I'm in a very bittersweet position right now.

First, I'm VERY happy to report that these planes absolutely rock. Emory and I were both in practically tied battles for first place going into Sunday. That's pretty good with a plane that we've only had flying for a week. More on that in a minute.....

Jason Shulman flew mine Friday, and wrung it out. He seemed genuinely impressed with it, and used words like "solid" etc. if he wants to add more, he can, the good and the bad. Seems mine is set up a little nose heavy, and I use a lot less aileron throw than he does. We were discussing the rudder and the fact came up that I clipped mine almost 1/2" chord-wise from the plans, mine are only 78.25" total length. A hair more rudder might have helped some, but it didn't look lacking to me. the up and downline snaps looked very 10-ish, and again, I have no idea hw much was the plane and how much was Jason. he flew it past sunset, and it was so dark you could see stars when he landed.

Bottom line, it's definitely a winner. If Jason wants to add anything, good or bad, we're all eyes. [8D]

It is with a sickening feeling that I have to report that the electric Black Magic pictured earlier in this thread is now utterly deceased. Radio interferance is the best guess, Emory was on channel 11 and there was a huge spike 10khz below him. Jason got hit flying his the night before, and the next morning (Sunday) it went into full lock out....down through the trees across the road wide open. Nothing is left of the plane or the electric system. If he's lucky he managed to salvage some servos and hardware. The good news is 2 fold: he has another just like it, and I will be building him another one as time permits.

Needless to say, when that plane went in, the last thing I was worried about was the contest, so I just let it go. I was a great battle with Mike Constantine, and ONE DAY I'll beat him straight up!!!!!!! he's a very good pilot, I wish he and Steve Homenda would go to the Nats, they'd do very well.

That's all right now, I'll be updating the web site and finishing the building portion of this thread very soon.

Thanks,
-Mike