Hello all, I have a great big Stork too. I am / was very happy with it. ( you know where this is heading?). They fly very well, launch extremely well and land well. You do have to plan the landing properly to manage speed, the flaps on them, except the latest US versions, are top hinged and bind on the lower wing skin so you only get about 40/45 deg deflection. You can of course trim away some of the lower skin to get greater movement with out making too large a gap. I have had no skin hinge problems. I could have bought the black one but decided that installing an umbrella on it to keep it cool might affect the flight characteristics a bit too much. I'd be painting it white before next summer or you'd be wearing an asbestos glove to launch it :) Now then, on to model strength. Due to a still undetermined cause, my model went off air near the top of launch and proceeded to do free flight aerobatics till its inevitable return to earth. It went in vertically from about 20m(70ft) and hit dirt. Totally destroyed?. No. Suprisingly the damage wasn't too bad..................structurally. Fuse broken in two between wing bolts. Nose cone 90% complete. Stainless tube pushrods stuffed. Ridiculously expensive to replace. Wing ctr section creased and delaminated top and bottom either side of ctr, but spar still seems intact i.e. I couldn't break it. Tried hard though! L/H tip panel some delamination and snapped carbon joiner . R/H tip panel undamaged. Tail undamaged except control horn wires disbonded from ruddervators. Two Volz Micromax servos for flaps stripped. It doesn't sound it but it was repairable and it should be ready to go again in a few days after many weeks of waiting and fixing and radio checks etc. However, I did end up buying another ctr panel and joiner. Expensive. What I am having a lot of trouble getting is replacement gear/shaft sets for my Volz servos. Expensive They've been on order for a few months now and have been fully paid for. I'm going to use some Jr's for the time being. Having had to open one up (I hope no one else gets to see inside one) the fuse lay-up is amazingly well done perhaps it's done by a machine anyhow the model is structurally very strong just don't bingle it. As are all molded bits, parts are expensive freight costs can double the price and then there is duty and exchange rates plus they can take a long time to arrive especially here in Australia. But I really like the way it launches and flies and it'll thermal on a mouse fart. So the moral of the story is. " When you get your Stork up, it's great fun but don't bend it or it'll hurt you below the belt!!!!" See you Brian Ford RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
