One guy at our club had the SSE out a couple weeks ago. He bought it from another club member, so he did not build it. (am not sure if it is an arf or kit). Anyway, it has a 46 size, believe it is a GMS, but not sure. Anyway, we spent a few minutes getting it started and tuned right. I didn't notice what his throws were like until after he took off. All I can say is WOW!!!

He is a new flyer, solo'ed only a few months ago. This was quite a handful for him. After he took off, he tried to turn left but the thing spun and rolled wildly, he managed to straighten it out without crashing. We were all quite concerned. After he made a few very cautious orbits, it was obvious that he was having a lot of trouble flying the thing. The only thing I could think of to ask was if he had trimmed it. I didn't want to insult him by asking him if he wanted me to fly it or land it.. so I asked if it was in trim.

His answer.. 'Uh, I don't know, I am to busy trying to keep it headed straight'. Then he asked me if I could take it and trim it out.. so I told him to climb high and give me the transmitter.

I took it over and trimmed it out, only took a few clicks, however, the way it was set up, a click of aileron would almost cause a roll!! [:@] So, I climbed high again, and spun it out quite a bit to test out the fuel flow (a test that was taught to me by a friend and a real pro flyer). The engine shut down indicating that it was still quite lean.

Anyway, I was now deadstick, which was a blessing. I made a few moves to slow it down a bit then came around and landed it without incident.

We took a close look at the controls.. ended up reducing his end points on both the elevator and ailerons to 40% and suggested that after he was done flying that day that he remove the end point electronic adjustments and put it back in as mechanical adjustments on his servo and control horn connections (to the inner holes in the servo ends and outer holes on the horns) then re-center all and see what he has for throws.

After I did the end point changes, he flew it again and was able to fly it quite nicely. He did about 4 flights after that and enjoyed it.

I guess my point here is that the SSE was capable of being both a wild flyer as well as a very sedate and capable mid-wing aerobatic "trainer", and with a .46 size engine.

CGr