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ORIGINAL: Silver Flyer

I have just finished building an Orline Sopwith Pup after many hours of work and about six months time. It is a beautiful plane, covered mine with transparent yellow Mono so all that wood would be seen. It is the third Orline kit I have built since about 1979. All of the kits have inferior wood, balsa, and ply. requiring lots of replacing and lots of bracing. Mine had some warped longerons that I had to cut and rebrace for straightness. I laid in some carbon fiber strands in the center of the wings. 1/4" ply only three plys thick for dihedral braces, breaks when you look at it. BUT! when it was finished and I started to put it out for sell no one wants that kind of plane anymore, as Deadstick said you have to find some one who really wants to have a plane like that. I was told it was only worth only 150-200 bucks less motor and radio. I gave it to my son who put an OS Max 91FS in it and has been flying it every weekend since late Oct. He says it flys every bit as good as his Hobbico Mark III trainer and he loves it. With the short nose I had to add 2 pounds of lead to the front of the firewall to balance on the CG. ( I wish I had an Zenoa 26 gasser) it came out at a few ounces over 12 Lbs all up weight, less fuel. 14 Oz tank added later as 12 Oz not enough for very long in the air. Unless you are a "dedicated" builder with lots of time and have a very high level of tolerance I would steer clear of any Orline Kit no matter what price. Mine was given to me by a friend and I am retired and love to build so I put up with all the faults of the kit. My first Orline kit was a Liberty Stick, flew great but the wood was as hard as oak. My second was a Deweyville, it was the same kind of wood and flew real good with the early OS Max 60 4 cycle with exposed rockers. A real beauty. I have to say seeing this Pup " in the air almost makes it worth all the aggravation.

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