Ahhh, success.

First off, I was wrong about the .15 OS LA engines. They are actually .25 sized. I was pleasantly surprised when I was asked at the field, "What sized engines are those?" and I doubled checked to find the 25 on the side. So I knew I had enough power to fly comfortably.

I had originally decided to use a Y-harness on the throttles, because I couldn't figure out how to program my DX7 transmitter to work with the two throttle servos. But once at the flying field, one of the trainers was able to show my how it's done (here's a hint, when setting up the mix for the AUX2 --> Throttle, be sure to put 100% in both rates. The servo will act like it doesn't work if the rates are at 0%).

So after about an hour of tweaking the mix, I fired up one engine and tuned it. I was very happy the engine started right away, because the plane and engines were purchased at a swap meet. I shut down the first engine, then started and tuned the second. I set both so they were fairly rich. Then I started them both.

The sound of those two engines singing together put a big smile on my face. They sounded fantastic. I actually preferred the sound of them idling to the WOT. I did have a problem however. The mid-range of the RPM were way off. At half-throttle, the right engine was nearly WOT, while the left engine was correctly opened. The RPM difference was around 2000. The idle and WOT were almost exactly the same RPM, but I knew the mid-range was important so I didn't take her up. I did taxi for a couple of minutes. I thought I had perhaps put the servo arms on incorrectly, so I packed everything up and went home to investigate.

Turns out I had adjusted the idle location of the right engine with the sub-trim on my TX instead of using the mix rate. I don't even know what sub-trim is supposed to do (I'll be starting a new thread in a little bit), but I used it to tweak the idle to match the right engine. I returned the sub-trim to 0% and used the mix rate to match the right engine. Problem solved.

Back to the field on Sunday. Fired up the engines, a little tweaking of the idle, mid-range RPM were within 200 of each other, looked good. Taxied to the runway with the props trimming the top of grass along the way. I may need to replace the small stock wheels with some larger wheels to give me a little more space between the props and the ground. Full throttle. She used up almost the entire runway but finally lifted off. About 5-6 right clicks on the aileron and she was trimmed. Flies great. Reminded me of my Hobbico Hobbistar trainer. Very stable with some quickness. Sounds fantastic during low-highspeed passes. I felt she was a little loose at slow speeds, but not too bad. Inverted, rolls, loops and my attempt at a knife edge went very well. Probably one of the easiest planes to land; however, I've only had four planes.

The four-ounce tanks are a big downside. I gave myself 5 minutes on my timer. By the time I taxi and take-off, that leaves me around 4 minutes of flight and I had better get the landing right the first try. Tanks were practically empty when I landed.

A great plane. Highly recommend. Another pilot had his Dual Ace with two .45 engines at the field Sunday too. That's a good looking twin as well.