I just couldn't wait to start this thread so here goes! It came here right before I left for a business trip, pictures and stories are coming soon!

First off, the plywood crate it comes in will NOT fit in an 8 foot bed truck with the tailgate up, so be prepared! That damn box is 8.5 feet long! That is roughly the size of the plane minus cowling and spinner. Funny enough, with the gear on the plane actually is slightly lower to the ground than my 2.6 Yak, which will make it a lot easier to go through doorways. Overall though, this plane is BIG! The dimenions of it don't do it justice for seeing it in person. The 157 and it's cans always looked big, until I set them in the plane.... My god!

The layup job on this plane is the usual CA goodness. Carbon weave reinforcements are everywhere they should be. The only gripe there is that the weave should be at a 45 instead of at a 90 (relative to the fuse side). Still, incredibly strong and I have no fears of doing some major wall action. Also in this regard, the wing structure is VERY cool, the carbon top and bottom reinforcement, as well as the spar tube reinforcement make it quite permanent. The really neat part is the truss system they have outboard of the spar tube. This wing weighs NOTHING, and is very tough aerodynamically. The skin is typical CA skin, fiberglass foam sandwich. They have the wing setup for 1, 2, or 3 servos in the typical CA gang setup, or through a hatch you can make. Similar to the Yak. Luckily, it employs a typical wingtube, no beams or anything. One position.

The CA website has the manual up now (thank god!) and you can see more there. It states it's similar to the Super Xtra with added refinements but I have no experience with that model so... The amount of prefab is really cool, control arms are in the surfaces, hatch is completely done with screws and all (minus canopy). All the internal parts are literally sand, snap, and glue together. Comes complete with pushrods, phenolic servo arms, all the usual CA stuff. No tailwheel or landing gear stuff, just the legs and wheel pants.

Like I said, it came right before I left. While I'm gone, I'll get some of the other stuff I need (servo arms, fuel tank, etc.).

-----------------DO NOT ATTEMPT THE MODIFICATIONS WE ARE DOING UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERIENCED MODELER/BUILDER, OR HAVE THE ASSISTANCE OF SOMEONE WHO IS. Especially at this scale, these things are half scale full size! IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, PLEASE CONTACT MYSELF, F4YOU, OR DARRINC AND WE WILL HELP YOU AS MUCH AS WE CAN! Believe me, we have been there, and we have done that!----------------------