I had the opportunity to maiden my Great Planes Stuka this weekend. It is pretty much a stock setup with the exception of the paint job. I am using a Saito 100 FS on the front which required me to mount the cowl farther out than normal. I also had to use a little weight in the tail to balance. I stayed a bit on the nose heavy side for the first flight. At the field I spent a few minutes taxiing around to get some feel for it. Ground handling was good (meaning I didn't nose over once! ) After lining up into the wind I slowly throttled up while holding up elevator. The tail came up when I eased off the elevator and a bit of right rudder kept me straight. This was my best takeoff of the day...the second and third went on to prove I still need to practice with the rudder . Anyway, once I got it trimmed out, she flew like a big trainer. I did notice that you need to use the rudder to make the turns look scale. I flew a few circuits then throttled back at altitude to try the flaps. When deployed they slowed the plane down dramatically but also induced a slight yaw to the left. I retracted them then setup for landing.
The landing without the flaps was uneventful. She came in at what I would call a very relaxed speed. I touched down on the mains and then got the tailwheel down NO NOSEOVER! After taxiing back to the pits I adjusted the flaps (the left was deploying slightly more than the right. Now she seems to fly straight ahead when they are down. I still didn't use them to land. This is my first plane with flaps, so I am taking it easy on them.

I did notice that once the plane starts rolling in one direction, it takes ALOT of opposite aileron to stop it. It was such an easy plane to fly that my hands quit shaking after the 3rd flight

The only negatives on this ARF were...
1) the covering (looked like a prune)
2) the wing bolts didn't line up perfectly

The big Saito is great. It really pulls the plane around (I flew mostly @ 2/3 throttle). One thing to note - when you are doing a SLOW flyby @ 10' and then slam the throttle forward you will get a lot of torq and a roll to the left. Best bet was to smoothly apply throttle .

Nice looking plane. Glad the maiden went as planned.

nice report, how about some more pics without as much grass in them


matt

Great looking plane.

Well, my son took them (he's 9) he missed alot of the shots....here's the only decent one (meaning he got the whole plane). We are still working on his timing. We are using the video camera this weekend.

Jess

Good to see a luftwaffe bird!!Nice paint job!! It really improved it. What kind of paint did you use?? Lusterkote?? I plane on turning my bf 109 e into the afrika corps sceme. Glad it went well!!!

heres a few new pictures...we did better this time. Can you see the plane in the bottom picture?

2 more...