I'm looking to get a 2nd plane, and the Cloud Dancer ARF has been suggested to me. I currently fly a Hobbico Superstar 40. I'm looking to buy a 6 channel radio and a new engine for the CD, as opposed to transferring my Futaba 4 channel and OS 40 LA from my Superstar.
What experience is out there with:
1.) Building this ARF?
2.) Mounting an OS engine sideways or inverted (how well does it run)?
3.) Wing-mounted landing gear as opposed to changing the design to a fuselage mount?
4.) Flying this model?
5.) Anything else about this plane.
Thanks!

Howdy :0
I got a CD 40 with and Irvine .53 mounted sideways
It's such a sweet combo!!!! good solid flyer slows to a crawl for landing, open it up and it goes very fast very quickly....
The ARF version is very light and easy to put together, only drawback is the cheap cowling and some of the hardware including the aileron pushrods. I did not use the retracts since wi fly from a grass strip.. with pants on it looks cool with the standard gear.
The engine is mounted sideways wiht no problems whatsoever, this is a clean looking and flying airplane.. the covering is ultracote, I put extra red and blue stripes on the underside of the wing and put a bigger tank that the one supplied.
As mentioned it flies very well but won't do knife edges it pulls out of it other than that has no bad tendencies.. it's slim profiel makes it hard to see if it goes too far.
I believe you will enjoy your CD I do!!!

look into the pictures page of the following link and there are a couple of pictures of it

www.laceibahonduras.rcclubs.com

SwampFlier,
Thanks for the info. Have you had any problems with the gear since it's mouted on the wings (either control problems or weakness, or both)? I've heard that's it's a good idea to mount the gear on the fuselage, but I'm not clear on why.

NO problems whatsoever..... just make sure that the wood blocks are firmly glued and reinforced with a little CA, I have had two or three hard landings and what happened is that the gear bent backwards (had to take it out to straighten it) otherwise it's ok....

OIn second thought... I have had two problems with the landing gear.. they happened when i put the wheel pants on.. on hard landings the landing gear springs back and the rear of the wheel pants when through the covering, in one case it was only the covering, on the other case it broke some balsa that hd to be repaired.. since then I am flying without pants...as i mentioned we have a rough grass field.

Keep the pants off until you can grease your landings..

Thanks for the good advice. We too have a grass field, and my landings need more work. They're more closer to slime than grease. I've been told to forget the wheel pants on any aircraft, because the grass will slow down it's takeoff roll. I think the wheel pants on the CD look pretty sharp, though.But the guys will laugh