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After few flights on the initial setup, more power was desired. We added a Macs quiet pipe to the plane, and gained around 25% in power output. The plane will still not hover, but it moves around the sky quite quickly at half throttle.
Months of flying quickly took their toll on this plane. In about 6 months, the covering was looking worn, the cowl was falling apart, and the control linkages were getting sloppy. My Dad decided to do a major overhaul of the plane. The most obvious change was the covering job. The original covering was stripped, and the current design was done up in Ultracote. The cowling was replaced with a fiberglass one. All the control hardware was replaced with Central Hobbies carbon fiber pushrods using Rocket City and DuBro hardware at the ends. He ended up replacing the cowl with a fiberglass one, which was then painted with automotive paint and clearcoat. Various other improvements were also done, including replacing the hinges, reconstructing the belly pan and tailwheel cover from balsa, and reinforcing the vertical fin.
This plane is difficult to land. I have flown my share of aerobatic monoplanes, and this one is more difficult to land than most I have flown. I believe the thin wing and somewhat high weight are responsible for this. In the proper frame of mind, landings are routine, but if I get careless, things can get ugly. This plane has been inadvertently landed upside down at least once. Fortunately, takeoffs are straightforward, requiring no elevator on rollout, and only a moderate amount of right rudder.
Once in the air, the plane flies quite well. The tail is a bit short, and the plane does not track quite as straight as other models, but it is still relatively true. Rudder coupling is minimal, and all bad tendencies have been mixed out with mix percentages under 10%. Spin recovery is quick, partly because there is not enough elevator to get the plane deep into a stall. Snaps are very fast and crisp at speed.
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