First off I love this little bipe. It flies great. It's smooth, predictable and can do far more than the pilot can. The Saito 72 with a 13x6 APC is a great combo. It'll hover at about 1/2 throttle, sure wish the pilot could hold the hover for more than about 20 seconds.

I was wondering if anyone knows where I can get some carbon fiber landing gear for this plane? I have heard lately that Moose is not producing anymore gear.

Also has anyone tried to increasing the control surface throws to more than the recommended high rates? I'd like a bit more so I can do knife edge loops and faster rolls. Elevator is alright I suppose. Full elevator and a bit of rudder produces a nice snap roll.

I have the CG at 3/4" currently. Anyone tried pushing it back toward the 3/8" mark? I am thinking of going to between 5/8" and 1/2" and then flying it again.

TIA

Hi Bronco,
While I have not flown this bipe in particular, I have flown quite a few Ulitimate Bipes.

If I were you, I would try adding one 7gram square of stick-on lead at a time to the tail and giving it a whirl conentrating on that knife-edged loop. Great knife-edge performance is often a question of CG. Too much rudder is not the best solution. Once you get the CG nicely situated for that, remove your lead and remount the battery rearwards.

Ultimates should fly easy knife-edge with just a hair of top rudder when the CG is good. If you started at the recommended forward, then you are probably very conservative.

For the snaps, the Ultimate should snap its best with almost no elevator (perhaps five degrees) and low rate rudder and high rate aileron. This is also enhanced by a rearwards CG. Balancing the throws and the CG will allow multiple beautiful snaps without losing much energy.

Mark

Thanks Mark. I will try moving the CG back further to see if it behaves more to my liking. The CG is currently set at the forward limit of the recommended range. The recommended range is only 3/8" wide, though.