Well fellas, the wife named mine "Purple Haze", I like it so it stuck. I maidened the jet yesterday, got 5 flights on it. The plane flies ridiculously well. I do have a cortex Gyro in it, but turned it off and prefer the plane without the gyro, maybe with some wind the gyro would dampen some stuff, but this plane does not need a gyro. 3 clicks up up elevator and 2 clicks of left aileron and mine was trimmed level. I played it safe and balanced at 245, that is NOSE HEAVY, I had to maintain about 25% stick to hold the jet level while inverted. I am going to set it at 260, Measurments show 260 to be the middle of the main wingtube. I had my controls setup for maximum deflection with triple rates,Full aileron deflection is ALOT, and the plane will roll ridiculously fast, I ended up taking 65% of that and using it as the high rate, nice even fast rolls, but not crazy. Plane landed great, although still nose heavy for me, having to hold more elevator than I like, on my last landing I did Stall it, I came in with the nose high, and got it too slow, got back in the power but not quick enough, dropped it from about 6 inches, it knocked the left main gear door off, but other than that the plane is fine and ready to go again. I did have too much crow in it for that last flight, I had 3/4 of an inch of crow, and that really is too much, I backed it down to 3/8 for my next flight. I also had flaps at almost 90 degrees, even with my 160, I think that is considerably more flap than needed to slow it down along with crow. I am also gonna reduce the flap deflection. Everything on the plane worked perfect, the gear holds air for days, brakes work very well (I dont grease my brakes). My Jet weighed in at 31 lbs Empty with UAT Full. I have an upgraded Jetmuntz Merlin 160 in it for power, and it has the power to keep a smile on my face, if you keep a reasonable control on your left thumb I say the 160 is a perfect engine for this plane. The purple color is just smokin on this plane, and shines, My buddy had his Ferrari scheme T1 and I can tell you the purple scheme is harder to see on the back leg than his red/white, but I fly mostly scale fighters anyway so am used to seeing a black dot on the backleg anyways, so not an issue. I am still sold that purple is the best color. I am using the large double tank both sided for fuel, and have my timer set for 8 minutes, When my 1 minute warning goes off I setup to land, and had about 25% of the main lower tank full. I do have a 24oz smoke tank underneath and it works great, the 24oz gives about 2-2.5 minutes of smoke, so gotta use it wisely. I waited exaclty 7 months from ordering to recieving the plane, was it worth the wait, do I have any complaints about the plane? Im not a patient person, but yes the plane is worth it, I have zero complaints, it is built very well, mine arrived without a scratch on it, and flies flawlessly.
I am including some pictures and some videos,, Even the video of my stalled landing, only thing that really got damaged was my pride,, it was copletely my fault. This really is a NO-Stress throw and go turbine jet, with a great size, and a great prescence in the air. I had multiple conversations with Dirk during my order, and he has been a great guy to deal with, even called me up to harass me a couple weeks after I got it to see what was taking me so long to maiden it, He is a good guy. Your money will be very well spent on this plane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSiEDQXt44g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTrj8PFqMts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWg1AH0UCYU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUfKefvhYJw
and my last flight of the day big dummy moment how to stall and not land!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiYJAHpbz9s