I have.....uhhhh had a UCD 46 with a new saito .72 in it an it was a dream to fly. I spent almost every night after work, working on it for about two months. It was my second plane ever to fly after my alpha 40 trainer. I went out to the field one night about two weeks ago just to see how the horizontal balance was by just hopping it off the ground and then setting it back down. It didn't really go all as planned. I got it up to speed, it came off the ground and I chopped the throttle then it came back down and bounced lightly and went for the sky. I could do nothing but give it throttle to keep it from stalling out and crashing so I let her go to the skies. This plane flys so well!!! (i'm comparing this UCD to my alpha BTW) Did not want to do anything but fly strait and level until I got used to it so i't was not in the air for very long. It ran out of fuel and I came in for a dead-stick to a better than perfect landing. The next day I had someone else do a second maiden on it and it ended up loosing the horizontal stab and going strait in from about 300 feet up. Total loss.

What I wanted to say here is this is an excellent plane to fly, looks great and looks to do some kool 3D stuff. I had mine setup with a saito .72, 14X4 PRO ZINGER, alum spinner, 6.0v-1600ma battery under the fuel tank, HS5625 on rudder, HS635 karbonite on all other surfaces, 4-40 control rods with du-bro ball links, and no wheel pants. I balanced it @ 5-1/4 inch from LE. Weighed in at 6lb's, 1oz and it would pull out of a hover pretty well but with an .82 I would think it would do a little better. I will build another one shortly. I just haven't got the $$$$ to buy another since I spent it all on this crashed one.

The moral of my story is you might want to think about putting some sort of fly wire or bracing on the tail. I have seen others talk on here that they haven't used wires or bracing and have had more than 100 flights. Maybe I got a bad stab or something. I'm real sure it didn't flutter but then again, it was quite a ways away from us when we saw pieces flying off.

sorry to say anything about this plane that will change your mind about it but I'm far from saying anything is wrong with the UCD. It's a wonderful plane that you will enjoy for a long time.

LATER


Joe