Ok, I maidened my plane about 5 or 6 weeks ago. I did not trust the balance point that was given in the instruction manual because the instruction manual that was included was from a World Models Katana instead of a Flight Model Katana. So, I decided to go with one of the online CG calculators and figure the CG on my own. Well, something went wrong wwith the calculations, because what I thought was 34% rearward balance turned out to be .... "twenty something" percent! That was OK .... The plane just started off really nose heavy when I was expecting a near tailheavy plane.

If I recall correctly, the manual said to balance it at 7 7/8" measured at the root. I should have stayed with that afterall. The maiden was uneventful ... I just had to use more elevator that was expected and aerobatics were not what they should have been. I have since talked with Jose Ribeiro who has one of these flying 3D in a couple YouTube videos. I asked him where did he balance his at, and he said "50% of the cord, measured at the wingtip".

Now, the info you requested. My plane flys great. It's balanced properly now and is incredibly aerobatic. My plane has a Copperhead Venom 45cc with a Xoar 21X8, turning 7000 rpm, but I'm about to try a 22X8. The plane weighs 14lbs. 4 oz., has a 2700mah 6 volt NIMH battery and a 1650mah NIMH 4.8 volt battery on ignition. I am flying with a Futaba 9CAPS radio with Xtremelink XPS 2.4Ghz module and receiver. Servos are all Hitec analogs except the digital 5955TG that I had on the rudder. It seemed to be overkill on the rudder, (.. and I felt that 5955 would be better served in my upcoming 35% plane) ... so I switched it out for a 5645 digital, but now it seems this servo doesn't have the necessary holding power, so I may go back to the 5955 or something stronger than the 5645. Whe I bought the plane I got it from a dealer on Ebay. He told me I needed to upgrade the aluminum wing tube to carbon fiber because he had had a failure of the aluminum tube. So, I bought a carbon fiber tube. He told me to seal the leading edge because he had had one loose top covering from one wing because he felt it wasn't sealed properly at factory. I bought clear monoKote and did this, but I feel the real reason he lost covering is because mine came covered in cheap and horible Chinacote. The film and the adhesive separates very easily. I've had no problems at all, but I made these changes before the initial flight.

The roll rate on mine is blurringly fast, and it can be rolled up into some of the tightest, violent looking aerobatics if you what ... and still land like a ***** cat. In short ... its a great plane. I'm still fine tuning mine to my tastes, but it is very, very 3D capable. It can harrier with very little wing rock, and the Venom 45 engine is very powerful for its size and I have unlimited vertical.