Ace Cloud Dancer 60 first flight report
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From: Ofallon ,
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Last week I completed an Ace Cloud Dancer 60 kit that I originally purchased about 7 years ago and this morning I sent on her maiden flight and then 3 more. I am very surprised what a very nice flying bird this is very stable one of the easiest landing Low wing and definitely the best ground handling tail dragger I have ever flown. My Enya 60 engine provide plenty of power and spent most of my time flying at 3/4 throttle or less. Has good Roll rate, Loops well and also does outside loops well. Inverted flight required lot of elevator and knife edges were a little sloppy (thats probably due to my flying skills) but hey its not supposed to be a 3d plane. In the couple of months I've spent building it. Flew quite a few flights with my brothers Asrto-Hog (also a very nice flying model) and in the air they fly about the same although the Dancer is slightly more responsive and lands easier. (you almost have to shoot a hog down to get it to land). As for the kit its was pretty rough the die cutting was bad causing a lot of extra work to get a decent fit up, the instruction manual was pretty vague and most of the supplied hardware was replaced with better quality stuff. (maybe this is why Ace doesn't make any kits anymore) The Nose area around the fuel tank, the firewall and the wing mounting block were all reinforced with triangle stock. The plane required 2 ounces of weight in the tail and a 1/2 ounce on one wing. With all that the plane wound up right at 6.75lbs right in the middle of the weight range on the box. Cloud Dancers now are only available as an ARF or built from plans, but I think more people should be flying these. Guys at my club have all kinds of 4*-60's, Astro-Hogs, sportsters, but I am the only guy with one of these. Almost nothing beats the feeling you get about 30 seconds into the first flight of a plane you built yourself when you realize that everything going to be OK.



