My first encounter with the Neptuno was back in March, at our team trial for this year's WC in Portugal, my friend Louis brought his own design – the Neptuno – to compete at the competition. Along with Louis, two of his friends also flew the same design at the contest. Although, they didn't fly too well due to windy condition, but the plane showed a lot of potential none the less. Upon closer inspection, I discovered the plane has an all wood construction. It also has a painted in the mode configuration, similar to my Altair 200. The power plant of choice at that time was YS only, which requires using YS's own nose ring, mount and engine bracket. Even though, I was a bit taken aback by Louis' own wild colouring - his two friends were flying the standard factory scheme – but I was still quite impressed with the plane. Although, I didn't pay too much attention to the plane at that time, but I was hoping I would get to examine the plane again after the WC.

Due to some last minute commitment, one of my regular team mate - Dragon Li - couldn't make the trip to Portugal, and was replaced by Louis. Even though, I was disappointed of Dragon not making the trip, but I was happy I get a second chance for a closer look at the Netuno again. Instead of bringing the one with the wild colour scheme, Louis has decided to fly the one with the factory offering, and also informed me that there will be two schemes available for the public - see attached pix. Not only did the plane caught the attention of Derek Koopowitz and myself, it also generated a lot of interest for Naruke and Bryan Herbert. After a long discussion between myself and Derek – for a total of 5 minutes – we both placed an order.

Adrian