions once the fuselage had been inverted. The tail plane is mounted exactly as for the high winger but obviously the fin and rudder had to mount at 180 degrees variance from the high wing model. Small dorsal fins have been added in front of the fin and below the fuselage. A modified Du-bro tail wheel assembly was required in order for the tail wheel assembly to mount correctly.

Inverted, the flat profile of the Ultra Stick looked very poverty stricken and uninteresting. It also visually looked "unfinished" and the presented top decking looked like it had been penned by the man who designed the railway sleeper. To counter that effect, a simple shallow, light weight "whale back" structure has now been constructed on what is now the top of the fuselage. This tapers in a straight line from zero at the front firewall to a height of 18mm approximately 30% back from the wing LE line and then again tapers down to about 6mm at the rudder stock. The effect is of a long, gentle curve of an elongated aerofoil which adds interest and character to an otherwise bland expanse of fuselage top deck. To pep things up further, I plundered Jim Feldmanns model for his cockpit idea. Jim had a molded, clear plastic canopy made for his model which is somewhat reminiscent of a P.51. To save additional cost and effort, I cobbled up a light ply and balsa cockpit, sanding to profile and covering with white Hobby King film and some silver film to hint at a glazed area. This cockpit represents an option or two. Once the model has been test flown without the canopy, it can then be added if desired and the model reevaluated to ensure flying characteristics haven`t been unduly eroded. Fitting only requires a bit of double sided tape and the gap disguised with a few strips of HK covering material.

The motor fitted is a brand new, unmarked and as yet un-run ASP.91 sourced at a bargain price from eBay. It is side winder fitted with the exhaust exiting just inboard of the starboard landing gear leg. It looks a neat and tidy installation and one that is rather prettier than an inverted install. My 1.08 version has the inverted set up and frankly, it is downright ugly as well as being more challenging at start up time. I changed the standard 8oz fuel tank for a Du-bro DB412 12oz tank in view of the large engine fitted and its fuel thirst requirement. The tank just squeezes through the bulkhead aperture forward of the wing. I soon realised that an access hatch would be impractical given that bottom access would be needed and that any chance of removal via that hatch would be impossible due to the new mounting location for the landing gear. Jim Feldmann also came to a similar conclusion as myself and he too also decided to fit the tank into the model via the wing leading edge bulkhead, dealing with any tank maintenance or cleaning when and if an issue ever arose. I don`t like sealing a tank in place but in this case, like Jim, I had little choice.

The model weighs in at 8.3Lbs/3.7Kg and is about a pound heavier than the very light weight electric version. The heavier .91 motor allows rudder and elevator servos to be tail mounted. All servos in this model are metal geared and as a result a pack of eight weigh just over a pound. Seven are fitted in this model. A 2600NiMh 6v Rx and servo battery pack is positioned on the main internal chassis plate just forward of the rear wing sheer bolts. Moving that battery for or aft is easily accomplished and has a useful weight shift which allows the C of G to be altered with little fuss.The weight and balance schedule now being what it is implies that the model is of a similar weight to one of Ali Macs prototypes. On that example, Ali fitted a beautiful if somewhat heavy Saito 19R3 radial engine and countered the weight with rudder and elevator servos placed at the tail plane leading edge. That model flyies wonderfully even at that weight so hopefully mine will do likewise.

With a reverse colour scheme now applied and with a standard high wing US along side, I find myself doing a double take each time I see two fully rigged models in the workshop. You think, "Eh, err, which one is the right way up"?! I still haven`t adjust to that visual impact yet. I wonder what others will make of it?

As always please guys, comments good or bad appreciated.

Mike

Dear all, I am just writing a build review for the Fusion Equaliser EP Pylon Racer.

Hopefully, by the time I have written the review for the build, I will have test flown the little devil and be able to report on that too.

Some of you will know that in the past I have done reviews for the late RC Model Flyer magazine and also RC Model World. I hope you will find this review informative and helpful.

Uploading the photographs onto here will delay things a bit as I will have to reduce the size of the photo,s to post them on this website. Bit of a nuisance really, but unavoidable.

Here are a couple of pictures of the completed airframe, the motor, esc, and battery are yet to be installed.

Look out for the review on this post in the next two to three weeks.

thanks,

Oily

Been around for a while now, has the VTOL able Convergence, so there's quite a few reviews, unboxings (and WHAT a box, it's immense, so if you need to smuggle it in its NOT for you!!) and first flights on YouTube.

Here's my extensive review...................... "It does what they claim".

Good Review, Eh? 

It's not the absolute easiest Delta to fly in plane mode, its not the absolute easiest Tricopter to fly, but its perfectly adequate at both. IMO and from my background I went straight to acro non self-levelling and feel that self levelling mode is only useful to finally land after entering hover, and probably more useful with FPV than when LOS. You CAN fly in plane mode but it requires S....P...A...C...E !!!  However, I connected it up, took it into my garden, and in a swirling breeze was instantly flying eights in Tri mode, it gives that confidence.

A few have come unstuck with it while transitioning back to hover from what has proved to be too high a forward speed, it seems the only area the flight controller gets confused in and if (when?) you do you WILL end up in a high alpha posture with reduced control!  The only practical way to get out of this is to switch back to flight, then back to hover if you are now slow enough and have not stuffed it in. It'd read of this trait, so deliberately tried it out, its not as scary as many make out, but then I'm used to wrestling 3D planes at or beyond the stall and quad flying.

Why did I buy it?  Mostly because it is designed to accept FPV gear, which change will happen shortly after the quad build on the board now is done.  T/O and landing are if anything the highest risk areas with a conventional plane flying FPV and this can only help................can't it??  

Just ordered my second Tek sumo flying wing. The airframe is £27, so you cant really go wrong. You can have a docile setup, or a 60-70mph setup. I personally went for the rocket setup, but since my last one weighed nearly twice the recommend weight, and was hard to land in wind because it glided so far, I think weight isn't a problem, and who says I need to use full power all the time? Hobbyking say a 1000mah 3s, which I obeyed, but it needed 120g nose weight, which is silly for a 300g plane. I am now using a 2200ma, so I have useful weight. People say to put the electronics on top, and cut the holes in the top, but I have had no problems, so for the hassle, I left it. Post pics asap. For the price its dumb to say no. the wing can also handle some wind as I proved with even MY piloting skills last sunday (it was windy, and I'm not that good @ flying).

B

Watching with interest, lets have lots of pictures!

Thought I might as well post up my build of my Twinstar II here, give you some bedtime reading if your really bored, and give me a little place for you lot to tell me if/what I'm doping wrong instead of whacking posts all over the shop....

So, I bought a Twinstar II back in November, and now 4 months later, its "almost" looking lie a plane, but, I'll show you all some pretty pictures anyway of the story so far, just in case anybody is interested.

The pretty box:

Well, the packaging it comes in is not brilliant, everything sits loose in the box, no bubble wrap or cardboard to keep it all from flapping around, although the amount of stuff in the box anyway, it doesnt flap about too much, but nothing is really protected from the box taking a prod from anything pointy...

So, on with the build, and 4 months later, I've managed to install FAA lights into the wing:

The wing is currently upside down, and also has flashing strobes on the trailing edges which unless timing is perfect, cant be photographed and all the wiring for the lights have been buried into channels cut into the foam, glued in place with zacki, then filled over with lightweight model filler (Still yet to finsih the filling but its soo boring filling those little gaps... but it does look better.

The slow red flashing lights are to the outside of each motor with the landing lights on the inside, in total, 8 lights in the wing, and I've just got to bury the light circuit board into the wing recess just in front of where the wing bolt goes, as all wires were extended to reach on this wing as this lighting kit from robot birds, the wires were not long enough to reach the ends of the wing tips

Looks great so far, for 4 months of pratting about with it, and now the 2 wing halves have also been glued together with white model silicone and the GRP spar is also glued into place, but I prefered using model silicone purely to allow a little flex in the wing as I didnt want it to be totally rigid as I think that might fracture something should it ever see a loopy loop

Given it's the 70th anniversary of the Spit, I've never owned one and everyone is building one, thought I'd get in on the action as well.

Kit is here, fuselage assembly has started and I'm making notes and taking pictures as I go. I'll start posting here soon.

Sadly, it didn't survive me doing a limbo in the fun-fly, so when I saw this kit on the BMFA for only £80 it seemed a good replacement.

Not as big as the Cermark Pitts, and not as good quality, but at the money I wasn't going to moan. Anyhow it arrived Saturday in a big box and will be test flown tomorrow (Friday) hopefully.

I fitted the OS BX1 1.08 2-stroke that was in my other Pitts, so it should go like a rocket. I did have to cut 25mm off the front of the motor box to allow it to fit though!

Here's a couple of pictures to wet your appetites - see how big the prop is 18x6 on a 1350mm wingspan plane! heehee

It was a little windy, but this is not an ARTF and handled the conditions very well.

After a little rudder trouble, we got everything set, and after a couple of flicks the Laser 180 was purring away.

Very little correction required after a very quick takeoff at full power, and basically everything went as expected for such a proven design. After some trimming, and a couple of settling circuits she did loops, rolls, inverted and stall turns easily, and the stall was non-existent.

Geoff had a little stir, then I came in for a landing.

All went well but with a slightly high tickover we ended with a little too much ground speed and she just ran off into the long grass at the end of the runway.

A little more aileron movement, and a little more elevator exponential were added to the radio, and then it was time for me to go, but I hope Geoff managed at least one more flight with her!

Thanks for letting me test her out mate - just like a big Acrowot

Watch this space. Oily.

I had lots of worry about if I got a dead sticks, gliding to the runway, how stable the flight and how the plane would fly ect ect.

The plane took off in just under half runway and is the best F"ing thing (sorry excitement) I have flown to date. 1 click right and 2 clicks up, it was so stable that it put some trainers to shame. I also had concerns about landing so on first lanidng I chopped the throttle just before the threshold and it stopped at the half way point on the runway, the following landings was with the engines power with no dramas (bit of rudder to slow the ground speed off first attempt just in case).

I am over the moon with this model it harriers, knife edge loops, rolling circuits and prop hangs lovely, it could do with more elevator but I ain't really fussed about that and on the next flight I need to sort the slight knife edge coupling that is needed.

The engine has the wrong exhaust on it so I am not seeing peak power, the prop is only getting up to 7,800 RPM which is a bit below of my target of being in the 8,800 power zone which we were near when running in (8,200-8,500RPM) but I have another exhaust on order which I hope will improve this. Even with the engine at this RPM the power of the YS170 with APC 19x8 was very nice with the fast flight not being too fast and pulling powe pulling vertically nicely.

I am looking forward to flying this model again.

I normally knock planes out quite quickly, but this one has taken me a few months to complete (I did move house, get engaged, get robbed, make 2 ARTFs and a learn to fly my heli in the interim)...

So, almost ready to fly, here's a few pictures of my version of one of the most famous, recognisable and loved planes of all time.

As many of you will know, I don't fly my fun-fighter in a scale manner, the emphasis being on the fun part, so for all you purists I hereby apologise for the purple tuned pipe slapped on the side.

To everyone else, I hope you get to see it go before I stuff this one too... in fact, I hope you're there for THAT part too

Happy flying....

Plus the other 2 kits I wanted was not at Sandown so you know what it is like when you are in a hall full of kits

WHAT THIS SPACE............................I have already built it (not a lot to build) so write up to follow.

http://ttp://www.extremeflightrc.com/production/video/extra_300_elec_arf/extra_elec_wmv_lg.wmv

I have heard lots of good things about this kit & had been looking to get for a few months now. When I received it & opened the box I was a bit surprised at the lack of wood under the covering of the plane.

As you can sell it is a very skinny matchstick like frame & very, very, very light in weight. The build is amazing, every thing fits together mm perfect, no slop, no messing around. The instructions that came with it could be a bit better, but if you take your time & re-read them 10 times or so to make sure you are doing every thing right you will be okay.

Okay here is the progress on my build, I have CA the ailerons to the wing, cut the holes for the wing servos, built the front engine box mount & mounted it to the fuselage, mounted the supplied motor & ESC, mounted the front cowl,

I have put the landing wheels, struts, spats together & mounted them to the fuselage. I have made up the elevators & epoxy the horizontal stabilizer to the fuselage & CA the elevator to it, I have also epoxy the rudder fin to the fuselage & CA the rudder control surface to it. The tail wheel has been installed.

I still have to mount all the servos but I am waiting for a load of extension cables as micro servo leads are very short. I also need to pop to Avicraft to get them to crimp the wire for the closed loop rudder system. I need to mount the 12x6E prop along with the aileron & elevator linkages.

I was also amazed at how small this aircraft is, defiantly a clam day plane

I need to find time to skin the wings and do the fuselage sheeting on the Mig29 and I'm not enthused to do that at present.

A lot of effort has gone into the Warbirds Replicas Spitfire over the last couple of weeks but I really want another sports plane to just use.

That's the reason a Glen's CAP232 arrived this morning, I should be getting my hands on a 26cc MVVS petrol on monday and as it's ARTF it should be up and running quite quickly.

So not some much a build thread, more of an assembly thread. You should expect to see pictures soon.

Oh and I'm a bit annoyed that I couldn't get to the Ascot show today - look at the weather you lucky bas :twisted: d's

Come on guys, let's hear your thoughts on that latest addition to your fleet. It doesn't have to be a full review or even have any pictures - a simple post like "brought brand x super trainer, it didn't go together well and flies like a dog" will be useful.

From now on I'm going to try and post a thread on anything I build.

hey I just realised I've just gone over 100 posts