Yes it does.

I arrived at the field this morning with my buddy Tom Moore to marginal weather conditions. It was fixin’ to rain. I had Tom give the airplane a once-over with his discerning eye. Always a wise idea. We assembled our aircraft, and after taking a flight on Tom's Venus II to warm up the thumbs and fingers (I'm a "pincher"), it was time to go.

Takeoff- The airplane left the ground a bit earlier that I had predicted. A couple of clicks of up trim, and it stabilized really nicely. Nice and straight tracking. I know that some of you view making a classic into a taildragger, but the long moments make it largely indistinguishable to a properly set up nose dragger on the ground. I did it for weight savings. Your mileage may vary.

General Impressions- FAST! FAST! FAST! This Vertigo is 3/4 of a pound lighter that my last one, and it shows. The Magnum engine unloads and pulls hard. It is turning 13,200 RPM on the ground (11-7 APC, 15% Omega, @sea level). It really unloads in the air. It is showing a lot of potential. It would likely respond well to a tuned pipe. Rudder authority is greater that I can remember from the past, however I did not build this one with the “optional” fixed tab, so it has more effective area the past iterations. The elevator was touchier that predicted (this was toned down a bit for the second flight). Aileron response is crispy and well damped. No expo, and it doesn’t need it. Did I mention that flies really fast? BTW, it really hauls *****!

Rolls- Dead straight rolling through three rolls, slow rolls, four and eight pointers. Slow rolls- how slow do you want to go? Amazing. Same thing with point rolls. I can see the anhedral at work here.

Knife Edge- No problem. It seems to pitch to the belly a bit. Kind of hard to tell with the funky winds today. I will learn more as the flight time accumulates. It may be related to the up trim issue.

Loops- Big and round. Wow! Outside loops that don’t look like #$&^! It’s been a long time since I have flown an airplane that loops like this. The memories are coming back into focus.

Stall turns- This is a pleasant surprise. But not a total surprise as there is no fixed gear acting like little wings to screw it up. Figure “M”s also look good.

Inverted Flight- Rock solid, impressive looking. Again we see the benefits of the anhedral. Having flown this design both ways (flat and anhedral) I observe that the anhedral has a stabilizing effect on the negative “G” realm.

Slow Speed/Landing-This design has awesome load speed handling, with very gentle stall characteristics. The thick airfoil and generous leading edge radius make this happen. Don’t let the swept wings scare you. Landings are nothing out of the ordinary. Set up a normal approach, and be prepared for some float close to the ground. This airplane floats in ground effect.

Conclusions- Was it as good as I remember? No. It is far better. Was it worth the effort? You bet. Will I be making more of these airplanes? Yes, as long as I am able to fly, I do not want to be without a Vertigo II. Everyone has their “pet” airplane, and this one is mine. I am looking forward to many, many hours of flight time. As with any pattern bird, the trimming has just begun. It is super responsive compared top my memories of old. I attribute that at least in part to the vast improvement in radio and servo technology. There was no lag time for control inputs. The aerodynamic damping built into the design keep it from being twitchy. Responsive, yet not twitchy. Try that with a modern design with their oversize control surfaces. I don’t think that here will be much need for electronic trickery to hide bad design characteristics on this design.

I will post a link to more photos, and add some in-flight shots as opportunity permits.

The fun has just begun!

Best regards,
Robert