Extremeflight R/C Introduces the Outlaw ARF. Designed by 9 time NCFFA champion Jerry L. Smith, with airfoil assistance by Robert Vess of www.vessaero.com it has been around for years as a short kit with ribs or plans only. Now it is available as a ARF so more people can enjoy this fast aerobatic flyer without lots of building time!

I have built a few of these from plans and some would say they are a difficult build, and lots of sanding is required. Now the Outlaw has gone from a difficult build to one of the easiest builds with the release of this new ARF!

Kit Name: Extreme flight R/C Outlaw
Price: $149.95 retail price
Wingspan: 36 "
Wing Area: 558 sq. in.
Flying Weight: 46-52oz
Engine: .25-.36 2 stroke
Radio equipment: 4 channel with Delta mixing and 70+OZ servos

Needed to Complete:

• Square
• Straight edge
• drill bits
• CA Glue
• 5 or 30 minute epoxy
• General building tools

The large flat box arrived in perfect shape, and as you can see it's ready to fly! Well not quite, but almost.

Assembly of the Outlaw ARF is very easy and only requires a few hours. I started by going over the covering with a iron but found that there were not many wrinkles. I suggest doing this to make sure the covering is sealed on the leading edges well, you don't want it to peel back at 130MPH!

The Assembly manual is very well written and includes pictures. The first thing to do is glue on the bottom fin.  As you can see it is tabbed at the back and all I did was use a straight edge to remove the covering then glue it on.

The top fin was installed next and there are tabs here as well, its like putting a puzzle together! I removed the covering between the tabs with a straight edge and then glued the top fin on with 30 minute Epoxy. I tried using a square to make sure the fin was aligned correctly, but since the wing has anhedral the square could not work perfectly.  Between the square and just eyeballing it I did get it perfectly aligned.

The hatch cover was a little bit too long in my kit, it only took a couple of swipes with a sanding bar to make it fit. The front part of the fin is also tabbed and it is glued to the hatch. The completed hatch slides into the rear part of the top fin and is secured with tiny screws.

The hinging was straight forward, just use the included CA hinges and glue them in, also the hinge gaps must be sealed with either tape or covering, I used Clear Ultracote on mine.

The servos are installed in bays from the bottom of the wing.  Note the correct servo placement. Heavy Duty Dubro servo arms were used and they lined up perfectly with the center of the opening. I used Hitec 5645 digital servos but any 70+ OZ servo can be used. The manual recommends Hitec HS-475 or the Digital HS-5475.

The servo lead was routed through the tube in the wing to the center bay. The lead also has to be wrapped around the servo as in the picture so it doesn't interfere with the servo arm.

The covering on the servo hatch was cut flush with the edge.  I would have rather seen it wrap around a tiny bit so it would not peel off or get fuel under the edge.

After mounting the servos the hatch was mounted in place with 4 screws. The high quality control horns were mounted next, making sure the hinge point was directly over the hinge line. The control rods were the correct length and a Ball link is used on the servo side and a tiny screw in the clevis for the control surface side. The control horns in my kit had a hole that was way too small to thread the rods into, so I had to drill it out.

The Rudder Servo was mounted on the bottom of the wing after removing the covering over the opening. The Linkage was setup just like the Elevons.

In the older plans of the outlaw, the Elevon and rudder servos came out of the bottom of the wing, this could cause servo gears to strip on landing. On my scratch built I moved them to the top just like this ARF has them, but they kept the rudder on the bottom as well. You could mount it to the top with a little work but with the included skid in the kit there shouldn't be a problem.

First I covered the pre-installed blind nuts with tape and used 30 minute Epoxy thinned with Alcohol to fuel proof the firewall and on the inside of the Hatch where the fuel tank sits. After it was dry the included nylon mount was installed using Loktite on the screws.

The Throttle servo is mounted in the back of the middle Hatch and the kit provides a smaller ply plate in case you want to use a Mini servo such as the Hitec 225. I decided to use a Micro servo, HS-81, for my throttle so I made up a new plate that was a little smaller. It can be tricky to get the servo mounted, I recommend a ball drive and hex head servo screws.

The fuel tank was assembled and slid into the front of the Hatch, there is not much room to stuff foam to protect it but I got a tiny bit in there and glued a balsa stick behind it so it couldn't move.

After making sure the can was empty I cut a hole in the bottom of it with a Dremel and sanded it till it was a tight fit with the header. Next I used alumiweld rods to "weld" the header to the can making sure to clean it with a Stainless steel brush first. I have had very good luck using these rods and they can be bought online by doing a Google search for alumiweld or at Harbor Freight stores. If you don't want to use them you can use JB weld which is what I used on the rear exit pipe. After welding or gluing the header to the can cut off about 1 1/2" of the header from the can end so you can use the rubber coupler included with the header package.

I made a tray in the front of the Hatch to mount my receiver since the Throttle pushrod can get in the way. I used a Spektrum AR-7000 receiver and mounted it to the tray with Velcro and foam underneath it. The receiver pack was made from 1100mah NIMH cells and fit perfectly. You can see it can be a tight fit but I just took my time and routed the servo wires thru the ribs and back into the receiver. This hatch is bigger than the Plan built version which is a nice improvement.

The Outlaw balanced perfectly right in the middle of the CG range of 11.75 and 12.25 inches FORWARD from the trailing edge at the fin.

The rates were setup per the manual at

Elevons low rate - 15 degrees up and down

Elevons high rate- 45+ degrees up and down

Rudder low rate- 20 degrees right and left

Rudder high rate - 45+ degrees right and left

The manual suggests 30% Expo on the elevons for low rate and 80% on high rate but I personally like a little more on the low rates.

The rudder was set at 45% Expo on low rate and 90% on the high rates.

The first flight is always a little tricky so I had someone launch the Outlaw for me.  This requires nothing more than holding it into the wind and releasing it, no pushing or throwing is needed.

It fly's right out of your hands and after a couple of clicks of trim it was flying rock solid like my scratch built. Full throttle passes were fast at around 125mph and it will stop on a dime. You can basically put it into a flat spin at any speed or altitude, also known as a Wad!

If you have not seen one of these fly you will be amazed what it can do and still keep on flying, you would think the receiver battery would fly out thru the bottom of the plane!

The Outlaw also slows down real nice and has no tendencies to tip stall at all, the Delta wing is very stable and it can be flown around at just above idle.

Flips funny spin looking things, all that make it look out of control, are what are so fun about the Outlaw. Sure there are other delta wings out there but with the rudder and the airfoil of the Outlaw they cant touch the way it fly's

For the video below I had a friend of mine and Team Outlaw Pilot Larry Lewis show you what it can do. Outlaws can be very fast and maneuverable so it was a little difficult to get good video. I recommend downloading the HD video for the best picture if you have high speed internet.

As seen in the video square loops, knife edge, flat spins upright and inverted, flips, slow flight, pile drivers, wads, and many other things you can make up can be flown with the Outlaw.

Larry flew it so hard his header cracked but the Outlaw held up perfectly! You can hear its a tiny bit louder in the landing. This is the first time we have seen a header break in many years so it was just fluke. Just shows how well the Outlaw can handle it all!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Broadband users download the high resolution 139MB version and view this one in full screen for maximum enjoyment. This is one ride you have to see to believe. Watching the video of a plane like this is something you just can never get from a still picture in a magazine. Enjoy RCU Members!

It goes together very quickly and there is not a difficult area in the whole build. If you can fly a sport plane then you should have no problem flying the Outlaw so don't let it scare you. You can always fly it around at half throttle to get used to it but it won't take you long till you are wadding it up on a full throttle pass.

These also make great pylon racers or just get a bunch of them in the air at the same time for a whole lot of fun!