Despite the overcast weather, I got 4 flights on the new Passion today. I must say I'm quite impressed. I had a 21x13.5 falcon on hand so that is what I tested with and this plane is surprisingly fast...but this prop may be a touch more pitch than is needed. The CG is very close as the plane shows a very slight pull tendency in downlines. 1% down with idle took care of that. A 45° power-on upline, rolled to inverted and the plane nearly held the line without dropping the nose. Again, I think the CG is very close and could perhaps go back very slightly..I will get a few more flights before trying a change. The motor could use a pinch more right thrust..but only a pinch. Snaps are excellent, spin entry and rotation seems just fine, stall turns are very controllable. KE there is zero roll couple and I mean dead zero. There is a very slight pitch to the canopy in both directions, but again, I'm wondering if moving the CG back very slightly will take care of that. I mixed only about 6% down with full rudder (nowhere near the KE rudder input and cruise speed) and it seemed to take care of it for the short term.
I'm impressed with the rudder power, roll stability throughout a KE loop and the energy with which the airframe carries out from a downline. Perhaps the frontal area (as it appears) is quite small and the drag and yaw/pitch stability created by the large tail/aft area contributes to how good this plane feels. I noted a similar aspect in Bryan Hebert's Allure. Akiba has hit a nice compromise on yaw/KE sportiness and straight line stability. Time will tell as more flights, fine tuning, and flights in front of my peers will allow me to report further. Surprising to me, several non-pattern guys at the field were excited about the looks of the airplane.
For having only 4 flights, I'm very pleased that I am only able to nit-pick at the little things listed above. Based on post flight voltage, my battery usage looks to be about 2900-3000 mah for the "P" pattern. In front of judges and at a little more distance I would expect more but not more than 3300mah. Again, time will tell. Maybe next time out I'll put it through some "F" patterns
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Many thanks to Mike of F3AU for letting me get my hands on one of the first ones.
