I've searched and found lots of talk about buying this plane, but no stories about building or flying it. It's ugly, so I know that you guys aren't using it as a wall decoration. How does it fly. Did you run into any problems building it? I have a MVVS 1.6 gas engine coming to power it with. It will be underpowered for my taste, but I will live with it for now and upgrade or trade it out later. What kind of flying weight is everyone ending up with? I am assuming that it is very similar to the staudacher that was reviewed on this site. Hopefully the review will come in handy while building.

Mark

I have just started with mine. I'll write up a mini-review when I get it together. So far it doesn't look like there is anything to complain about. I'm not an experienced builder, which can be either good or bad depending on what you're looking for.

Stay tuned.

Mike

I'm going to be putting one together also. I'm still tossing coins between a moki or an O.S. though. I've got a little time though as i am still finishing last kit.

There are some bubbles in my covering that i have to iron down and a few saggy areas i have to shrink up (especially next to the hatch) but all in all the covering job is good. I need to do something about the blue covering showing through the yellow stripes on the fuse though. Most of the hardware as i have heard before does appear to be well suited to a .60 size plane.

All in all though its a hell of a lot of airplane for the price isnt it?

Mine arrived Friday 12/6. I must say the covering is perfect. There is not a wrinkle or sag anywhere on mine. I'm itching to get started, but have to waite until late next week since the in-laws will be visiting this week. I saw no mention of a spinner size for the extra, and I can't get mine out to measure right now. What size looks good with this plane. I may sneak off to the hobby shop today and pick one up. BTW I did notice that in the manual (CDROM) regarding mounting the engine, there are dimensions from the motorbox to prop hub for spacing shown on the pictures. These do not match the ones beside the pictures in the text.

Mark

Mark,
I would go with the figures in the text which I believe is 50mm and 146 mm respectively since the picture is of the Katana. The spinner size is around 3 1/4" but you might get by with a 3" nylon in yellow. Would look good and a lot cheaper than aluminum but not near as good. As far as hardware the control horns look a little small and I intend to at least use larger ones.

I hate the color scheme. Mine had wrinkles and bubbles in the covering too. The paint on cowl does not match plane.
Erick Royer has done some recent mods on his Staudacher in the review. I will mount my servos in the fuse near the wing tube and run pull pull on rudder as he did since I will be using a light glow engine. This should eliminate the need for nose wt.
Luck & Happy Flying,
PilotFrog

I just got mine today.. covering looks perfect, and paint seems to match pretty nice. maybe a bad run on the cowls?? I am very impressed with the quality so far. I will post up as I start to assemble. my kit came with both a paper, and CD rom manual. I can't wait to get this bird airborn. I am asking santa for some Hi torque servos for Christmas I too will put the servo's in the tail and use the pull pull rudder system. should offset the weight of the gasser I am putting on the nose

Mark

The paint on my cowl and wheelpants is perfect, and probably would match the covering pretty well just held up next to a roll of new covering but the problem i see on mine anyway, is that the yellow stripes on the side of the fuse are applied on top of the blue covering used underneath and it alters the color of the yellow. I'm thinking of putting another layer of yellow covering on the stripe down the side of the plane on top of the yellow already there.

I know the topic is how do they fly, but I want to chime in on the quality, because it looks like that is where this thread went. The covering in mine looks great. No wrinkles at all. The only Imperfections I could find is a slight bubble in the underside where the trim was attached. I really has to look hard for it. The paint matched right on.

I'm held up building mine because of a bad wing. The left wing panel is badly warped. There is a 5mm gap between the wing and fuse when it is assembled. I have contacted Creek Hobbies about it, but haven't gotten a response yet. They will have to send me a new wing as the current one is not usable. Only about 5 inches of the root touches the fuse.

Sounds more like an uneven surface at the root. Also are you sure the wing tube is going all the way into the socket on the wing? Erick Royer mentioned something about a similar problem on his Staudacher review. You might want to contact him.
I believe this may be able to be fixed without a new wing. May need to sand the core straight at the root. Also the wing tube socket might have been bored at an angle. This might be a little more difficult to rectify and may require a new wing. You might try a phone call to Creek about your problem.
PilotFrog

PilotFrog, The tube is going all the way into the wing. I did have to force it into the foam a little. If I lay a straight edge on the root, there is a 5mm gap at the leading edge and trailing edge. I don't think it can be sanded out, as that would eat through the root rib in the center where it is bowed. Besides isn't the purpose of an ARF to not have to build/sand/cover anything? I think the only way to fix this problem would be to sand the root flat + another 3/16" and add another root rib. that would require recovering the wing. To top it off I have not found any covering that is a perfect match anyway. Creek Hobbies need to send me a new wing.

Mark,
I did not realize that the problem was that severe..... it definitely has a bow in the root plane. Yes, that much sanding would require replacement of the root rib and recovering at that section.
Creek might have to replace the whole plane as I don't know how they are on spare parts stock. This model is out of stock until after the first of the year so you may have a wait. Hope you are able to contact them after the weekend. Their lack of response has me worried too.
PilotFrog

keep us posted on what they do for you, hopefully they will make it right, buying a big arf for 200 clams its not unreasonable to expect occasional failures in quality control. What matters is that they fix it.

I wonder why its not straight, if it was the foam that wasnt straight and the rib bowed to meet it, or if it was the rib that was bowed to begin with, or if it somehow got that way after being glued together.

Hi could you post a pic of the offending wing and fuse?

remember creek is in the process of moving between now and the first of the year.

regards
mark

Here is a pic with the wing mounted. If you look where the arrow points, the wing is flush with the fuse there. It is gapped infront and behind that point.

mlevings, Just a little foam tape will take up that gap!

That sucks, If you don't hear from them on Monday give them a call! It will be interesting to see how they react to this problem. Please keep us posted.

Regards
mark

Wow, I am going to start mine tomorrow. I hope they got my kit right. A buddy of mine flew his Creek Edge for the first time today. It flew good. He did not wring it out on the first flight, but it tracked real nice. The ailerons were responsive and you only needed to breath on the elevator. He did not have any expo in it yet. He has a Os 160. It seemed to fly light. The vertical was great. It went out of sight in no time. He hovered it a little, but did not really put it through any paces. After a post flight inspection to make sure everything is still tight it looks like it will be a great flier. I hope my extra flies as well. I am going to put a YS 140L in mine.

I kind of zoomed ahead and dry fit checked out my wings on the fuse. They appear to be perfect. I also ironed out most of the wrinkles and bubbles in the covering with my iron covered with the Top Flite sock.
I also got a response back from Jim Eble on some questions I had about the construction. He has been having problems with computer plus his move and all. So you should be hearing from him about your wing problem.
Luck & Good Flying,
Kermit

Hope it works out for you. I ran into the same problem with the Katana. Big gap and one wing was a full 1/4 inch ahead of the other. No way to square it with the tail without the gap and foam tape is not an option.

After 3 weeks of phone calls and me paying shipping to send my wings back and paying shipping again to get the new wings , they fit just perfect.

Thanks for the encouragement, NOT. I hope my situation turns out a little....no a lot better.

Mark

Hey guys

I have been working with Jim Eble on the Sukhoi that I am presently reviewing. It is a great plane. But I had a few questions on the powerplant and strength of the firewall.

I am going to use a Moki 180

Anyway, Jim has been in the process of moving to a new facility and it has been taking up a lot of his time. I can assure you that their customer support is still top notch. Please be paitent with him. Give a call, you might get a faster response.

Thanks
Erick

I had a good size blemish on one of my wing panels on my Extra 330. Looked like someone dripped CA glue on the leading edge of the wing, then tried to rub it out. While rubbing the glue stripe out they cut a hole in the covering just behind the leading edge. Not very good quality control in my opinion. If I let something like that go in my inspections, I would be fired. 2 emails to Jim in the last week, and no replies. Moving or not, they need to keep on top of things.. I have heard nothing but good about creek, and I hope things continue that way.

FW

Well guys, I just got a call from David at Creek Hobbies. It is not what I wanted to hear. They would send me a new wing right out, but they are out of stock even on parts until sometime in February!! He is going to do some more checking and see if there are any other options. It's starting to look like I will have a $200 ARF 1-winged paperweight. Just my luck.

Mark

Hey guys and gals,

I posted a question about a problem I'm having fitting the 1.60 in my Extra over in the "update on Creek Extra" thread.

If anyone has any ideas about it, let me know. I'd rather not have to cut the cowl.

Thanks.

Mike