I built my son a Herr Cloud Ranger for his 6th birthday. Norvel .074, 3 HS81 servos, Airtronics radio. Today we were able to get it out for its maiden voyage. Started right up, pointed the nose into the wind and advanced the throttle. This thing broke ground about 1/2 throttle and began a gentle climb. Wanting to get a little "insurance" altitude I went full throttle. Oh my gosh, the accelleration was awesome, quickly I brought it back to about 1/3 or so and made a few laps around the field, and set up a landing approach. Wheels touched down and we were able to taxi back. I was really suprised with the grass field performance, no tump overs, and no problem with a ROG. It's been over 35 years since I've flown a 1/2A......and the smile on our faces today was worth the price of admission.

Few things finer in this world than getting to fly with your dad! Your son is a lucky guy, and what a present!

Get that young man on the sticks quick.


Half-A's- fun for the young and the young at heart!

It is equally impressive in electric.

I have one with an Astro brushless with gearbox. Very smooth and nice flying airplane. I did the wing mounted ailerons.

Very nice plane. I modified mine with a steerable nosegear too.

Now you just gave me a reason to get out the digital and snap some shots!

Glenn in Den.

Great plane. I originally built mine with an extra wingspar on each side and added the strip ailerons later. I had a single hs-55 in the wing to control the ailerons. Norvel .074, 7x3 APC prop, 25% nitro with 2 headshims in the engine. Makes for a perfect trainer. I didn't really like it as much without the ailerons. Besides its good practice to set it up just like any other plane so that once you train someone on it they can fly any other 4 channel plane. I had converted mine to trike gear too. Its so easy to takeoff and land you can let someone else try it without having a heart attack. Recently the boredum bug got me and strip it, chopped out my extra spar and built in ailerons to the wing and recovered. This is with the idea of making a little more aerobatic and cut though the wind a little more. I am just finishing the conversion. I used to fly this plane though soccor goals it was so stable and could even fly it around inverted. OH and treat yourself. Get a norvel spring starter and mount it. They say its for a .049 to .061 but it works perfect on the .074 as well. I have a 1/2a electric start for when my norvels get picky but on most summer days I can pull the cloud ranger out of the trunk, pop on the glow starter, spring start and go fly. Its fantastic for quick restarts.