My new love is the Sea Vixen...a 1950's to early 60's British jet bomber.

It's my new favorite plane! I bought it as a kit and put a Cyclone Power IR550-2800kv-40 4S/5S motor with CP 10 blade fan. It flies well on 4S or 5S but the 5S makes it a screamer! It flies like a dream only exceeded by it's docile landing characteristics.

See video below...it was a gray, rainy day so video is not great...

Durafly DeHavilland Sea Vixen (2 min 46 sec)

The RC Lander Panther has been through trials and tribulations. The original Eflight BL-15 and HET 4 blade fan were adequate but not much low end power and not very fast on high end either.

Soooo...I put in 4S Cyclone Power 3300kv outrunner motor with Changesun 10 blade. It wasn't even enough power to get it off of the ground. So I changed power plant to Cyclone Power IR (inrunner) 550-2800-40 with Cyclone Power 10 blade fan. It's a 4S or 5S setup. On 4S it still wouldn't rotate. But on 5S it became a whole new plane. It lifted off long but good enough and was much faster and more responsive in the air.

In the meantime I also found out that I had balanced it WAY too nose heavy and this further reduced time to lift off !!!

On last flight this last week, I miscalculated wind and landed very heavily and cracked left wing almost in two. There was a crack on both sides of the wing up to the air intake. I used Gorilla Glue and some fiberglass planks to shore up the wing. I also had to glue the nose wheel platform that had loosened in the hard landing as well as the tip tank which came completely off.

Maiden next week.

5/18/13 - Maidened and everything was great. Now that CG is right and using
5S powerplant, it takes off very well in about 3/4 of the space as previously. She is much faster in the air and landings are softer since CG is further back. She does LOOK like she is flying a little tail heavy (nose up attitude) but nothing major and no problems on landing so I think it's about right.