ORIGINAL: Old Larry
I have settled on the Hanger 9 Pulse XT PNP that comes with an engine. Any thoughts and the Evolution .46NT engine?
The crash was a great show. I actually thought the Falcon has disappeared. I heard a big pop and when I looked back to see what everyone was laughing about I could see the cloud of parts still floating in the air. It took a few seconds for realize that it was my plane. I don't think one can duplicate such a crash. A hobby shop owner said that he and a friend went through 6 tanks of fuel trying to crash two old planes together and just gave up. I salvaged three wheels, no electronics, nothing. Two of the wheels were found clear out in a parking lot by the wife of a friend. My loss was really no big deal but the other guy lost a scale Spitfire that had won trophies. It took a while for him to calm down. He was coming out of a loop and I was doing a fly-by. His plane was a total loss, too.
I haven't used that engine, but my Evo trainer engine that came in my Arrow ran very well. Or, at least it did after going to an OS A3 plug.
As for the PulseXT, I have one with a Saito 82 on it. It was my second plane, and I still am very fond of it. It is agile enough to do basic aerobatics, but very tame when you want it to be. I highly recommend it!
Before I realized that I needed to adjust the valves on my 82, I had a few deadsticks. I learned that Pulse wants to float FOREVER! (BTW, after I properly adjusted the valves, no more deadsticks!) It is nice to have that "floating" quality when you need it to get back to the runway.
The only negative things I can say about the Pulse is that you don't have enough ground clearance for a large prop, and the landing gear area was a little weak. The largest prop I can run is a 13 x 8. If you glass the inside of the gear area, it will be much less likely to pop the gear out. Really, I have started doing that on ALL the ARF's I buy. It's just good practice.
I doubt you will be unhappy with the RTF PulseXT / Evo 46 combo.