Hi All,

I did maiden the yellow Dirty Birdy today. It flew great, took me right back to the 80's when I first flew pattern competitively. It only needed one click of down trim. My CG is 1/4 inch ahead of what the plan showed for safety on the first flight, but it seems just right, no pull out in a hands off vertical power off dive.
I set the wing incidence at just shy of 1 degree. I will go through the trim process, but right now it loops straight and doesn't pull in knife edge, so I think it will be an easy trim job.

The OS 61 FSR I got on the famous bay for $60 started with little fuss and tached at 14K plus with an APC 11X7. A bit too much I think, I hate using too many glow plugs up, so I changed to an 11X8 which it turns at 13,100 on the ground. I haven't flown it with that one yet. It was fast with the 11X7 and nearly unlimited vertical. An OS 55 would be plenty and would have saved 4 ounces of tail weight in my case.

However, it flies with a light feel at 7 pounds 3 ounces and slows down nicely to land. Even the retracts worked flawlessly, except I think I will need to find a check valve to put in near the fill because it leaks too much out as I remove the air pump. I only get two cycles. Does anyone make check valves that fit our thin air lines?

Once again thanks dbaque for the instructions that helped me get things right the first time! They really made a difference.

Chuck