Antony,

The HotSpot is totally conventional in flight characteristics. No strange behavior with throttle application, it accelerates straight ahead.

Takeoff with my P-80 is 200-300 feet on short, rolled grass. I hold the brakes and release as thrust approaches max, acceleration is fast.

Inflight the HotSpot is incredibly smooth and stable, absolutely rock solid. I set mine up using Bob Wilcox's throws and CG recommendations, this is definitely the way to go. Rolling manuevers are gorgeous with enough rudder for four-point and slow rolls. Side area is not an issue as the speed gives you enough momentum to pull off these manuevers with just a tap on the rudders.

Landing is a piece of cake, you just have to remember you are landing a combination delta/flying wing. There are two things that will cause bouncing with a Roo or HotSpot: excessive speed on landing and additional back pressure on landing. One of the best ways to avoid a bounce is to immediately release back pressure the instant the wheels touch. You will be surprised how little speed it takes to get a HotSpot airborne.

For landing just pull the throttle to about a third, maintain altitude by slowly raising the nose as the airplane slows down. A HotSpot can be flown slow, real slow! Once you've got the nose up and the jet slowed bring the power up to about half or maybe a tad more, anticipating the throttle lag. Now you are in slow flight. Make a gear pass then just pull back on the throttle, maintaining your nose high angle and let the airplane descend for a landing, slowly reducing power until you are at idle over the numbers. You don't even need the speedbrake.

When I it get right I can set mine down in 300 feet on hard, rolled grass. I accidently set the brakes instead of deploying the speedbrake once and that worked great! I was stopped in about 200 feet! If I screw up, get lazy or both my landings will stretch right out to 400-500 feet.

I love flying the HotSpot, so much I don't even want to fly my giant scale prop planes anymore. It's a great flying machine. You'll love it!