My New Strega

[Skip Chernoff]

Flew her today!

[Shug Emery]

So....how did you like it?
Fly good?
Please tell......
Shug

[Skip Chernoff]

I haven't done much with her yet. Checked for wings level upright and inverted. Did a few loops and some squares. Checked the engine run and lap times. My first impression is that she'll be a very nice flying bird. Line tension was great in the stunts I tried.  The balance vertical CG was spot on. I thought that she might have a bias for being "tail heavy",but she flew well and glided  beautifully when the engine quit.

I did have to drill out the holes in the tongue muffler as I thought they were too restrictive as did Joe Adamusko. I'll report back as I get more flights on her. Thanks for your help as well...PhillySkip

[Charles Carter]

Hi Skip

Your Strega looks good.  I am glad to hear your first flights went so well.  I believe you will discover that the Strega is good flying plane.

Charles Carter

[Skip Chernoff]

Charles are you coming to Brodaks this year?

[Skip Chernoff]

I now have 8 flights on the Strega. She seems a bit sluggish in the turns. I'll try a larger handle or some tail weight. I removed the wing mounted landing gear and installed fuselage mounted dural gear. The plane now weighs 78.25 oz....ouch! Whatever hardwood they use on these ARC Stregas ...is crap.

[peabody]

The Chinese that assemble Brodak's ARFs just feed balsa into the laser cutters....they pay no attention to weight or grain structure.....resulting in some "unusual" wood usage.
78 ounces is a but porky, for sure.....
Instead of adding tail weight, take the weight from the nose....

Have fun!

[Perry Rose]

You can lose a half ounce by changing the landing gear from the wire supplied with the kit to 1/8 inch wire and cutting the upright piece in half. You will need brass tubing to connect the torsion blocks as there is the landing gear block and a block glued to the upper portion of the rib on each side. You could have removed the wing tips and hollowed them out losing another .9 ounces total. Cutting holes like the Nobler and hollowing the top cowl block and tail blocks is about the only way to lighten the plane. My Strega built from the Brodak kit is 74 ounces and an ARF is 76, presently under total re build as it was butt ugly. They use a lot of lite ply and hot glue in the ARF.

[Skip Chernoff]

Perry I originally bought the ARC from a friend for $100. I put a ton of work into it to redo the entire engine mounting beams and make a new crutch. In hind sight I should have bought a kit,but that's old business. I'm certain that I'll get it flying right. Sometimes a "good deal" can be more costly in the long run....Skip