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Old 03-08-2015, 02:30 PM
  #158  
littlera
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Advance, NC
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Thalis,

I can offer some comments on the planes I have built and flown:

QB10L

This little plane is very straightforward to build and fly. It has a narrow fuse and needs small servos - easier to com by than they were 30 years ago when I built it. Unlike some Pilot planes, this one is not full of plywood, and is very normal in weight and wing loading. It flew well, and would be considered normal in every respect. It builds very quickly - you could easily build one from plans I think. It flew very well with an OS 10 FSR as I remember. The servos were small ones I build from ACE kits.

20 size PT-19

I built this plane about 5 years ago and still have it. I have not flown it in a long time due to a temper mental Enya 46 4 stroke engine that has idle problems. It drives me crazy. The plane is too heavy with the fuse mostly plywood. You could use the fuse as a baseball bat - it is that over designed. Anyone building one should substitute a lot of the ply with balsa. Having said that, even with pretty high wing loading it flies pretty well. Keep speed up on landing. It was fun to build - excellent parts fit.

40 size tiger moth

I framed this up for a friend, who then covered and painted it. He then thought sailplanes and electrics were the way to go, and sold the plane without ever flying it. Never saw it fly. I was plenty aggravated by that. If he did not want it he should have given it to me! It built well - again good parts fit. Reasonable weight/wing loading. It was equipped with a ST 46.

20 size Piper Tomahawk

This was perhaps my favorite Pilot kit. It was fun to build, and was not overly heavy like some Pilot kits. Wing loading was completely manageable. The canopy was molded from clear plastic - mask off and paint the part that is not window. Looked real good. I flew it with a K&B 3.5 engine with a Davis diesel head. It ran great. It was my only diesel, as I did not like the smell of ether from the fuel can and the plane itself when stored in my basement. The human nose can smell minute traces (parts per billion) of ether. Wife did NOT like this. While this plane handled normally in every respect (it was pretty aerobatic, too) it exhibited one very odd characteristic that I had not seen in a model before or since. It exhibited Dutch roll all the time. You learn to live with it, and other than looking a bit odd was not a problem. I have been told that the real Tomahawk (as well as Beech Skipper, another T-tail trainer) also has this tendency, so you might say it flew very scale-like! Built in 1983. Only sold two years ago.