G'day all

Well after bagging out ARFs in my earlier post, I have just returned from test flying my latest ARF creation. It is a Black Horse 1/4 scale (120 size) Space Walker.

The build was typical ARF - mostly OK but with a few niggles. I did use most of the hard ware (nice tail wheel arrangement) and the covering job was good. I rotated the engine (Laser 150) on to its side as the Laser carby is mounted very high and if mounted inverted it would have needed a regulator or other plumbing to stop it draining the tank when on the ground. The only thing that did not quite fit was the removable cover which contains the pilots and provides access inside the fuse to the batteries, servos etc. The kit provides some nice tapered washers but when it was fitted together a couple of the holes with their T nuts were not quite where they should have been. This was an easy fix.

I have fitted the cowl using brass threaded inserts but when I flew it today, the cowl was not in place. The Laser needs careful attention to cooling and I have to construct some ducting within the cowl but this won't be fitted until the engine has a bit more time on it.

The one really bad thing was in the instructions. The control throws suggested were vastly too small and I think that had I tried to fly it with the recommended setup I would have have landed it in one piece. From memory they suggested 3/8 inch up and down for full rate and half that for low. I have the smaller version of this plane also from Black Horse, so I used its recommended angles as a starting point and it worked well.

So how did it fly? Very nicely indeed. The ailerons have the usual ARF slight twist so I was a little concerned but I had guessed the right positions to within three clicks. A small amount of up trim helped at mid throttle. She is very stable to fly though not in the trainer sense and settles very nicely for landing which was slightly too fast (new engine - slightly high idle) and as a result we had a couple of small bounces. Our field has a boarder of large trees on its Northern side and when the wind blows from the North, the resultant turbulence can make landing (East West) difficult but the big Space Walker just floated in.

I think I will keep this one.