I've got about 10 flights on my Pizzaz. Here is my setup and my observations. Hopefully some of you can save me some time by sharing your setups. I'm less than thrilled at this point.

1) Irvine .53 with 12.5x6 and 13x4 APC props. I actually think this motor can easily turn the APC 13x4 Wide blade. This is a nice motor! It blows my 46FX with a Macs one-piece muffler away!

2) Standard ball bearing servos all around with a 700 ma nicad above the trailing edge. I used a carbon arrow shaft for the elevator pushrod and pull-pull on the rudder. I did not use the supplied pushrods. They were very soft. I used all the other kit hardware.

3) CG is at 4.25"

4) Weight is 5 pounds, 4 ounces

For starters, the gear is too short for 13 and 14 inch props on grass. I'll go with bigger wheels for now, but I'll also look for a replacement (lighter) gear.

Knife edge tucks to the gear, but I can mix that out. Rudder is very effective. Not a lot of roll coupling until you really hammer the rudder.

It does awesome flat spins. I haven't totally explored this yet, but it likes to spin inverted. It will flat spin upright to the right, but not the left as I have it set up right now. Knife edge spins were not very tight...it just drops like a rock while rotating in a slow spiral. But I haven't played with this much yet.

It rolls nicely, and very fast on high rates. Loops are very tight, especially with the flaperons on. It dips through multiple high speed stalls if I loop too tight on high rates, but this is normal for extreme throws. Stall turns, and all the normal stuff is fine. Landings are really easy.

3D? Not really, yet. I'm still trying to get it to harrier. I tried raising the spoilers a bit. How far should I go? I haven't pulled off a decent elevator yet. Waterfalls are possible, but I'm working with a new motor so throttle response will be better later. I think it will hover okay, but again, I kept it up there pretty high and didn't want to lean the motor out too much. When you get it perfectly vertical it will torque roll quite fast. It was 40 degrees, cloudy and windy last time out so it was tough. It does a pretty good blender, as well as a decent wall.

Summary - I think the Pizzaz could be a good second plane for someone that wants to learn aerobatics. It would fly fine with a bushing 40 and low rates with a sensible CG. I think it will be fine as my "knock-around" practice plane, and for club fun fly competitions. It's small enough to fit in the back of a car, and it's one piece so it's fast to get in the air. It was a good idea, but it needs more wing area and less weight. I got a good deal on a trade in at my LHS so that's why I have the Pizzaz. If I had it to do over...maybe I would have gone with a Top Cat ARF.

I'm going to work on things to make it fly like I want. I'll see if I can remove a few ounces off it. I've heard of guys pushing the CG back to 5"! Any comments on your optimum CG? Any other suggestions?

Let us know what set-ups you've got!

Chuck