VIP Racer photo
It's got a 27" inch wingspan, and weighs about 15 oz.
It goes 75-90 mph depending on motor, prop, and battery. Up to 95-100 in a shallow dive. When I fly it in the vicinity of trainers and sport planes, they look like they are stopped.
When I bought it, I thought I would be able to fly it out of my back yard. I've flown a .46 Ugly Stick in the backyard with very little crampiness. There's a 10 acre clear common area behind my yard. The yard is 325 ft wide at the back 100 ft. Clear approach of 400 ft to the left, about 700 to the right.
I have yet to have the guts to fly it out of my yard. It is very hard to get slowed down. As soon as you point the nose downhill, it starts to pick up speed because it has such little frontal area. At the field I usually fly about a 600 ft approach, already slowed down at 50-75 ft. For comparison, I fly a shorter, steeper approach with the F3D/30 (especially now that I use spoilerons on the F3D). A better pilot than could land one in a smaller area, but when it stalls, it drops very fast.
This is a great Speed 400 plane to start with. It comes in two pieces and is all molded composite with a carbon fiber spar. The tail surfaces have airfoils and are hollow with a spar also. Even the pushrods are pre-made. One needs to have a computer radio, because the elevator pushrod is not adjustable (subtrim), and you must have low rates for launch, and high rates for landing. If you launch with high rates on elevator, it will snap. If you land on low rates, you run out of elevator for a graceful skidding landing. (otherwise cartwheel city)
These planes are raced on a 300 x 300 x 60 ft course. They are a blast.
A guy has designed a 400 pylon trainer out of coroplast. That may do well in a backyard. Ace R/C has a plane called the Simple 400 in kit form for $30 (I think) that has a thicker airfoil and slows down better, but still goes 60-70 mph.
I'm almost sure that Simple 400 racing will become an RCPRO racing class. They are very popular.