Hello Minn. Well, this past weekend was maiden flight time. When we got to the field we saw that some milicious individual (s) tore up the field with 4WD's. We had a small area we could fly on but it was a pain in the butt. We have to spend a lot of time fixing the field. Wonder why people do that sort of thing.

Anyway, I fueled it up and started the engine. All went well. I checked and rechecked linkages and throws, making sure right was right and up was up... and so on. All was ok. So, I asked my flight instructor if he would take it up for me. He more than gladly obliged .

He checked a few things and then I carried it out to the field. He taxied it around a bit to get the feel for the steering then lined it up into the wind (what there was of it that day) and added throttle. His first comment was "Very Nice!" He said no trim was needed.. surprised me to no end! He then started doing his thing.. loops, rolls, and so on, and burned almost the entire tank of fuel. Only one comment was to possibly change the prop for a little less speed, then he landed it very nicely.

I changed the prop from the 11-7 I had on to a 12-5 that I had and check everything with the tach. All within limits so more fuel and up she went. He flew for about 3 or four minutes then climbed up high and gave me the RD6000. I flew it in slow orbits for a while then started doing loops and rolls myself.. a few sloppy stall turns then brought it around for a landing. First attempt was a bit over the torn up real-estate so I went around, lined it up perfectly and greased it in. Happy camper!!!!

But, i was not willing to take it up again because of the condition of the field. I felt that there was to much brain loading with the new plane, new behavior, and torn up field so I cleaned it up and put it away for another trip out there.

The Forestry Department was contacted about the torn up field (it's their landing area for the ariel tankers for forest fire fighting). They were not surprised, I guess it happened before. They said they would fix it right away. We offered to get a working party together to rake it up and roll it out but they said they would take care of it themselves.. guess they have more resources than our 70 man club.

Ok.. thanks again for the comments, AND the excellent review (yep, I read it). You were inspiring to me as well as was Frank Granelli of MA Sport Aviator magazine who also did a review.