P40,

I had the Phoenix Giles only my experience was the opposite of yours. Mine came out quite tail heavy. Mine, like yours, flew like it was on rails. I don't recall the exact weight but it was at least a pound heavier than yours. The wood used to construct the tail on mine was rock hard and very heavy. I had a Saito .82 on mine and it took a long time to get off the ground on takeoff.

Too bad, because it was a nicely finished plane. Landings were easy for me. I never had a single bad landing with the Giles. As long as you land under power and keep the speed up it is fine.

My opinion on Phoenix products is they are typical for a lower-end, cheap ARF manufacturer that doesn't pay enough attention to their balsa quality. From all the comments I have read it appears some of their planes come out very heavy while others are OK. They could spend a little less attention to the quality of the covering and more on the wood selection and their planes would come out very nice overall. The hardware is cut-rate, some needs to be replaced which isn't unheard of in the ARF world.

I hate to say this but if the choice is between a Vector Flight plane and a Pheonix plane I'd say avoid the Pheonix like the plague. Vector Flight has consistent quality and when there is a problem you can actually get replacement parts for them. Not to mention, I don't think I have ever seen a negative post related to Vector Flight while Pheonix is another story.

I bought the Phoenix because it was cheap. In the end the plane crashed due to my hot dogging too low and not any fault of the plane. If Phoenix started stick building the rudder and elevator on these planes rather than using solid wood it would make a huge difference. I considered doing this with mine but never got around to it.

Buyer beware... Your experience may vary.

FlyerBry