Good news! Just maidened my F-15 Quick Build. Took me awhile to get it together for a variety of reasons, but it was worth it in the end.

I'm a very low time pilot. I.e., 3-4 hours total over the last two years on computer simulators, and literally 5 minutes in the air.

I'd bought a couple of those low/slow "trainers" (E-Starter and Slow Stick). With brushed motors and such they were sluggish pigs, slow to respond, and I thought very hard to fly and not much fun. guess I needed something with more pizazz!

I got the Quick Build because I didn't want to spend another 10-20 hours or so (I'm a bit of a perfectionist) putting together a trainer that would end up mangled and unsatisfying anyway. The QB went together well and I headed out to find a place to fly it.

Various potential sites (no clubs in my countryfied surroundings) proved too small or were in use. I went up to the park on the hill overlooking the highway (Chatham, NY) where there are three little league parks. No one was there, and although there are fences, buildings, obstructions and the like, it was the best shot I had.

Although I'd flown the E-starter into a fence there on its maiden a couple years ago (been away from the sport for awhile), I thought with the recent practice I had earlier today in the Clearview simulator on mycomputer, flying a Yardbird Su-27 i think it was (it would be great if someone would do the F-15 for Clearview), I'd give it a shot.

I throttled up to about 1/2 (Grayson power module they sell here is what I have, along with a Zippy 1300 mah, 3S 11.1V battery). I tossed her out in front of me. Trim was a little down and she flew toward the grass but I got enough (over)control and jammed in throttles and zammo!, she was rocketing for the sky. wow!

I throttled back and she politely nosed over. I got her flying hands off nice and level with little trimming needed. Very stable, no turn tendencies, easy to fly.

I made one circuit of the field, even zooming over a roof once, then cut power to see how she glided in. Smooooth and stable even at lower speeds. And a perfect landing, absolutely no sweat. Remember, I'm a novice.

Three more flights, more confidence with each one. She's a sensitive bird in that it's easy for a novice to overcontrol, very responsive with just the elevons, but not overly sensitive. And she'll slow down nicely and float along.

I got careless on flight #5 and beaked her in, so I'm looking for some scrap Depron now but can't wait to go out again. it's a real cool airplane, if you're looking for a confidence-building way to get into prop jets, this is a great place to start. Very stable, responsive, fun plane to own and fly. I'm going to order another QB, they're really a blast.

Fly safe!

Jim

The BD-5 was good to us, and we will miss it.  So long....

As of the end of August, Rapleaf has shifted business models and is not supporting online reputations anymore.  Bummer.  So while the company lives, our rating system does not.  Now, thankfully, we had transferred over all the comments long ago and continued to update the list, so we didnt lose any data, but now, if you want to send us a comment, you need to email us, until we find an alternative solution. 

So, kinda bummed around here, because we really liked what Rapleaf supplied, then again, we never paid for anything, so I'm sure their business model needed some shifting. 

Anyone have any suggustions? 

So the package finally showed up and clearly got delayed because it got run over at some point, perhaps a couple of times. Even the carbon rod inside was snapped.  Well, at least it showed up. 

Everything turned out fine in the end, and we are thankful for our customer's patience during the entire experience.  So, who will win the once-a-year-my-package-got-hammered lottery?  It could be you...but you know what they say, "You can't win if you don't play."

1. Help support the builders out there that are a little short on time and want to get a great looking park jet.

2. Help the weekend designers get their designs out to other hobbyists.

Well, this is a time to look at reason #2.  We just contacted two more designers who have put together great little parkjets that we thought will fit in real nice with our current line up of Quick Builds.  Now the designers are still finalizing their plans, so it may be a few weeks or month or two, but we will turn around their design as soon as possible.  A little preview is below.

F-22 Raptor from Tomas Hellberg on Vimeo.

Well, we just sold our last BD-5 Long Wing, so those are all gone.  We still have a few short wings available, so if you are sitting on the fence, better get off and get one before they are long gone.