This plane gets off of the ground quick and is MUCH easier to land then the instructions warn you about. If you have flown some high performance airplanes then you will have no problem flying the Shoestring.

The "low" rates are very sensitive for pylon racing. I thought that they were spot on for take off and landing. I would set the plane up for the low rate that is recommended to be the HIGH rate and reduce the LOW rate to about 3/4 of what the low rate throws are. On my setup, using a DX8 transmitter, I used the recommended servo arm and control arm holes and then set the D/R for the HIGH rate at 75% for both the elevator and aileron throws. For the low rate settings I used 50% for the Elevator and Aileron throws for the test flight. After getting a couple of flights in I changed the setup to 60% high rate with 30% expo and 35% low rate and 30% expo. This allows you to yank the stick pretty hard to do turns.

If you are new to pylon racing you want the plane to react pretty slow. In the heat of racing you don't want to do any sudden motion when in a turn with other airplanes. By having the control throws set low you can fly MUCH smoother and that is how you fly fast. Darting up and down and rolling left and right will kill your speed. Smoooooooth is fast.

After a couple of landings I noticed that the landing gear was sagging on the right side. I re-bent the landing gear to straighten it out. The landing gear is very soft and does not spring back. It is if the aluminum was never tempered. It has the springyness of lead.....

Overall I would rate this plane as a winner. I plan on building a second airframe soon so I will have a backup. First race is tomorrow. Hopefully it will come back in one piece. In racing, anything can happen.Don't fall in love with your racer. Fly it like you stole it! Just do it safely.