ilikeplanes

It went beautifully. The Saito 120 only had one tank of fuel through it this morning. I was planning on spending the entire day breaking-in the engine, but that Saito was behaving so well there was no reason not put the plane up. I lined her up, eased the throttle forward, a little right pressure on the rudder, and away we went nice and straight. What a great plane. The Saito was more that enough power, even blubberingly rich. Landings took a little getting used to. You fly it in with the throttle, not the elevator. I put three flights on today. All with no surprises.

I will definitely be moving the c.g. back in the future. It failed the precision trimming procedures for balance (pulled out of a dive and required quite a bit of down for inverted flight). It looks like I'll be at the most aft position or slightly behind.

A word on the Saito 120. This engine seems very very nice. It literally started on the first flip brand new (I don't use a starter). It always started on one or two flips. I still have the stock plug and a APC 15-7 prop. It seemed to do pretty good on fuel too. Of course, the Ultimate only needs 1/3 throttle for everything but straight up.

A very good day indeed.