What I think of the HeliArtist A-109:

Dislikes:
OK, you know I don't like the retract system because of quality, that's a given. The cutouts for the wheel wells were off by more than tolerable amounts and by the time you opened them up enough where the wheels didn't touch the fuse when they came up...it made it look awkward. Having the fuselage cracked in 6 places when I opened the package didn't make me real happy either. I didn't like how the paint jumped off the windshield when I went to install it either. I think the directions included with the kit were at best....SPARSE. I did like Kip Newby's build thread at HeliArtist website, but I found it to be a little lacking in information, hence the REASON I'm posting this build thread here at RCU.

Likes:

The A-109 by Heliartist (meaning the fuselage it's self) other than the above mentioned is BY FAR the best scaler I've ever owned. It looks great, it hovers good, and not having to face failure of retracts makes this as good as a Bell 206 fuselage...except it has wheels. The quality of the fiberglass job is very good. I can't really make comment on paint, I stripped mine down and re-painted it to what I wanted it.

It was a MASSIVE amount of work, but I think the final results made it worth it...I'm happy with what I have here.

Here's an interesting note conserning CG. Kip Newby, if I read his build correctly stated CG was corrected by just over two ounces of weight. For me to achieve perfect CG, it took eleven 230 grain .45 caliber lead bullets in the nose wrapped with tape to hold them together. Well....that's 5 ounces of weight give or take. To put it in proper perspective for you, a baby at 3 months old takes 6 ounces in a single feeding from a bottle. That is a LOT of weight and I really haven't figured out how to address it as yet. Just something to be aware of.