Originally posted by jharkin
I've got a question for anyone who has flown the smith...
I was talking to my club's chief instructor the other day. He mentioned to me helping out another member of our club who had a miniplane. He said that the thing was very unstable and nearly impossible to control. A "real hand-full" was his exact words. This seems similar to elmshoots experiences. Is this typical? Has anyone else found this plane to be a hand-full?
Thanks,
Jeremy
I had 2. One was covered in Coverite and painted and the second one was monokoted. The monokoted version came in 6 oz lighter because I didn't have to stick so much lead in the front. The first one was powered with an OS .50FSR and the second was with an Enya .45.
Both were built stock, both were balanced right on the leading edge of the bottom wing per instructions. Both did the zoom on first flight that elmshoot talks about. Just added a few ounces of lead to the front and that went away. The plane (after adding the lead) was a hands off, point where you want to go, airplane. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Lost the first one in a midair and sold the second one for another project.
After a few rough landings, I replaced the wire/wood/epoxolite landing gear with an aluminum one and that made it even easier to takeoff and land (wider stance)
I have one more NIB that I keep saying I have to build one of these days but projects are piling up. Oh well, "one of these days" may eventually get here.