Okay, I have to vent my frustration with Lanier. I purchased one of their 87" Extra's and put a DL50 in it. It came out right at the prescribed 16.5 pounds and flies great. I liked it so much, I sold my very light KMP Yak airframe, taking all the gear out of it and purchased a Lanier Yak, advertized to weigh 16.5 to 17.5 pounds. That would be around 25 to 28 ounces per square foot, like my Extra. Well I just finished the plane with a Fuji 64, Mejzlik 22X10 3 blade prop, True turn spinned and the recommended servos and it came out to a whopping 21.5 pounds!!!! &$(%@!$$$!!!! So that comes out to around 34 ounces per square foot. I am almost afraid to fly this heavy beast, as heavy planes tend to snap out and fly like crap. I am not sure about how well the Fuji 64 will pull a plane this heavy. The engine is taching about 5850 with this prop on the ground. As much as I hate to, I may have to remove that pretty 3 Blade prop and spinner and put a light wood prop and plastic spinner on it. Not much else I can do, as I am running single receiver, Fromeco battery and switch. The ignition battery is a AAA and only weighs 3.5 ounces with the switch, so not much else can be done. I really need to find a way to loose almost 3 pounds to make this lead sled a keeper. I moved the battery pack towards the tail to balance the plane and no extra weight has been added for balancing!!!

It is a very pretty airplane, but just made so darned heavy, compared to the extra. If anyone else is considering one of these, try to buy from a LHS, rather than Tower, so you can weigh the boxed airframe, to see what you are really getting. I guess I should have kept the old KMP, fixed the cowl and recovered it, it weighed an honest 16.5 pounds with the same equipment, 8611 and 5955 servos all weighing about 2.25 ounces each.

Also purchased six engine kill units from a gent here on RCU and two of them would not work correctly on the 4.8 volt system the Fuji requires. I am using one successfully on a 6V system on a XY 26cc engine on a Goldberg Wild Stick with no ill effects. I will test the two, aparent faulty units on other 6 volt systems, to see if voltage is the issue. The problem was that the engine ran very rough and the led light flickered all the time, indicating intermittent power to the ignition. As soon as I removed the electronic kill system, every thing was great.

My other ARF complaints were with a Goldberg Ultimate, that had some design flaws and poor quality wood. I posted those on the Ultimate thread, if you want more info. The plane flies awesome with the 3W75US on it. I am using a choke servo on this one and don't intend on testing the new electronic kill units on it, even though it is a 6 volt ignition.

All of my great planes ARFs are keepers, well built, light and reliable. I also really like the quality and strength of my Goldberg Wild Stick 120. I am still in the trim flying and tweeking stages, using crow, a new gas engine and playing with props to find the optimum. Once I get that one all figured out, I will post more on it, but it is definitely fun, light and a real keeper.

Thanks for a great thread, it gave me a good venting on my latest waste of money!!!

Happy Holidays to all,
Mike Boyd
AMA 7197