I finally bought one of these planes, and have mixed feelings about it.

First off, I'll say that I'm a bit disappointed with the ARF.
The covering's great, and the plane seems built fairly well, but I had a few issues.
First, my plane came with the holes and blind nuts pre drilled and installed for the wing. However, the holes in the wing and the blind nuts in the fuse didn't line up. 1 was about 1/8" off, and the other was close to 1/2" off. This took some time to fix. Another problem I found was that every blind nut in the plane (LG mount, wing mount, engine mount, etc) had dried glue in the threads. It's good to know that the blind nuts are glued in, but it was a pain in the butt cleaning the threads.

My last complaint nearly cost me my plane. On my 4th flight I did a wall to see how the plane handled it, it did well until I returned to level flight. All of the sudden level flight required a bunch of up elevator to maintain, and getting worse. Luckily I was near the runway at the time, and was able to land. The cause turned out to be bad glueing at the factory. The plate that the elevator servo mounts to came loose, so control imputs moved the servo around inside the fuse instead of moving the control surface.
There was some glue around the plate, but it looks like the glue had dried before the plate was installed in the fuse. The rudder mount also came loose with just a bit of pressure applied.

OK, now that I've got my complaints out of the way, I'll talk about how the plane flies.
It's a lot of fun!
Here's my setup.
Engine- Evolution .61NT
Prop- APC 12.25x3.75
Servo- Hitec HD all around
RX- JR 6ch
TX- Airtronics 6ch computer
AUW- 5lbs 7oz

A quick note about overpowering the model.
Since I live and fly at 7000' ASL, my .61 performs about like a good .40 or .46 at sea level.

I have 6 or 7 flights on the plane now, and enjoy it a bit more with each flight. I started with the CG towards the rear of the recomended range (3 - 3 3/4), and have moved it back until it flew how I liked. Sorry, I haven't measured the CG since I moved it.
Hovering is easy with this plane, it's very stable with the nose pointed at the sky. With the .61 I'm hovering at about 3/4 throttle and have reasonable pull out at WOT. Knife edge has a bit of roll and tuck, but not too much. Knife edge could be mixed easily, but I prefer to hold it with my fingers. Harrier has pretty bad wing rock, but I was expecting this with the fun fly wing. Spoilerons/flaperons help a bunch, but there is still some rocking. Rolling harriers aren't real pretty right now, but that's probably because I don't know the plane that well yet.

I've read that a lot of people have had problems with the covering. On my plane, the main covering seems fine, but the trim does come off very easily.

So far I like the plane, but think Modeltech should pay a bit more attention to the plane before it leaves the factory.

Jason

My covering was ok, but trying to shrink it was a problem. Very low heat was required and if I used a heat gun, seams would begin pulling away. The back of the plane (the area around the canopy) is very weak. I watched another flier break his in half with a hard landing. (Equivalent to a drop from about three feet.) There is definitely very little "meat" there and the strength of the fuselage is adequate.... just. Mine flies very nice, a sweet bird. I use a Magnum 61 four stroke which is plenty at sea level. Inverted requires just a little elevator and the plane gives me confidence to try things I would not try with another. I flies best slow, it doesn't like speed, but no 3D plane would. You can minimize the throws and fly pattern type flight or increase throws and do some decent 3D. It's a nice blend of both. My glue joints were adequate, the belly pan did not fit the wing bottom very well, but my wing bolt holes were ok. Otherwise the plane went together well. The structure is not substantial, in keeping with minimizing weight, so I'm not sure how well the plane will stand up to many flights. I have about 20 flights in so far and I'm wondering how long it will last. 100 flights? 200 flights? Time will tell. I hope it lasts though 'cause it's a sweet flier and is a definite "keeper". (I can fit it in the back of my small truck without removing the wing, a definite plus!) It will be the kind of plane I bring to the field most days, even if my mind is on another plane. I tend to bring two, one I'm working on and one for fun. This will be the fun one.


Edit for spelling... duh!

Thanks Jim, I agree that this plane inspires a bit of confidence.
I have taken my heat gun to parts of the covering, but haven't gotten close to any seams.
I'll keep an eye on the fuse, and try not to land hard. [X(]

Jason

Watch the trim on the wings. Especially the wing on the muffler side. Once while flying my Magic, whenever I throttled up, I'd heard a ripping sound while the right wing dipped. I first thought it was flutter. I landed the plane and checked all the surfaces and connections. Everything looked fine, so back up I went. Then it happened again - the ripping sound and the wing dip. But this time I had the plane at an angle and height where I could see the trim lifting from the wing. I brought the plane back down and took a pocket knife and pried at the front edge of the trim sticker. I could lift it up about a 1/4 + inch maybe more. And it was soggy with fuel residue under it. So whenever the plane was traveling fast enough, the trim billowed out and acted as a spoiler! I removed the trim that wasn't adhering to the wing and took the plane back up. No problems after that.

I had the same problem with the engine mounting holes. And the covering started to peel in various spots, after flying it most of last summer. I knew better, but I used the provided fuel tank, which burst it's stopper leaking fuel everywhere. So now It's hanging in my shop waiting for me to get the urge to replace the covering. But after all the headaches, the plane is really fun to fly. I thought it flew very similar to the Something Extra I had, just lighter.