riot3d

I received my X-treme Altair 200 yesterday, and will start a build thread soon.

Earlier this year, I was planning to order another plane from Akiba, his latest design - the ProLine Evolution. However, since I didn't know whether I could make the Hong Kong team again, I just couldn't make up my mind for the longest time. At one point, I was actually thinking of placing an order regardless of the outcome, and was communicating with Akiba. Unfortunately, because of the appreciation of the Japanese Yen - all the way from 110 to 88 Yen to US$1.00. In addition, with Akiba's reply indicating to me that he will not be able to finish my plane until the end of May for a mid June delivery, I decided to scrap that idea. Since my wood ProLine is still more than capable of handling the P sequence, I will fly it again at this year's WC. Nevertheless, I would still like to have a spare plane just in case, so I started to look around at different designs. Unfortunately, there were just not too many offerings out there for a quick delivery.

After much searching, I kept coming back to the Altair 200. To be honest, the plane wasn't really on top of my list at first. I still remember my team mate - Alex Lau - representative of the Altair contacted me late last year, wondering whether I would like to be the first few to own one. However, since I was not really happy with my prototype X-treme PL - over weight and some workmanship issue - I decided not to accept his offer. However, after I saw the plane, actually, planes in person during my team trial - all 5 of the competitors from Hong Kong were flying the same design, I changed my mind. The workmanship and the quality of the plane was just a lot better than my Astral XX and the PL, and after I have seen the way the plane performed in the wind, I decided to place an order. Fortunately, because of Alex's connection and also with the help from my good friend Nuttawut - one of X-treme's representative - I received the plane in record time.

Here are some background info on the Altair 200, the plane is designed by two times World Champion - Giichi Naruke. It's an evolution from the Aries/ Altair series, it has a slightly shorter wing span and smaller wing area for better rolling/ snapping maneuvers. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I believe it also has a slightly taller fuselage as well. By looking at the way Alex putting the plane through the F sequence, I could tell it is a much better design than my Astral XX.

Here are some pix, and the build thread will start in the next few days:-

Adrian