While Top Flights' prop balancer, the "Precision Magnetic Balancer", is as easy to use as it is fun, I think it's as important to have as it is ailerons, elevators and a rudder.

Store bought propellers are not "balanced" and should be - prior to use. If not, you may cause permanant damage to your brand new engine, not to mention it's inefficientcy.

The task of balancing your propeller is as important as it is having one. The instuctions that come with the Top Flight balancer are good, but they're not complete. Their instructions do however get you close, but upon further investigation into the matter, I found that "close" is not "close enough".

Top Flights' instruction manual gets you about 50% there. If you have stopped at that point, you'll see that your propeller is balanced from left to right, but there's more!

In chapter 13, "Prop Talk", in a book published by Model Airplane News, "Getting Started In Radio Controlled Airplanes", Jim Newman further illustrates and explains the need(s) for a complete propeller balancing.

The Precision Magnetic Balancer™ balances the propeller, but Jim's section in the book says that that's only 50%. And to me, 50% is not enough!

The propeller should be divided in fourths, or A/B and C/D. The left side is A/C while the right side is B/D. Top Flight only covers the left and right, while Model Airplane News covers that, and top and bottom, and that's my point!

If you're new like I am to RC flying and want your first flights to be a success, then I would have to recommend you buy a prop balancer - any prop balancer - but I do like Top Flights!

I've been building my plane now for a week and short of connecting the servos to the pushrods and breaking in the engine - it's never seen the sky, but when it finally does, I'm sure that it'll be glorious!

Thanks.

Jon Lamont "MacAir"