[Drew]

The little Skyartec Cessna I picked up from Steve @ Christmas finally got in the air. It's first attempt at taxiing was a bit challenged by the "long" (10mm) grass and the little wheels. However, it had a habit of tipping left, tripping over the fron wheel. I did this twice before the flaps servo (I did not have flaps on and they are inboard to the wing, separate from the ailerons) began to whine - it had a stripped servo. THis before it even got to see any action (I had tested it and adjusted throws and centering but not in flight).

A minute or three on the workbeck saw a HXT900 replace it (about 1mm taller but no stress there).

Today, the tinital takeoff didn't happen. Again the tipping but more aileron input during taxiing fixed that. After doing some high spped ground circuits where the plane just wouldn't take off, I tried again with flaps half deployed. A more satisfying flight that resulted in successful taekoff bur serious nose-dives whenever I tried to remove the flaps (even with full elevator trim).

Otherwise it was a reasonably uneventful and well-behaved flight. We're all used to having a bit more power/weight but this craft was "appropriately" powered and could pull a loop but not "unlimited-vertical" .

A nice safe float into landing resulted in the nose tipping over as the front wheel instantly caught in the "long" grass (previously mentioned).

The motor was noticed to be loose on the mount and the cowel was removed to re-tighten but the wind had come up so a second flight was cancelled for the day.

Recommendations:
bigger wheels - sadly the pants may have to be sacrificed.
consider carefully the CofG or wing incidence
there are FOUR screws in the cowl (ask me how I found out) - two are UNDER the stickers.

Overall, I think this will be a suitable trainer for my son once I can coax it to take off easily.