The test flight take off was very smooth with a couple of bumps of left rudder to keep it tracking straight, airborn in about 200 feet and set up a low climb to altitude. Lift off was done at three quarter throttle. It is a gentle flier and drops the left wing in a stall. The rudder is far more authoritive than the small ailerons in turns and you need to coordinate them to get the best turn and roll rate. Inverted is good, initially you have to give it a good bit of down but once flight slope is achieved you can back most of the way out of the down elevator.
It looks good in flight. The gull wing is eye catching and the rudder, cockpit lines stand out. It was stable enough to take down to about 50 feet and do lazy figure eights. It is exactly what I was looking for - a nostalgic plane that could have been flown by Bill Barnes, a gentle flier that has enough oomph to easily do loops from level flight, and good slow flight characteristics. The Thunder Tiger .75 4C is a very good match for the plane. Now the decision is what to build next ... kind of been looking at a Miles Hawk Speed Six at about 84" span...
Did I say it was hot? 90+ degrees and high humidity. After four 10-12 minute flights I put it away and will go over all the nuts and bolts to see if any maintenance is needed before flying again.
Here I am holding the Swoose:
