I have an Aspire 2M glider that flys well. It is a little on the heavy side and could be improved with some weight reduction in the solid tail surfaces. It is not an exceptionally lightweight sailplane but will achieve a much lower flying weight than stated on the box if you use mini servos and/or move the servos, Rx and battery as far forward as possible and then use longer pushrods. The included pushrods are very poor and overly heavy anyway so replacing them is no big deal.

The covering also has some sags and wrinkles in it that need to be removed with a heat gun or iron but I suspect this is common with ARF's. Some attentiuon is also required to make sure no warps in the wing result when you tighten up the covering and this is not mentioned in the instructions. There are also a couple of other minor build issues that are outlined in the reviews section on this site.

But when built it is stable on the hi-start and flys well. It is not a floater exactly but still does well in light thermal activity. The Aspire also has reasonable wind penetration and with it's rather heavy tail feathers would stand up very well to a power pod. The current plan is to attach a Tee Dee .049 on a power pod for self launching out of our rather large (but too small for a full size high start) yard. It should be significantly lighter than the EP version of the Aspire.

The GP Spirit isn't bad. A little heavier than a well done kit of the same plane, but generally good construction, nice covering, stable and easy to fly. Flies a faster than a Gentle Lady, handles wind better too. It is also sturdy, and will survive some wigtip dragging landings making the plane look like you are flying a frizbee.

The electric power version... the added weight of the electric drive and battery make impacts more severe, so it doesn't handle abuse as well, even though its built a little stronger.

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] If you want to get serious and don't mind buying the servos, the Spirit Elite can be set up for Crow, etc and I've seen it be quite competative in contests off our winch. Don't winch the Spirit 3-channel. I did and bent the wing joiner without breaking the epoxy joints. I've got a new one now with plywood in lieu of balsa. Nest time off the winch, the wing may break instead of the bent joiner. There is also a 2M sailplane on Hobby Lobby's web site that looks interesting, but $399 is a bit steep although all bagged and fiberglass, so I shouldn't be surprised.

There's a LOT of gliders that a winch can break... if you don't put a short piece of lower strength line between the glider and the chute. (to prevent overstressing the wings)

Winch lines are almost always stronger than the glider. a 2 inch or so piece of line sized to break before the wing folds is a good idea. ( the same thing in a High-Start line doesn't hurt either...)

I had good luck with the E-Flight Odyssey. It's a good value for $100 and climbs well with an 8.4V pack. The matching speed controller for it is the E-Flight Maxx 25 but any 10-15Amp ESC will work fine. It flew very well for me and the only bad characteristic I remember would be it's tendency to snap hard to the left if it stalled. I'm sure this was a characteristic of it's lack of polyhedral.....

The new E-Hawk by Ace Hobbies/Thunder Tiger looks pretty good also for $150. It has ailerons also.

Good luck!

Jeff Benko
Palm Beach Skyhawks