This has been a fun airplane to build and fly. It’s a very straightforward build following the YouTube videos. I used a tiny Emax 1407 motor, 18 Amp ESC, 5.1x4.1 prop, and a Hyperion 3s 900 Lipo, and Emax 9251 servos. I got 134 Watts on a fresh battery. This design is very slippery… my last flight of mostly 1/4 throttle was 5:48 and the HV Lipo still showed 12.29 volts. Most of my recent flying has been slow 3D and I was shocked at how fast this plane can be on 3s. It’s way under 250 grams RTF too.

Not much left to do. Just getting the servo linkages adjusted for neutral control surfaces. Tomorrow I hope to finish with radio setup and control surface deflections, motor/ESC installation, and CG location. This is a high-quality kit and I’m looking forward to flying it.

Finished the West Michigan Park Flyers "Highlander" this afternoon and got the radio and control surfaces setup this evening. Looking forward to getting it dialed-in while I work on assembling the floats... then the real fun begins.

Update

The maiden flight didn't go well. In fact, in 21 years of RC flying I've never had a maiden flight so frightening. The plane wouldn't rotate to takeoff, so I added lots of up elevator. Then it tookoff and zoomed about 30 feet up, then 30 feet almost straight down. Bent the landing gear. Checked everything again, all control surfaces neutral, CG right behind the wing spar per the mfg. recommendation, controls free and correct. Added a bunch of up trim. Tried again. Same story, this time broke the prop. Now I have a hangar queen until I figure out what's wrong. After doing some online research, I'm not the only one who's having trouble getting this airplane to fly well. I think next time I'll try moving the battery rearward about half an inch behind the mfg. recommendation.

Update 4-4-23

Took it to the flying field this morning and started with the battery a full one inch aft of the mfg. recommended balance point. It rotated and flew !!! I flew out part of a battery and landed. Progress. Flew another plane while this one cooled, then installed a fresh 3s1000 mah battery half an inch further back. Flew even better. It's a long way from perfect but there is now hope. Soooo..... if you are having trouble with your Highlander, it may be very nose-heavy at the recommended CG.

Beautiful morning to fly the Mako. Easily becoming a favorite airplane.

Recently finished building the WillyNillies Delta Sport 250. It’s only my second balsa build and my first attempt at covering an airframe. It looks pretty good and flies even better. Power setup includes a Racerstar 1806-2280kv motor, Skywalker 12 Amp ESC, Glacier 3S 450 30C battery, and Gem Fan 6x4 prop. This airplane has a wide flight envelope, but I’m told don’t get too slow in the turns or it can stall and spin. I’m getting 7-8 minutes of mixed throttle flying. If you like aerobatics and going fast, you probably should set you timer more conservatively. It’s a slick airframe and fun to fly.

Recently finished building the Slick XL 3D foamie by West Michigan Park Flyers. Been looking for an affordable big brother to my 32” foamie. I still consider myself a novice builder but this was very straightforward. 44” wingspan and weighs 29.6 oz. RTF with a 3S 2100 battery. Sunny Sky 2814-1000kv motor, APC 9x6e prop, Favorite 40 A speed control, Esky ES08MD servos. Brush-painted with Createx water-based black and fluorescent yellow . Been windy here so test flights could be a while longer.

Edit Update:

Wind was 6-8 kts. and manageable early this AM so the maiden flight finally happened. Takeoff was uneventful at a bit over half throttle. I had forgotten to program dual-rates so control throws were 100%. No problem. The only time I felt like I was over-controlling was hovering so I'll get those setup before next flights. Rolls can be fast or slow depending on airspeed. Loops are no problem. I tried power-off stalls and it just floated down almost vertically and wings level . No trim adjustments needed, and it always felt in control. Quite honestly it felt like I'd flown this airplane dozens of times, not like it was the first. I flew two batteries: Some old Hyperion 3S 2100 25C that I've had for years. I landed 15-30 seconds after the 8-minute timer beeped and one pack had 33% left , the other 37%. Motor barely warm, battery barely warm, ESC barely warm. Looking forward to more flights and learning what it can do. Sorry I don't have video, I remembered the tripod but forgot the camera.

Finished the West Michigan Park Flyers Mako water plane a couple weeks ago. Neat design and cool looking airplane. Flies off water very well and after eight 8-minute flights I have not found any bad habits. While doing extensive water taxi ops I discovered a few places on the float seams that I missed with glue. I'm using the recommended setup and 230 Watts is plenty for my kind of flying.

I thought it was ready till I found the outriggers on the table. Now it’s ready, and batteries are cycling. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

Been tweaking linkages and servo horn positions trying to get the ailerons where they belong. Would love to program my old Futaba 7C for a mix of two aileron servos on different channels but for now they are connected to a Y- harness. I think it’s ready for it’s maiden flight. Hmmmmm…. grass or water ?

Merry Christmas !

It’s been months since I’ve had a project on the building table. Actually I’ve got two airplanes going on two tables. I figured why not work on one while glue dries on the other ?

Mako Shark by West Michigan Park Flyers , and Puddle Star by Twisted Hobbies. The PS will be my first twin since my Twin Jet many many years ago. Laminating the water-contact areas is the first time I’ve covered an airframe and I’m pretty happy with the results so far.

Ran across my old Youtube channel while surfing Mikado Logo videos. This was 13 years ago flying my Logo 10 at the lake. Good times. Hopefully I'll have a build/setup log to share soon. I have a Logo 10 slated for the build table. I hope I can remember how it's all done...

Logo 10 at the Lake (4 min 20 sec)

3-D Fun this morning with the Clik 21 . I built this plane last December and it's still a favorite. Excellent for indoor flying, but it's also a blast outdoors in calm or light wind conditions.

This image was recorded on a Canon SD1100is pocket camera as we flew commercially into Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Intl. Airport.

Southwest Florida shoreline on the way to Key West in 2013. Taken with a GoPro Hero 2 mounted under the left wing.

Got to go flying yesterday evening. The wind let up and it was pretty smooth. Gorgeous sunset.

I've gathered these with the intention of flying them while camping. It was a good idea but in reality I like the visibility of my larger helicopter. They look like really nice helicopters, much better quality and design than the other micros I've flown. But they're taking up space and I can always use the money for other interests so I'll be finding them new homes. The Maxir was purchased as RTF, the Ricco is airframe only with LOTS of new in the package parts.

Despite a four year hiatus and numerous obstacles, I earned my pilot's license on March 5, 2010.

My wife took this photo. A little flying at the campground.

Haven't flown R/C airplanes much since getting the heli bug three or four years ago. Here's my Mikado Logo 10 with a Walkera 4#3B micro heli sitting on the flybar paddle. The Logo is a 30 size and flies great outdoors, while the Walkera weighs just ounces and is used for practice in the living room when it's not fit outdoors.

I also started flying full-scale again. I'm really hoping and trying to get finished up late this month.

The hotliner bug is biting again. Maybe I'll get the Ion finished after all.