Planes still sitting on the workbench can be seen here

The MIGLET is my first EDF powered model. I bought it mainly because it was relatively inexpensive. I also bought the recommended Bullet brushless motor. The plane really moves fast. I would estimate it going at about 100 kph, although this would have to be verified by a radar gun measurement. Flights are only about 3 minutes with the MIGLET but I don’t think the human body could keep up with the stress level any longer :-P

A common problem seems to be the limited space under the canopy. I had to dremel a lot of foam out before I could cram all the components in there.

The plane is not what I would consider a beginners plane. It covers a lot of ground in a short period of time and landings are not successful all the time either. You have to keep it perfectly level upon touchdown or the overpowered blowdryer will snag its winglets on the grass. I knocked off the winglets a couple of times now. Although glueing them back on is no problem it makes you try to always shoot a perfect landing.

I cannot really remember anymore why I bought this one. It is the smaller brother of the much beloved Callistic. Unfortunately my version of the Calimero did not live up to the performance of the Callistic at all.

During the building I put a lot of carbon in the plane thus making it more heavy. I also added ailerons, straightened the wing and fitted an expensive brushless motor all of which proved to be big mistakes later on. I guess I kind of wanted a light hotliner.
All in all I was very disappointed with the plane. I tried to convert it into something it could never be, built it way too heavy, chose the wrong motor and broke it on the first flight. It was very windy that day and I didn’t want to wait any longer. So I launched it, took it high up and went into a steep dive out of which I recovered with a harsh pull on the elevator. As a result the dreaded wing flutter occurred, snapped the aileron linkage and the upper wing spars broke free of the ribs with a loud crack. The covering held the wing together as I landed the plane. I packed up and went home. It is now sitting in a corner catching dust.

Miss America joined my hangar for one reason: to fill the void until my big Hangar 9 Mustang left my workbench. It went together fast and flew allright.
I was very impressed with the quality of the fiberglass fuselage. The whole fuse is covered with tiny rivets and panel lines. The cowling fits perfectly and also has rivets and lines all over it.

Although the kit is meant to be powered by an electric motor two engine mounts and a tank are included. I put a Saito FA-40 under the hood.
The only drawback I found was the flimsy landing gear. It was made out of very soft 3mm wire and would bend on every landing no matter how softly I tried to set it down. I had to bore the retracts to 4mm and bend stronger 4mm wires.

Towerhobbies sends their catalogue all the time. I saw the Flatout series from Electrifly and bought myself a kit with a Rimfire brushless outrunner motor of recommended size. The kit arrived about a week later and went together in an evening. The plane flies quite allright and is a good way to practice difficult maneuvers. Battery runtime was not overwhelming with my 600mAh LiPo-Pack, but I don’t think performance would suffer a lot if anybody was to stick a bigger pack to it.

The plane is sitting in the basement since I broke one of the HS-55s. Never had the nerve to replace it.

This model was built from a set of CNC-precut pieces. It was a fairly easy and quick build. It has a .15 Magnum mounted up front and three HS-81 for control. The covering job is overkill because the expected lifespan of this model is not more than one season (maybe even less).

After some adjustment flights it is now combat ready and awaiting its first opponent. I have a couple of friends building the same model with the goal to get a glimpse of the aircombat part of the hobby.

In the project section I covered the build of this model. One crucial thing I forgot was the washout and this really showed. As soon as I pulled a little too much elevator the Jak snapped immediately into a nasty stall. It is now more nose-heavy than it should be but it behaves very nicely and is hard to get into a stall. Very tight loops can be flown with full up elevator even out of steep dives.

Landings are a little tricky and sometimes result in breaking off the prop (I could not yet manage to cut the engine in flight).