RE: Post pictures of your Bi-planes
Hi JLK,
I too have a soft spot for the Pitts Special. This is my second one. The first was a serious 60" scratchbuild about 25 years ago which had nothing in common with this little effort.
To my (dinosaur?) way of thinking a Pitts Special has to be red and white, along similar thinking to Henry Ford`s black Model A`s. This finished model is a pretty little bi-plane but well away from true scale. I had heard that this Herr series are generally of good quality and I`d go along with that. The materials quality and was good. This was my first encounter with laser cutting and I thought it was excellent.
The general model certainly wasn`t difficult to build, parts fit was very good. The fuselage is basically tab-in-slot construction and you couldn`t build it crooked if you tried.
The instructions were sort-of OK - mostly good, but a couple of minor errors in there which lead me to believe that whoever wrote them hadn`t actually built the model. That was not a major problem.
As reported above, I`ve only had two flights with it so far and not in the best of conditions - too gusty for comfort. There seemed to be a minor problem with the initial setup. I had to apply almost full down elevator to arrive at level flight. That apart, it wasn`t anywhere near as twitchy as I expected in such a small model. Both ailerons and elevator were barely effective at all at the recommended settings and I virtually doubled the throw on both to arrive at what I reckon is 'normal' control.The model will loop and roll with ease - I haven`t tried anything else as yet.
Both landings were easy - the first one was a dead-stick event and the model was surprisingly good on the glide.
All in all a pleasant little build. The finished product is a pretty little model to look at, but I don`t think it will have a matching performance. It certainly isn`t a learner's flying model.
Alan W