OK All - had the maiden this morning at 6:15AM The weather here was pefect, and no wind... Did a quick radio check and one last surface check, set the engine up on the ground got it dialed in perfectly (as is usually the case with Zenoahs out of the box) , pointed it down the runway and took off!

Took off perfectly straight, no adjustments needed of any kind! Good vertical, and very gentle and easy to handle. Did a few trim passes and needed to correct nothing. Did some loops, wingovers, stalls, and basic checkout. Did a few touch and gos, then landed. Checked out all hardware to make sure nothing loosened up, and then took off again, this time with flaps down... rollout was in 5 feet and then full vertical! Turned on high rates and mixes and really had some fun!!!

I wrang it out - full speed fast rolls, tumbles, knifes, hammerheads, inverted loops. Did them all with ease. TRs are stable, but require some work, my balance is slighty more toward the tail than the manual suggests. Plenty of power with an APC 18x6, and that is with a slightly rich setting and the engine still not broken in.


The mixes are very interesting. CROW rocks ! I start very high (like nearly out of sight),cut the throttle and roll into a tip stall to a death spiral.. about 1/3 down I exit the spiral and I flip on the crow mix and point it straight at the runway! The plane slows down incredibly well and I am amazed at the stall characteristics. I did not land with crow the first time and I am glad I did not... the low rate elevator was not enough to pull out of vertical. I tried again with middle rate and landing was a blast. I did 5 crow landings and once I got the hang of it - its a blast to watch people's eyes open when they see a plane coming straight out of the sky at the runway and just before impact, it does a 90* flare and land in 10 feet!! PFC


This is a very FUN plane to fly and play with. Since I fly mainly large scale 3D and IMAC planes, this is a very nice change of pace at a decent price. My total investment is just barely $700, not bad for good size gas plane. I bought this plane mainly to have something that I can toss in the back of my truck and fly anywhere. it fits that bill very well. It can handle just about anything you can throw at it, is very sturdy, and stable. Since I fly IMAC and 3D with my purpose-built planes, I really did not expect much in the 3D department from this plane. I would definitely not call this a 3D bird. While it can do some of the 3D like moves, things like tumbles, harrier circles, harriers, walls, blenders are a bit out of reach due to the geometry of the design. Flat out - there just is not enough surface to achieve this.

On the other hand, this plane will allow you do tricks that even the best IMAC planes won't do - like 6 rolls per second, crow landings, elev / flap mixes (I can do violent loops within the length of the fuse)... it will take off in 5 feet in rocky soil or gravel, and land literally ANYWHERE! The Zenoah is the perfect engine for this plane, and after the first suite of flights, I am very pleased I went this route. Gonna fly at lunch today.. out in the back lot of my company building... try that with an IMAC or 3D plane!!!


Final setup:
US Lite - Elev, Rud servos + battery in tail
2 oz lead also in tail
Zenoah G26 w/stock muffler
APC 18x6 pattern prop
6 Hitech HS425BB standard servos
1 Hitech HS645MG rudder servo
1 JR R770 PCM receiver
2000mAh NiMh battery
JR HD switch / charge jack

10X radio set up exactly as in manual with all mixes

Here's my final ratings: (1-10)

Ease of assy > 10 I literally slapped this thing together in 5 hours!
Instructions > didn't use them, but definitely a 10
Ugliness> a good 8 .. out of the box it was a 10 though!
Strength > 9
Takeoffs > 10
Landings > 10
Flight > 10
Tricks > 9
3D > 5
Overall - 9

This one's gonna get a lot of hours on it!!

DP