I am looking for the best flyer that is a SPAD design..... "Spad to the Bone" Website is OK but the planes aren't rated in regards to best all around design.... Give me the bottom line since I may be building several of them.... which flies best???

picking a "best" combat plane is hard, part of the decision is your particular style of flying.

You also didn't mention what class of combat you'd be flying. If you're flying Open B or C, then you'll want as much wing area as you can get. I haven't been to spadtothebone in a while, but I did see someone post some pictures on (I think) the RCCA site, rccombat.com, of a spad-falcon (Spalcon?). Going in that direction would seem to be a good idea.

The Sickle/Gremlin flying wings are fairly effective as well. Fast and light, they work well for some folks.

They all fly very well. You need to find one that matches your flying style and refine it to your liking. What works for me, you might hate. Since you plan on building several, try them all.

I personally prefer the traditional tail to a v-tail but there are a bunch of people who prefer the v. A SNM with a .25 Norvel is what really lit my fire. You wouldn't recognize what I build as a SNM now, but that was the base design. That's the beauty of SPADs, trying new things is easy and cheap.

rrh

Thanks guys, I will start with the basic SNS and go from there.... I have heard it flies like a rock but haven't heard much good about SPAD characteristics.....

It depends on who you talk to and what you compare them to, and what you expect from the planes. The origional SPAD designs fly well, and do their thing well.

But if you compare them to a state of the art foam-based combat plane, well, most of the old SPAD's aren't really competitive. The current combat planes have a lot more wingspan and wing area than the origional SPADs, as a result the SPADs have a higher wingloading, and don't glide like the long wing foam planes.

That's not to say some guys don't fly SPADs, and some of the guys who fly them do quite well with them. And they aren't a bad choice for a first combat plane.

[quote]I am looking for the best flyer that is a SPAD design.....[/quote]

If you're looking for a plane to fly weekend combat with your buddies, any of the early SPAD designs will do the job. They were almost all designed for combat by Tattoo and Kraut, who were heavy into combat at the time.

BUT, if you're getting into organized, blood and guts, winner take all competition combat the SPADS just won't fill the bill as they won't take the abuse. Coro wings are just too prone to splitting along the flutes. Many of us have tried,,,,,very few are still trying.

If you're serious about serious combat, go with foam.

Cajun[8D]

Watch out for those few of us who are still trying, a couple of serious combat meets have been won by SPADs this summer [>:]

rh