My apologies to all you folks that live in the great frozen north, but today we had a perfect flying day. 70 degrees and a light breeze right down the runway, so it was finally time for the first flight. All went very well and was much as expected. The ASP was on it's best behavior and ran perfectly. The Contender, to use an old term, "Flies like it is on rails." Round loops and very axial rolls are extremely easy. Inverted flight just takes a slight amount of down, so luckily the balance point came out on the nose, with no extra work or weights needed. Knife edge flight is going to need a bit of mixing to be right on, but after only two flights nothing really to complain about. The oversize Contender seems to almost land itself.
Rudder input does add a little weirdness due to the wing with no dihedral. The first hammerhead was a bit weird, but other attempts were better. The plane was just letting me know that it is not like all the other planes in the hanger, but it is a very good flier with just a few quirks of it's own. Looking forward to getting more stick time on it, and can only say after the first two flights that it is a keeper.
After the Contender test flights, I flew first flights on an old favorite with a new radio in it. It is a scratch built pattern plane built in 2006. I had just replaced my last 72mh radio with a new 2.4 8ch Tactic 850, so it needed to be trimmed out and reset. First impression is it feels just like the old Futaba transmitter but lighter.
Thanks to everyone who chimed in on this build, and hope a few of the newer guys have gotten the bug to give building a try. It sure brings a lot of joy to my hobby hours. I have already started another scratch build
over on Groups. This time it is a updated 2 meter Kaos build. Glad to have you drop in.