Hi all

I've flown The Bolt this season and about 8 engine hours now. At first I wasn't that impressed about the plane mostly because of sensitive controls. I moved CG more aft and elevator went even more sensitive... just not my liking maybe perfect for others. Now with reduced control throws it is MUCH better for me. My elevator arm is about 12mm and aileron 13mm. Just need to readjust gyro and such... Rudder servo was also too slow for gyro at first better now. Knife edge is not perfect yet opposite aileron is needed. There are notable trim changes between flight modes so I advice to use delay between modes. In principle it's slippery and really want's to go fast. I noticed slight tip stall effect on full flaps but I believe my lateral CG was to blame.

I do like CARF build quality. Specially landing gear mounts are very strong and build from real carbon and plywood unlike most of the bunch. Wing seems to be full carbon and head mounted flash light is needed when doing any work inside it. Fuselage is also black hole to work with even there is more glass in it. Construction is well thought and manufactured. Fuselage is full sandwitch and handles miss-use well. Only canopy and tailcone are single laminate. Maybe the biggest issue on the plane is hard main landing gear... still to be reworked someday. But try to use as much angle on knee if you are building one now

My smoke nozzle quick connect blew during the flight and whole fuse was flooded with oil. Thanks to sandwitch there is not much wood to soak it in so I think I avoided huge rework there... anyway it's very promising at the moment and going to be really good when tuned right!

/Jyri