Hi Kirk!

I haven't built any Open planes yet, but I still have the Tufflight Predator in the box. Believe me, I am interested in Open combat, but I have other projects going. I am currently building a Great Planes P-51, and afterwards, want to build one more JKAerotech plane...a P-51! I'd like something with more speed, and that should do the trick. The reason for the 3rd scale plane is that I'd like to go to the NATS next year with a minimum of 3 to compete.

If I have time (before the NATS) after building the combat P-51, then I'll start with Open planes. Unfortunately, I am a slow builder.

I just checked the contest calendar for combat meets up here, but none are listed. I did see the meets in Maryland, though. I'll definitely make an effort to attend at least one of them.

By the way, here are a few tips for the Thunderbolt, or any scale plane. Use metal geared servos...I stripped one plastic-gear servo during test flight crashes, and the other during that mid-air. Secondly, I don't follow the instructions as far as using a single aileron servo. I use one in each wing, laid flat in a cutout (see Corsair instructions on the JKAerotech home page). The reason is that if something goes wrong with this servo, you'll have to tear the plane apart to get to it (my wings are not removable). Also, I epoxied carbon fiber tape to the leading edges of my Thunderbolt and Corsair. If you look at the mid-air pic closely, you'll notice that the leading edge of my right wing panel sliced the other plane. Upon examination, I noticed a little damage to the leading edge of that wing on my plane (the carbon fiber/epoxy had cracked a little). Without the carbon fiber, that leading edge would have been crunched in quite a bit.

Look forward to seeing you in upcoming meets!