Found a different pilot figure at the local Hobby People shop, it's smaller than 1/12th scale and fits the Guanli FW-190 perfectly. http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/553220.asp While the figure isn't really a WWII German pilot, it's close enough. They only had ones with the red leather "skull cap" helmet, but we thought it still looked cool as a contrast to the primarily shades of green camo FW.

Speaking of the Guanli FW-190, a bit disappointing model, but my kid is still happy to have it (finally). 4 CH - Throttle, Rudder, Elevators and Ailerons. 7 cell 8.4v 650 mAh NiMH battery. Construction is on par with the A-10, bit soft styro, details aren't bad and some details like the canopy are quite nice for the price. But some things in the engineering of the kit stink. The stabilizer is about 2 degrees off from the plane of the wing at the best we can fit it. No matter what you do to adjust parts in the cut out they made, it never lines up. You'd have to start cutting styro to get it right. Also the engine mount (balsa) built into the styro cowling makes the brushed motor off center to 2 o'clock by a 1/4 inch. It look noticeable lop-sided from the front (see pictures). The landing gear wire is even worse (softer) than on the A-10. We'll definetly have to replace that after a couple hard learning landings. The tail wheel is horrible, wobbly and we had to engineer a way to keep wheel on straight because it wanted to slide around the bend in the wire, which is too small diameter. Rudder steers the tail wheel. Again, sloppy engineering on small things to bug you. Typical Commie Chinese sloppy manufacturing.

The servos are crap as usual and it again comes with a POS 27mHz AM radio (we'll make a couple test flight with that, then replace the radio), trouble is that you can't get to the rudder and stabilizer flaps servos to replace them where they were pre-installed. The brushed motor seems to make lots of torque and it feels strong enough for good flight. We'll see next week or so. The access hatch to the battery and recvr compartment is an excellent fit and the compartment is big.

Think we'll write up a review of the kit for the Forum after we've flown it as is.

I still like the first electric plane I bought from NitroPlanes (guess I was lucky), it's small park flyer (lot's of small parks and ball-fields near us). The plane is a "Exceed RC" 3 CH J3 Piper (Throttle, Rudder, Elevator). Much nicer Styro than the Guanli or GWS planes. It has a brushed motor and 7 cell NiMH 650 mAh battery, but the plane is so well engineered aerodynamically that it flies very well under 1/2 power for 10 -12 minutes easily in light wind from a rolling take off - up in the air in less than 25 feet. Comes with a strange 3 CH Transmitter that has a slide pot for the throttle and joy stick for the Rudder / Stabilizer. It's still 27 Mhz, but at least it's FM digital proportional and not AM junk like the Guanli kits.

Say, did you try a higher mAh rated (same 9.6v) battery with the stock A-10 engines and ESC? I have a Watt-Age 8 (4 x 2 AAA inline) cell 9.6v 800 mAh battery that weighs about the same. Think it's worth trying, or would it burn up the stock ESC or motors? (We're still learning the in and outs of electric powered - we've also been glow or gas heli's and planes).

take care!