I caught a break in the weather and took my Aresti up for her maiden voyage. I had intended on just breaking in the engine, but after that was done I just had to take it up.

She had a tendancy to ground loop at slow speeds, but I fixed it by just advancing the throttle a little faster. Takeoff was uneventful. The low rates that are recommended in the manual worked great for testing it out. I'll probably push them up a bit after I get comfortable with the plane.

The landings were real interesting. This plane doesn't want to slow down!! I was taking extremely long finals to get it slowed enough to touch down. I'm thinking of adding flaperons in the mix to help that out a bit.

All in all it was a great first run. The plane performed exactly as I had hoped with no suprises. I plan on taking her up next week and run it through the aerobatics wringer and see how she does. I have a 2 storke .45 in it, so I know it won't go vertical. The power seems plentiful for other maneuvers though.

Terry Fulwider
Nashville, TN

Good info. I'm going to start building (assembling) mine this weekend now that the honeydoos are over ( I hope). Putting a MDS .58 in mine.

Guys I just thought I'd share my experiences with you. If your going to be doing lots of snaps and tumbles I would definately add flying wires to the tail of the airplane. I flew mine probably 15 times before both horizontal stabs folded in flight. Luckily the covering kept them on which allowed enough stability for me to land the plane. After tearing the covering off there is NOTHING to the structure of the horizontal stabs, only 3/4x1/4 LE and TE with 3 or 4 front to rear 1/4x1/4 ribs. After seeing my plane fold another guy added the flying wires to his with a Rossi 45 and has had no problems. Other than that I haven't had a single problem with the plane besides the fact it won't slow down. I'm using a 46FX with a 11x6APC prop and I'm thinking of a 11x5 to help slow her down a bit. Looks like tomorrow will be the first time flying it since the rebuild Yeah!

P.S. Taxi w/elevator on high rate and full up. This and keeping up momentum while taxing will keep the nose from tipping over!

How did you hook the flying wires up and do you have a picture? I felt that the horizontal stab looked a bit flimsy. I'll hold off on pulling high g's until I get it reinforced. Thanks for the info!

Terry Fulwider

i use air brakes on mine. flaperons. and they both go up between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. it slows it right down. i run a saito 72 with a 13 6 apc. went to a 12 8 to try it. works well to. but i can come right in on the runway and set it down. u can see it slow down in the air when the brakes are hit. it works great. and id reccomend it. now some other gys at the field are trying it. this is one fun fun airplane. lots of fun. cya bill

I have had mine for a good while now and have yet for the vertical stab to break. Maybe I'm just lucky *shrugs*

My maiden flight came out nose heavy so I had to add weight to the tail, ".46FX". I had thought about using Kevlar for the flying wires but thought other then Kevlar I would use normal wires and maybe make up for the lead weight on the tail allowing me to remove the lead.

(For those that want to keep their tail light, here is the Kevlar method.) I designed this method on my Edge, works great :thumbup:

Drill your holes at the points where you want to run your Kevlar. Next use nyrod cut and ca glued in each hole drilled, next run your Kevlar through one point at a time stretching tight and then CA gluing it in each hole through the nyrod. Run your Kevlar so that both ends meet on the center of the fuse under the stab. I use an eye bolt with lock nut to secure the Kevlar to also CA glued.