Sorry, I did not take a picture of the completed airplane.

The Miss Ashely flies! Today we put the first flight and trim the airplane. It was a short flight as the engine was too lean. I can say that it flies just like the Vendetta. There were many lessons learn on the first airplane.

Some lessons learn:
1st the most obvious, is that it will need a gel coat added in the molds before laying up the rest of the fiberglass. After a quick layer of paint, we had “Pin Hole City”.
2nd is the location of the servos and radio equipment. The airplane proved to be tail heavy with the servos install behind the wing. Relocating the equipment to just above the wing will solve this problem. That means that the servos can be mounted horizontally and you will have access to them once the wing is removed.
3rd Motor mount system. The wooden motor mount works well but it needs just a longer gusset to remove any engine flex.

Conclusion:
The Miss Ashely will make for a good race plane. Its easy to build, very easy to customize and flies just like the World Model’s Vendetta. And best of all it is lighter than the Vendetta. Even after paint and adding 4oz to the front of the airplane it weighs in at 7lbs-6oz.

Changes for the next airplane:
By moving the radio equipment, we removed the need to add weight for balancing (-4 oz). We have already removed 6ozs of wood from the wing and additional 2ozs out of the wing skins. Also, we will be using a different glue to assemble the wing. I believe that the next airplane, with a YS115 engine, will be under 7lbs. In addition, the next airplane will have some better body work and finishing.