I finally got the Sledge I have been asking about, complaining about, reading about, and building for two months finished! It should have been done two months ago... But, it's done and flying now. That's all that matters!

Here's my review for anyone who is interested.

The kit is overpriced and comes with heavy wood. I ended up replacing a lot of it. The landing gear that comes with it is terrible and will bend no matter how soft your landing is. I've put about $200 total into finishing the airframe, minus radio equipment and engine. You can decide if that's too much or not, but I think it is!

I got all the missing parts from Morris a couple days after speaking with them. I never mentioned the bad or missing wood. I did get the engine mounts and pull-pull cables sent to me.

The instructions up to the last few pages are great. Nothing is confusing and all the pictures go with what is being said. Everything went great until the radio equipment installation.

I had heard and read about this thing having special instructions on setting up the pull-pull. There was NOTHING like that. One picture of the servos in and nothing more than "Put in 1/4 inch servos rails". The pull-pull instructions are "Hook up the cables".

In no way was putting any of this together or setting it up hard or complicated, but it made me spend more time thinking than putting it together. I still don't know if I set up the pull-pull, servos, or any of that correctly. I just did what works. Some thorough instructions on radio installation would be GREAT...

Everyone told me I would forget about it all after flying it. That's not completely true...

So, I finished it early today and went straight to the field for a flight or two. I had to know it would fly!

I fueled it up, did the range check, all that other good stuff, and put her in the air. It was a little windy, but as far as I could tell no trim changes were needed. All the controls are nice and responsive. I felt instantly confident...

First thing I tried was a harrier (loops and rolls are out of date!) and they were EASY. I even did a nice stable elevator without flaperons. This airplane will 3D like a trainer will fly straight and level. Torque rolls are of course incredibly easy. There was no coupling in KE and it made it REALLY easy! I even did a decent looking high alpha rolling circle. Landing shouldn't be this easy.

I forgot to mention, there were 5-10 MPH winds and it was lightly raining. It really started coming down in the middle of the second flight so it was time to go home...I was happy.

This airplane does everything I expected and flies better than anything I have ever flown. I am impressed. As far as the kit goes, I am not. I bought it to fly though, not to build!

I will have pictures tomorrow... I need to throw some more color on it first.

I love my lil' Sledge...

Thanks Jeff!

LOLOLOL

I Love that!

Brian, I talked with morris and they have switched to Sig for the wood and hopefully that will solve the problems we all have experienced. I am not sure how or why you did not get the pull pull instructions. You requested the tail mod from me and I sent that to you with a copy of the pull pull instructions. Did you receive that? Also, there is a section in the back on setup, maybe some of that section was missing too. I would have sent that to you also had I known. Anyway, glad to hear it flies good and you are happy. Maybe the next morris kit will be more the normal experience, I will be looking for the pictures.
Happy contrails, Jeff W.

They wrote on my reciept "Pull Pull cables on backorder".

I could never imagine Great Planes or Horizon writing on their receipt that a part of the kit is on backorder and just shipping the kit out with the part gone. I guess Morris Hobbies doesn't see things that way...Not a big deal.

They sent me a whole new manual because I believed and had them believe there was no pull-pull setup instructions. I got the same thing again...No pages seem to be missing, it's just not what I thought it would be.

I got out to fly it again today and got 6 good flights on it. Hovering couldn't be easier. Harriers are great, VERY stable. My evlavotors need some work, maybe flaperons. Flat spins upright are great, still working on the inverted. I hope it will do a climbing inverted flat spin, am I expecting too much? KE is easy and inverted flight takes the smallest amount of elevator you can give. Spins and snaps are great, I never imagined a fat-wing profile would snap like this.

This thing is probably close to 4 lbs. It goes up quicker than my Extra Special did with the same engine and it was 4.2 lbs...I guess all that replaced wood made a difference! I'm impressed.

I have decided this is the best flying .40 size airplane in the world!

My problem now is there is no step up. What am I supposed to do now?