They are very nice kits indeed.

The cool thing is in the engineering. there's not much "scratch building" to do at all. Just shaping a few blocks and foam core capping, that's about it. I'm monokoting the prototype, but the rest of my own planes will be all paint...even the wings etc.

Sorry no pics yet, but it is umm...interesting to say the least. I really had a problem with the profile until I changed the vertical and rudder. now, it screams Black Magic again.

Although I'd have to say the Zeque is the new "look", this new plane is pretty hot itself! We're about to begin the flight testing, and if that goes well, we should have kits this summer. I expect a few issues, as is always the case with a plane ths new and different. The question is do you finish tweaking and trimming the plane before it's "released"....lots of manufacturers don't, or they stop one step short. I can't promise 0-0, but I can garuantee nobody will get one until I'm satisfied that there's no better flying plane in the world. I'm really in no rush, except for the guys I'm building the first planes for....they need them badly. But I intend to keep refining as long as it takes.

We don't need a replacement for the V2, it's fine as it is. The new plane is for the absolute upper end of competition, and with the new schedules for next year, it's VERY demanding on a design and set up is more critical than ever before. Until it will comfortably do every manuever in the book, and some not in the book, without any wierd tendancies, it's simply not done yet.

But for anyone who is interested, I plan on having the prototype at the GMA contest in April. It won't be the prettiest thing in the world, but you can get a good idea of what it is supposed to be like.

At any rate, I'm finishing up this phase of the process and all that's left is fine tuning and getting a good supply of parts in house.

And yet, I flew my trusty old V2 the other day, still in original configuration (except almost a pound heavier), and I can't imagine a better plane for AMA classes. Good thing we're reworking the V2 kit a little to be more like the VF3

BTW I'm getting together the pics for the finishing process and I hope to have all of that posted by this weekend.

-Mike