Well, today was my acrobatic day!!! I tried loops, rolls, and all sorts of combinations of half rolls pulling out in a loop, half loops rolling out, etc. Had an absolute blast. I did it all using the low rate throws, but will try the high rate next time. Here is what I found....

Looping....this is dead easy. Get a bit of altitude to be safe cruising at 3/4 throttle, I then hit full throttle and pulled all the way back, and it goes around very predictably with no problem and little loss of altitude. After a couple of attempts I found that I could easily do a few at a time with no danger of losing control.

Rolling...this is NOT so easy. When inverted, the lift of the flat bottom wing pulls the plane down! Cruising at 3/4 throttle, push stick all the way to the side....but...as you start to invert, you need to push in a lot of DOWN elevator (which pulls the plane UP when it is upside down). The plane did not always come out straight, or level....so do not try this until you think you are ready to pull the plane back to level from any position. My heart was thumping hard after the first couple, but I got it sorted out eventually, and I am now coming out reasonably straight. Unless you are feeling quite confident, leave this to later...I guess it is the easiest way to have a very hard crash.

Finally managed a couple of grass take-offs. Really need to find a patch of badly worn grass (read dirt) and use full up elevator to keep the nose up. Anyway, my 2 1/2 inch wheels just arrived at the store, so I look forward to seeing how much they help.

I got so confident this morning that I tried something else for the first time.....flying until the battery goes flat. It was dead still air, so I thought this would be safe. Ended up flying for 30 minutes !! Considering I did about 6 take-offs, and was trying all the acrobatics, I think this is great! I did do a lot of cruising at about 1/3rd throttle, but I find this as much fun as anything, especially if you do it at about 12 feet of the ground, and cruise around trees and light posts.....the low level scale flying experience is great!!

RB does seem to be right about the non-standard parts, and if you live on the other side of the world, then a stripped aileron gear is going to cost you a whole servo (or two if you want to match them), and don't even start to think about getting a replacement bearing or shaft. My noisy motor is almost silent now (I do NOT believe a motor should be damaged by a nose over in long grass at 3mph with zero throttle). Still, it is a great plane. I think it is still good value considering it included a battery, charger, and full range radio, and if you have to buy a new servo or motor, then so be it. Once you have replaced them with standard available parts, then the ongoing costs will be much lower.

Regards,
Paul.