The A-26 Saga Part 3: Conclusions And Reflections

I finally got the A-26 off the ground last week... For about 3 seconds. When it leaped off the ground it looked like it was at too high an angle and would stall out so I set it back down a little hard, damaging the landing gear. Despite this I was satisfied with the flight. The A-26 has been a bit of a struggle, so I was happy to have some resolution to it. I learned a lot, best summed up by George: "If it's built like scale, it flies like scale."

I started this hobby with an interest in full scale flight, and I used to want to fly more scale-like airplanes without power-to-weight ratios of 10-to-1 that take off with only 2 feet of runway. Since then I've come to understand the differences between full-scale and RC flight. Let's face it, the only full scale airplanes that fly within bounds as scale-small as ours are acrobatic airplanes at the Red Bull air races -- and guess what their power-to-weight ratios are like?

The A-26 is still in one piece and could easily fly again. I think if I do, I'll swap out its .32 size engines with .45s.