I must have hit a wrong button on the calculator. My wing loading at 10.5 lbs is going to be 24.4 oz/ft.

Hoping to maiden tomorrow, having balance issues, its tail heavy, and I really dont want to add weight, so may take me a while to get it balanced. As it is right now, adding 6 oz on the firewall, and both batteries on engine box would get me at 1/4" past recommended aft CG. Lipos weight dont help much for balancing. I might try it, if it fly's heavy I could worry about it. I typically set my CG 1/4" past recommended anyways. This would put wing loading at 24.6 oz/ft.

Anyone gonna be there to video for you? I"d love to see it fly.

So, even with the gas, it's actually tail heavy? I thought you'd be having to weight the back end for sure. Do you already have everything as far forward as it can go, or did you build it with components to the back thinking it was going to be nose heavy?

Why don't you just add some weight for the test flight that you can easily remove. Then if it seems like it can fly better with it aft take it off. If you add a little weight just to find the best balance it's not going to make it tippy at that wing loading?

I have this plane with a ZDZ40, and it flies great. It will hover at about 1/3 throttle, and it still flies very light even with the bigger engine. The balance came out perfect, and there was not need for any aditional weight. I don't know exactly what it weighs, but I would guess 11 to 11-1/4 lbs.

With the weight I had to add for balance, its now just a hair over 11 lbs. I'm not one to mess around, normally, if I add weight, it is accompanied by horsepower. I will try it with the MLD 28, but 11 lbs is at the upper end for 3d for the 28. My 10.5 lb Yak flew just fine with the 28, so it may be ok. If not, then I'll put the SPE 43 on it, and get something a little smaller for the 28. The cowl cut out would not even change much between the two either, and the mounting foot print is seperated enough that I would have a set of new holes, not elongated ones. I think that would be a perfectly good excuse to buy another plane

Maiden flight went well, until I landed. A gust of wind stalled me on landing, and it dropped from about 3 feet, and the fiberglass gear squated, completely delaminated, and broke. That should not have happened, they should have withstood that easily. They seemed weak, and I ignored it. There was no other damage what so ever. (grass) Modified a set of aluminum gear I had, and went back out. Fly's great. When I landed, I realized I almost lost the plane and did not know it. The end cap in the left wing tube sleeve came off, and the tube worked its way into the left wing. When I took the wings off there was only about 3" of tube in the right wing, very lucky the wing didnt come off. Cut the wing open, and fixed that in about 5 minutes though. Then my brand new throttle servo would not hold a setting, my last landing, I had to kill the engine to slow down. Checked idle and it was 3150, she was coming in a little hot, lol. I'll change the throttle tonight, and I'm going to order a new gear set, they are beefy, and that had to be a defect in my particular set. No camera man, so no video. It does every thing very well. keep the aileron high rates at about 40 degrees or less, and rudder at 45 degrees max. I'll get video soon. Someone did not want me to fly today

definitly a rough start. Do you feel the 28 is going to be enough for it, or is the 43 more appropriate?

The new DL 30 might be a good canidate for this plane also.

Thats what I was thinking. Or the new 30cc engine coming from Syssa Aircraft any time now.

The MLD 28 is fine for pattern and 3D. Hovers at a touch over half throttle, with pullout, not rocket though. And vertical is not unlimited, but plenty. I was able to pull off waterfalls as well. Inverted flat spins are nice. I couldnt get it into an upright flat spin, but with the issues I was having, only flew twice. I'm sure it will do them nicely, and I still have the initial tweaking of expo's and such to do. The 1/4" past recommended CG seems top be spot on, as I added no elevator trim, and it was hands off upright, and inverted level flight. All she needed was one click right aileron trim, and that may not be needed, just realized I forgot to laterally balance, DOH!!

Here are some pics. Pre-maiden

Looks good! Sounds good too. I'll have to definitly consider this as my gasser plane. Do you think it's flying quality competes with a quality 50cc?

Maybe with some 50cc models, but as a rule, no it is not comparable.

Here is a video of mine. www.youtube.com/watch

Damn! Nice flying bro! It looks like it handles really well.

Looks very nice, gobs of power!

Very nice video!!

I work at Dayton International airport in Ohio, and the air show is this weekend. Team Oracle is keeeping their planes in our hangar. They have an ultimate, an edge 540, and 2 extra's. I showed Sean Tucker a pic of my extra, and edge, he grabbed a team oracle hat, signed it, and handed it to me, he thought that was very cool. Very nice. He's a real down to earth guy. I'll try to get some pictures of their planes tomorrow. It'll be hard, they are giving VIP rides , and practicing all day. Maybe they will have some down time when the Thunderbirds are practicing.

Any updates on this? Hows the plane flying/holding together for you? Now that I assume you've had a chance to fly it a bit more, have you come across any weak points or problem areas?

The plane fly's great. Only thing I found a problem with was the landing gear. They failed on the 1st landing, it wasnt the best landing, a gust of wind stalled me in a crosswind landing, but is was nothing they shouldnt have been able to take. Len at Advantage hobby said there have been no other complaints of failures, so maybe I got a bad set, it happens. Other than that, its typical Fliton, kind of a pain to build, but fly's circles around most others (if not all) in the class. It's actually the easiest Fliton I have built though. Only flight issue is that upright flat spins are not perfectly flat. But, I had elevator throws at 45 degrees. I just moved them to 50 and expect it to go perfectly flat in them. Everything else is text book. Virtually no coupling at all, anywhere.

Do you think a Saito 150 would do this plane justice?

It would be very nice. You will want to use a 17x4 or 17x6 prop for 3d. 18x6 would be pushing it. If you dont already have the Saito, I would go gas though.

My Saito 150 is well broken in and I am looking for an Extra style plane. Not big on 3d more pattern type flyer. Will that engine pull it out of a hover (IYO). Final question, Filton 330 vs. AW Yak 54 120, I know you've had both which would you chose for a Saito 150? How did you like your AW ?

The Fliton Extra HANDS DOWN. The Extra does everything better except flatspins. The Yak does those better, but not by much. I say everything because its true, and didnt want to type all the manuvers. The Yak has a severe tendancy to snap (roll) with elevators at mid to higher speeds. Its as though you are adding ailerons. I tried everything to get rid of it. The extra doesnt even couple in a knife edge, zero, let alone snap out of a roll. The Yak wing rocks severely in a harrier, its almost impossible to counter it with ailerons, but you can do it. The Extra wing rocks very very little, and stops that at higher alpha. They will weigh about the same, the Yak may be just a touch lighter, but you know how balsa grade varies, so that one is a toss up. The Yak is a quick build, which is nice, but the Extra is the easiest Fliton I have put together. You will want to buy hinges, and not use the CA hinges included with the Extra, but thats nothing, I used all of the other included hardware, and have not had any issues. Use low iron settings to start, the covering shrinks faster than monokote. I had some start to pull off edges at monokote settings, fortunately I caught it before it was very noticeable. I am extremely happy with this airplane, and I never was with the Yak. Everyone told me to sell it so they didnt have to hear me complain anymore. So I did. The Extra will be an awesome pattern plan that you can go nuts with when the urge strikes

As far as the Saito 150, it should do just fine, may not rocket out of a hover, but will definately pull out of it. I had a Saito 180 in my Yak, and it did good, but the MLD 28 turns an 18x6 prop 700 to 900 rpms faster than the 180, with much faster spool up. Gassers have alot more torque. The performance difference of the MLD over the Saito was huge in flight. But I think you will be very happy with the 150 on the Extra.

Thanks for all the info I think you just helped me to make up my mind. Hope once I get it if I have any questions I can add them to your build post. Thanks again

Can you share your low and high rate settings and what after market landing gear did u use?