I am flying mine with just a Tower Hobbies 75 2 stroke and am very happy with the performance. It will climb out like a scared banchee and fly very fast if I want to. I did have to make a cut in the bottom of the cowl and add a piece of fiberglass between the 2 halves to make a bit more room for the muffler to clear. Other than that, there have been no issues and the plane always catches lots of attention at the field.

Yea a .75 would make that thing move. I'm not too worried about speed but I do need more climb out power and the .68 has the power just need to get the prop right. I would like to stay with a three blade so there is the real problem. I just took the 12-8 3 blade Graupner off and put a 13-8 3 blade Zinger on. Have not flown it yet (raining) but I think this will do it. The big problem right now is getting the Zinger inside a spinner? I'm looking at a special order Tru Turn for about $80 unless anyone has a better solution?

A 13" three blade prop on a 68 sounds like the engine will be seriously overloaded to me, but please let us know how it works. Some times wierd combinations work much better than expected. [8D]

Fastsky are you still out there? Yea it did not like the 13-8 zinger at all. I went with a 2 blade for a flight or two. I'm going to lose the .68 and go with a Saito .82 and another graupner 12-8 3-blader and see how that goes. I love this bird and need to strengthen it up some.

Ya, Im'm still around. Most of the flyers that have tried 3 blade props have switched back to 2 blades. The high rpms makes the props inefficient. No complaints about Saito engines though. They are highly respected at our club.

I'm in the final stages of the build on this. I have to say its been a bit of a struggle and needed a fair amount of "engineering" to get the tank in, the right distance from the front of the motor to the firewall, the wing in place, and a few other things. Actually a bit disappointed in the amount of tweaking this kit needed. Anyway, I am absolutely getting freaked out about engine size. I have a OS FX61 currently in the plane and to me the plane just looks absolutely huge and weighs a ton. I'm wondering if a .61 is big enough. I have seen some posts indicating a .61 works. And then a few talking about only slightly larger engines, and then some that are probably way too much engine for this plane.

Two questions:
1. I've got a FS91 not doing anything. Would I be better off putting that in the Stuka and saving the 61 for some other project?
2. Has anyone else and any problem with balancing this plane? It balances at about 3" from LE and it should be 4. This means I have to add a ton of weight to the tail. Most other posts I have seen indicated this plane was tail heavy. So this has got me wondering if I've done something seriously wrong. Any one have comments on the weight?

I wouldn't use the OS 61 myself. I have one and the engine is pretty blah and disappointing when it comes to power. I would use the FS 91 instead. The plane is serious fun when powered properly. I needed a bit of nose weight to balance mine. The first flight I had other flyers yelling at me because they thought I pulled the plane off the ground too fast. What they didn't realize is that this plane wants to fly and leaves the ground on its own. I was just keeping it straight down the run way when it was suddenly heading for the clouds!! Actually very trainer like except in a low wing tail dragger configuration. [X(]

Saito 100 works great in mine. I also ran mine with a YS110 which even with a 3 blade prop was overkill.

Thanks guys, I'll step it up a notch then from the 61.

rjschaefer,

Go with the FS .91 and you will be happy. Mine flew with a MDS .68 and it was adiquate at best but Fastfly is right, this thing flies like a trainer in some respects just don't flip it over or make heavy bank turns until you are sure you've got the hang of it. Mine turns like a truck and I love it!!!! I had the engine quite about 5 times because I did not set it up right and I slightly damaged the plane due to a few rough dead stick landings. Make sure your engine is running right before you put this one up.

Fastsky, I'm going with the Saito .82 because I want the thing to fly like a truck and look like it will fall out of the sky. What about Proulxlaw using a YS 110, I'll bet the thing went straight up as fast as the real ones came down with all that power.