G'day from Down Under.

You have done better than me. You have a piece of paper that shows where the centre wings struts mount. I did not even get that. By finding 3 views and carefully studying the photos in the manual, I eventually managed to get the model together. For the wing struts, I found the small pieces of reinforced wood in the wings and drilled pilot holes at the centre of them. Even this is not going to be righ but it is close to correct. The lower wing rear mounts are too far forward. The outer struts should be parallel to each other but using the mountings provided, This will not be so but it is close.

By the time I had finished, the wings had the same incidence, were lined up against each other and there were no warps. I was hopeful.

My main concern was the CG. I am told by those more expert than I that the CG for a biplane is approximately 1/3 the way back from the "total cord" of the two wings taken together. If this is the case, it needs to be at least an inch further forward of where they suggest. I tried to fly mine with the CG as recommended and the result was a disaster. It just wanted to violently pitch up and I could not get it to fly level. The result was a crash which wrecked the lower wing. Most of the rest survived intact with only the vertical stab being damaged and it is easy to fix.

I have built about 50 models in my career and this is the first one that simply did not fly as advertised. I am rather disappointed. I recently built a DH 60 Moth (the father of the DH 82 Tiger Moth) from a plan. It was about the same size and with a rather under powered OS FS40, it flew magnificently. It did not last long as I made a mistake with a radio setup but its short life showed that a Moth of this size can fly well. The Phoneix Moth has great potential but until they either mark the mounting points or give better instructions, it is better avoided. I built this model hoping to use it as a trainer to learn about bi-planes as I have a Hanger 9 Sopwith Camel ready to go. It is rather larger and I wanted to try something smaller first. Oh well .....