I flew the Cermark MB339 prototype at the best of the west . I let Bill Fly it although as some of you know it had elevator problems and Bill time was cut short. He did a remarkable job saving the plane. Although there were many " experts" on hand to give their opinion, only a few things are for sure after I* had time to clean up and inspect the damage. 1. The elevator servo was failed pst the full up position. 2. The right stab stub spars were sheared off at the side of the fusalage. there were no marks of any kind to indicat they came off at impact, 3. Two elevator hinges were torn and two were pulled out ( possibly improper4 installation on my part) 4. The spring steel 4-40 solder clevis was not attached to the elevator torque rod.
The good news is the airplane hase been repaired and I flew it at El Toro in the Scale contest in the fun scale division. ( Thanks Larry!) I had a great time during the contest and the plane flew very well. The performance with the Jet Cat P80 is great. The changes I have made are include withthe production kits. A 6mm carbon spar has been included for the stabilzer. I am useing springair retracts with 3/16 wire struts ( a little stiff ) and I'm using a Tamjet pipe with no bypass. Bypass is included with the kit for those whe like bypass ducts. I think all of you who are reciving your kits will have fun with this easy to fly model.
Good Flying, Mike

Mike,

I just received my kit today. Still not sure whether to go with a 500 or a turned down 120. How did you find the landing speeds considering the high idle thrust of the P-80, did you need lots of space to slow he down??

Thanks,
Vin...

hey vin,

whats up, I happened to be at el toro sunday morning to watch some of the scale guys fly, and wound up watching mike's flight, for whatever it's worth I agree with mike, thought it flew very well and the landing speed did not seem at all fast, with the flaps and gear out, there seemed to be plenty of drag to slow that p-80 down, plus it apeers to be quite a floater, I think your gonna like it .

regards, scott

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the info, I have been considering a de-tuned 120 in my Macchi. Was kind of worried about the higher idle thrust. Yves from DL said the fuel consumption is close between the 500 and his detuned P-80, the 120 is even better on fuel than the 80 detuned.

Should be fun!!

Vin...

We got ours today at the shop where I work, by lunch time we had to increase our backorders to 4 more than what we had. What a great transition model for future turbine pilots. Most of us are getting 1 as a fun flier for the local field. I'm putting in my Ram 500 and will start on it tomarrow for the boss'es.

Anybody out there flown the new ARF kit DF instead of turbine? I know plenty of people built Yves' original version, I'd just like to hear comments about the new one.

Man this thing looks like a good deal for those of us with zero building time.

David