Jack, mine is powered with a P-80 and was very suprised on the speed and the verticle it had, not unlimited verticle, but I was happy with it.

as for my first take off. I powered up and it ran, and ran, and ran down the runway. about 600 feet. I told larry my spotter, that I was powering off and gonna taxi back. keep in mind I had zero flaps on take off, since I was on an asphalt runway 2500 feet long, I thought I did not need them. So as soon as I powered off, it lifted and jumped right up. so quick thinking I powered up to full power.

As it was spooling back up, the L-39 started sinking with the nose up, but very stable, no sign of a stall or falling off to either wing. I quickly raised the gear and proceeded to climb out. I did have a liitle negative nose attitude and about 6 ounces to much nose weight.

Two clicks of up and it flew great, only issue I had during flight was, I use dual rate and zero expo, so low rates was not enough and high rates was a bit too much. I just got an e-mail from a friend inviting me to their site where others also have L-39's and I hope to get a few more flights on mine......


Mark