I maidened my Extra today!! This is my first gas plane, can you say nervous!! All for nothing though, plane flew AWESOME! My setup includes a DL 100 on stock mufflers, 4 Futaba 9155's on the ailerons, 2 hitec 7985's on the elevators and one 7955 on the rudder. I used Tom's hardware kit which worked very well. I also used his A123 battery setup with 2 2300 packs and 2 Smartfly switches. Great system!!
Take off was uneventful. Applied throttle smoothly and the Extra tracked straight and true. Lifted off very easily. Added 2 clicks(or beeps) of down trim and one click right aileron and it was flying hands off. I kept it pretty tame since my knees were shaking so bad I was lucky to be standing! Loops tracked great, rolls were nice and axial, all on low rates. I had the cg right on the front off the wing tube and that was perfect for the first flights. In knife edge is tucked to the gear some, but nothing I couldn't handle. It might tuck a bit more as I move the cg back but should be able to mix that out very easy.
Now came the landing! Knees were really knocking now! I held a few clicks of throttle on final, cleared the end of the runway, pulled the nose up slightly and went to idle about 5 ft above the runway and it settled in soooo nice! Wow, easier than a trainer!!
I want to thank Tom for the great service and super fast shipping! He's got a great plane and made my transition to big gassers a great experience. I'm looking forward to many more great flights with this plane!!

Pat, I want to thank you too! You gave me some great advice on oils and batteries and setups.

if u can.picture please

Dredknot, I'm probably the only person left in the free world without a dig camera. I'll see if I can get some pics soon though. I got the flame scheme on mine, looks better in person than on the page. Got a lot of compliments at the field today

thats great news flatspin, welcome to the world of giant scale gas.

good luck and great flying

rr

Thanks for the report. I'm quite sure that more people would move to giant scale if they actually understood how much easier these planes are to fly compared to .40 or .60 size glow planes. You landing "easier than a trainer" is really true.

When learning to fly I had a hell of a time learning to land because the damned trainers would not stop flying, they just went on and on down the runway. A plane like this just glides in and sets down in short order, no messing around.

Photos would be very nice. What radio are you using?

Oh, one other note. Please be aware that you can't test the A123 batteries with a meter, you need to keep track of how much goes in and comes out. I have a friend who lost a plane because he did not understand this, he just kept flying over and over and checking the battery pack (using only 1) which always shows between 6.4 and 6.6 volts even when it's very close to empty.

TF

The thing that made this plane so easy to land was the stability. Once you line it up on final it stays locked in. Comes in like it's on a string, then all you have to control is the throttle and the elevator.
I'm using a Futaba 9 C radio with the 149 dp pcm reciever. The only thing I added was 2 smart fly equalizers on the aileron servos. T.O.M tried to talk me into a power expander but....
As far as the A123's I had read a lot of threads on these and figured out you had to pay attention to how much you were taking out and putting putting back in. I flew 2 10 minute flights, fairly tame flights at that, and as soon as I was done I put them on the charger and they took a touch over 400 mah's.
Anyone want to buy a couple of glow planes??