SkyVista

When you open up the box you find the aircraft in an almost completed condition. There isn't a lot of constructing to do, but here goes...

The aileron servo is screwed into a plywood joiner-rib, and the steel dihedral brace pushed through the hole. The two wing panels slide onto the dihedral brace, and are aligned with a wooden pin.

There is no gluing. They supplied a flimsy-looking white tape to run around the join. I chose to use white "duct-tape" with reinforcing strands.

The tail is a simple bolt-on affaire. The two 4-40 sized threaded rods pass down through the fuse, through holes in the horizontal stab, and are fastened underneath with two lock-nuts.

All the electronics ride on a tray in the center-section of the fuse. I chose to use an FMA eXtreme 5 receiver, four Hited HS-300 servos and a flight-pack made of four 600 mAh NiCd AAA cells.

The green, lumpy object is an aircraft locator to help me find this bird if it goes down in a field of sugar cane.

Push-rod installation was straightforward.

Engine installation was a snap. I used another Thunder Tiger Pro 46 because the first one worked so well, and because I now have two identical engines that will (perhaps) grace the fuselage of a twin, some time in the future.

The cowl was designed for a different engine, so I had to make a small cut and relieve the edges of the cut-outs here and there.

And here is the finished SkyVista.

Looking good in blue and white with a trace of yellow and red in the trim. I think the wheels are a bit small (2&#frac12;") for a grass strip, particularly the rutty, cracked strip I fly on! Maybe 3&#frac12;" wheels will come later. I may even try building some "booties" for them!

After ground-running the new engine for a tank, and with the carb tuned very rich, I took it up for it's maiden flight. The power was not there, but despite that, it flew quite well. It is my first low-wing experience, but I don't think I acquitted myself too badly.

Several more flights, each progressively more lean on the mixture and with more power available, followed the first. She loops and rolls well, especially with high-rates switched in! I have not tried knife-edge, but I am dubious about that since this aircraft has only a modest rudder.

It will take a while for me to get used to it, but I am very pleased with the performance so far. It is fast, has good vertical performace, handles sweetly, lands comfortably, and flies long on a 10-oz. tank of fuel.

What more could I ask for?

Well, that didn't last long!

On it's third day out, I was flying inverted at about half-throttle but even with the elevator full forward (inverted up) it was losing height. The smart thing to have done was to open the throttle and gain a bit of height before trying anything else. Instead I decided to roll out of the invert, and I did this. Unfortunately, I did not pull back on the elevator at the right moment. So as it came out of the inverted position, the down-elevator suddenly became real down-elevator, and she dived for the ground.

I'm considering gluing it back together again.... No, not really. I don't think there is enough glue in the island for a job that size!!

Damned shame! It flew very well, and several experienced pilots agreed with that assessment.

Oh well! If you aren't prepared to smash 'em you shouldn't go flying 'em, eh?