Well, I'd say the cat is out of the bag now. I'm home, and wow what a weekend! 40+ contestants at a local contest, that's following 33 at the D3 champs and 35 at the tangerine....we seeing a pattern here? GMA is April 21-22, and word has it it could be the biggest in a very long time....I hope everyone that is remotely interested manages to come down, fly, have some fun and make a statement to the "pattern is dying" crowd

Finally, all of the blood sweat and tears have paid off....in spades. I'm not going into much detail yet, because it's too early. New plane euphoria is real, and I would rather not taint an objective analysis with too much emotion.

So I'll be brief: It has met every design criteria I had for it, and then some. I did not design the V2 with FAI primarily in mind, but this time I did. The VF3 is unfreakinbelievable. the prototype is competetive after only a couple of flights. And I mean F sequence competetive. Rock solid tracking, gorgeous controlled snaps, carves through rollers like butter, downlines are "money baby" (I think that was an exact quote LOL) and it flies the same inverted as upright, no wierd rudder yaw stuff in inverted pushes....just....unreal.

It's big. And I mean BIG. It flies big. The drag profile is really unique. You have to add power on downlines in many cases, and yet this thing will haul ass and penetrate even the nasty winds we experienced this weekend. It practically ignores turbulence. The rudder is extremely effective without being touchy.

I did notice that I had to work the rudder pretty good, a tad more than I'm used to. I believe it was because the flight speed was much slower, but I could feel the torque of the DZ. Line work was sick, I mean just like think it and it draws a perfect line hands off, radiuses carve themselves without much work at all.....you really have to "fly" this plane, but WOW does it present well!!!

Jim Woodward is doing the testing honors, and is as critical as they come. We were splitting hairs, really searching for any weaknesses, but so far none have really shown themselves yet. I know it must have some, but thus far, it's REALLY hard to find anything. With that said, it is now in Miami to be put through some hard testing and critical flying.

Quite a few people had thier hands on it. Not for any length of time, but everyone went straight into the F sequence...rollers, double avalanches (those were just sick!!!), vertical "S", and of course, Jason's on the deck "if it weren't Jason I'd be freaking out" stuff, KE loops, etc. All looked pretty freakin stunning to me. No "skidding". Eliminated.

I'm waiting to go into full production until I am comfortable that this plane is the best plane you can get your hands on, period. So far, it's really looking good [8D] I am not comfortable enough with it to recommend it for entry level pilots, because you have to be fairly proficient with the left stick or my gut feeling is it might eat you alive. But for masters/FAI, I already believe we have one hell of a good start!! We just need to shake it down as hard as we worked to design it. So, more later.

And yes, the V2.2 kits are and will be available for any who want them. That thing is still ultra competetive, ask Emory Schroeter, who just placed second to Donny Wright (check the masters lineup at Ocala) and he hadn't even touched his plane in 2 months until round one. Way to go brother!!!!!! Now if I don't get John Fuqua's ready he may kill me soon...LOL

-Mike