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Great Planes advertises, "You'll look like a better pilot immediately with your first Ultra Sport flight." This statement was found to be absolutely true. The plane is covered with a foam material rather that the plastic film used on most other ARF's. The kit comes with two wing haves, fuselage, canopy, fin and rudder, horizontal stabilizer and elevator, pilot, ABS cowl, landing gear, wheels, tail wheel assembly, tail bracers, fuel tank, and pushrods which is basically everything you need other than the radio and the engine. All parts were packaged in a plastic bag. The tail of the plane was damaged so a call was placed to Tower Hobbies and Great Planes and both sent in a new tail set free of charge. The instructions were very complete for an ARF. As a first impression this plane looked very good. Wing construction is basically the same as most other ARF's. The center ribs and dihedral brace are epoxied together and the wing is complete. The landing gear is wing mounted and the ABS wheel wells are preinstalled. They are not glued well and one hard landing can tear the landing gear out, It is recommended that the wheel wells be reworked. The optional retracts are not recommended. They add additional weight and the plane flies great without them. The tail assembly is installed simply by lining up the horizontal stabilizer and the fin and epoxying them in place. The cowl needs to be opened slightly for the engine and muffler to fit properly. The best word to describe the test flight is "interesting". The model was not balanced carefully and was tail heavy. This made the first take off a little nerve racking. Even though it was tail heavy, control was managable and the test flight continued. The rudder has a lot of authority. Rolls were smooth and axial. The plane had a lot of power with the O.S. 46FX and had unlimited vertical performance. The elevator was a bit sensitive the first flight because of the balance problem. After the first flight, the model was rebalanced a bigger spinner was added then the plane flew great. The Ultra Sport ARF is a beautiful looking and great flying airplane. When the Ultra Sport 40 is in the air, it tracks like it is on rails, it goes where you point it, and it is extremely smooth. It is aerobatic yet easy enough to control to be a good second airplane. The Ultra Sport does come in hot so the nose has to be held up so it will slow down for a gentle landing. The red and white Ultra Sport is recommended over the blue and white since this color combination is just too hard to see. |
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