Last week I bought a replacement kit (ARF) for one that I crashed a couple weekends ago. The crashed airplane was a Goldberg Skylark 56. I was not that fond of the Skylark so no big loss there. But the repcacement, the Aerobat, well, now that's proving to be a very nice kit.

I went to that because of the write up given by Mr. Frank Granelli on AMA's Sport Aviator on-line magazine. The kit cost was reasonable and the build has turned out to be a breeze. Everything has gone as predicted by both Frank's article and the build instructions. I also bought a new OS .46 ABX engine for it and am using my Airtroncis RD6000 radio for it.

I was impressed by the way the kit has gone together. What remains, after a total of about 11 hours or so spent carefully building, is to connect the rudder and elevator servo's to the control surfaces and 'breaking in' the engine. Then comes maiden flight.

The ARF kit was complete right down to the rubber band wing hold-downs. Now that's complete. It came with two sets of landing gear.. one for trike the other for tail dragger (although the tail wheel was not included, the choice being up to the builder), everything needed to use either was in the kit, with the preferred (because that's what came with the kit) was trike with a nose-wheel.

I followed Frank's advice with some areas of the build and that seems to have built a better model although I must admit, the model was pretty thorough with easy to follow build instructions.

Perhaps next weekend I can report on how it flew. I will post pix when I take the time to take some <GRIN>.

You will find that the Aerobat will be one fun flying machine.....good choice on your part! Keep us informed...

Jerry

I reviewed the aerobat for RCU a while back. It is really a terrific plane!

Here's the review

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=164

Hello Minn. Well, this past weekend was maiden flight time. When we got to the field we saw that some milicious individual (s) tore up the field with 4WD's. We had a small area we could fly on but it was a pain in the butt. We have to spend a lot of time fixing the field. Wonder why people do that sort of thing.

Anyway, I fueled it up and started the engine. All went well. I checked and rechecked linkages and throws, making sure right was right and up was up... and so on. All was ok. So, I asked my flight instructor if he would take it up for me. He more than gladly obliged .

He checked a few things and then I carried it out to the field. He taxied it around a bit to get the feel for the steering then lined it up into the wind (what there was of it that day) and added throttle. His first comment was "Very Nice!" He said no trim was needed.. surprised me to no end! He then started doing his thing.. loops, rolls, and so on, and burned almost the entire tank of fuel. Only one comment was to possibly change the prop for a little less speed, then he landed it very nicely.

I changed the prop from the 11-7 I had on to a 12-5 that I had and check everything with the tach. All within limits so more fuel and up she went. He flew for about 3 or four minutes then climbed up high and gave me the RD6000. I flew it in slow orbits for a while then started doing loops and rolls myself.. a few sloppy stall turns then brought it around for a landing. First attempt was a bit over the torn up real-estate so I went around, lined it up perfectly and greased it in. Happy camper!!!!

But, i was not willing to take it up again because of the condition of the field. I felt that there was to much brain loading with the new plane, new behavior, and torn up field so I cleaned it up and put it away for another trip out there.

The Forestry Department was contacted about the torn up field (it's their landing area for the ariel tankers for forest fire fighting). They were not surprised, I guess it happened before. They said they would fix it right away. We offered to get a working party together to rake it up and roll it out but they said they would take care of it themselves.. guess they have more resources than our 70 man club.

Ok.. thanks again for the comments, AND the excellent review (yep, I read it). You were inspiring to me as well as was Frank Granelli of MA Sport Aviator magazine who also did a review.

Another Aerobat owner!!!

Mine has become my "go to" airplane, I love it!

Phil in MN

I'm a new initiate into the Aerobat club, and although I haven't maidened her yet (hopefully tomorrow!) I'm already in love.

Funny, I've read here more than once folks saying they fly their Aerobat as a matter of course, rather than using it as an aerobatic trainer and moving on. When I bought the thing at my LHS, the guy looked at me cross eyed and said "You're still at the trainer stage?" Based on the comments here, obviously he hasn't flown one of these yet.

Thanks Minn for the recommendation. I look forward to getting her air born and getting myself back on the horse!

I'm really glad to see that this plane is getting popular. I know I really enjoyed it.

Convert to a tail dragger if at all possible......

Jerry

I have always thought about getting one as well... I have an OS46fx sitting in a Tower Voyager that just might get moved soon. Falcon has the areobat on sale for $124... a real good buy as far as I can tell.

Update.

I re-arranged a few things 'under the hood' such as more secure mount for the RX and battery, and a few other cosmetic things. I bought this neat meter, weighs in at 1.5 ounces, that plugs into a spare RX channel. It is about 3/4 inches x 1.25 inches. Monitors the RX battery voltage (ok.. ok.. so what else would monitor, eh?) when power is turned on. Moving controls settles it in to a loaded voltage measurement. Neat gadget and very useful. I am paranoid about the RX battery condition after hearing about so many losses due to possible battery problems. I put it right next to the power switch.

We are supposed to get a soaking rain tomorrow [&o] so no flying on Saturday, then once the storm passes, the wind is supposed to be around 40 kts on Sunday [&o][&o] so no flying this weekend. So, I think I will get started on the Elder 40 I bought a couple years ago. A fun project, mainly for show, I hope it turns out that way, anyway.