Finally.

Here it is in front of me, and I am the first customer in the world to hold it in my hands. Wow. Wow was not about being the first though. It was about the plane!!

Let me first clarify one thing: I bought the plane for money. It is no gift, and no review free copy.
I feel nice about the FPVModel/FPVMania guys and I (at least at the moment) think they are sincerely trying to make their business nice to all of us, so I don't mind helping them in this or that way.

Grey marble colour is quite attractive by itself.
(I used to love my planes black, and yes they look really incredible in the sky. You will love your plane in black or marble grey, guaranteed. Until it lands somewhere in the forest, and you have to do all that search and recovery, and you damn the day you decided not to add some glowing red and yellow accents on it. But it is all nothing now, because the plane just looks great, great, and great).

Huge spacious fuse that would make a Skywalker feel ashamed of its dystrophic size.
(Only positive emotions here: the fuse is wider and lower than the SW's allowing for more efficient usage of internal space. Navigation equipment can be placed on an intelligently designed ply shelf while the whole length of the floor can be covered with velcro, and the battery can be moved all the way back and forth for better CG location).

Plywood parts, only two.
(A shelf for fuse interior and a motor mount; both worth talking about separately, so I'm leaving them as they are for now).

Wings with no visible sign of dihedral.
(Wings are remarkably straight and square (Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut), and I'm not sure whether it is good or bad on such a plane. Let the bads show themselves later, but the goods are obvious to me as to a lamination freak: simply shaped wings are easier to laminate, this is it! Wings reinforcement had been taken seriously: each console is getting two carbon bands and two rods in addition to a pretty durably looking main carbon shaft).

Tail.
(Here is the horizontal stab, well, and here are the two vertical fins, and oooops, here comes the first negative surprise: no rudder. No way, I want a rudder and I will make it whatever it's going to take).

Carbon sticks.
(Tubes, rods, and bands in different sizes).

Plastic parts and whatever screws/nuts/servo rods.
(Plastic parts are for fixing the wings, and for fixing two tail booms to the wings and to the tail stabs, metal pats are just metal parts, I'm leaving them aside for the time being).

What wasn't there?

In the bottom of the fuse there is a groove very intelligently made for floor reinforcement. Indeed, with such a payload (manufacturer claims the plane is capable of carrying all necessary video equipment in addition to a 10,000 mAh 4S battery) you will surely need a strong floor!
The groove calls for a strong carbon rod - which is probably busy with some other tasks elsewhere, so it's not here. No problem for me, but not everyone is so lucky. Another pair of carbon rods should be here for fastening the wings to the fuse a la Skywalker. Here are the holes for the rods, but where are the rods themselves? - AWOL, together with the rubber rings.

All in all,
I am happy and excited. The plane definitely shows it is not just another cast piece of foam from China. You can see some smart ideas in it and deduct that people who made it are not just money makers but rc pilots as well. They know what they are doing.

Yes there are some questions and shortcomings that I noticed immediately, but I will focus on them when their turn comes.

For now, the two biggest troubles are no rudder and no any provisions for chassis. It'll not be too difficult to make the latter, but rudder... Will take some time and thinking.

Stay tuned.
Appendix to this post
Part 2
Part 3

Ok, thanks!!

Reading....

I'll be following....thanks for the pictures dude! :-)

Have you been given the model for a review, or is this your own purchase?

Originally Posted by subsonic

Have you been given the model for a review, or is this your own purchase?

Good question, I will amend the text.
I bought it for my (hard earned) money. True.

I'm inpatient (hahahaha j/k).... anymore build pics?

We would like to see Vids' also of 'your' plane
Thank You much for the build.....

p.s.
(no eating, and no working for you, just build the plane..........j/k dude)

Originally Posted by rclab1

I'm inpatient (hahahaha j/k).... anymore build pics?

Sure!
I also feel like no eating nor sleeping, just making the bird. Want to take it to bed with me, haha!
Go to top of page with the first part of the build log, you will see navigation panel
My RCGroups Blogs Classifieds....... Search

One line below this one you will see
R/C Blogs > Cathay Stray's blog > Build Log SkyHunter......

Go to Cathay Stray's blog link, it will open you the whole page.

By now there are 2 more posts: one small appendix to the first part, and Part 2.

Stay tuned. It rains like hell here, no way to fly weekend, so guess what I will be doing.