Since last Christmas I have been preparing this model for flight. One of the biggest holdups was that the fuel was syphoning out of the tank and flooding the inverted SC FS180 four stroke engine. That has now been resolved.
That means that today I have been able to tune the engine and commit to the air for a maiden flight. The flight was intentionally short, serving just totrim the controls, test the stall and of course land.
The cowl has been left off for the time being to ensure a good cooling air flow over the new engine. A few more tanks of fuel and the engine should be run in and then the cowl can go on. It will look quite different when that is done and I'm looking forward to it having it's proper scale appearance.
Scale? Yes. It's not as well known as other aircraft in it's class such as the Tucano but it's just as widely used in many air forces around the world as an advanced Turbo Prop trainer and also for air force aerobatic teams. This model is based on the PC9/1A of the Royal Australian Air Force Roulettes display team. If you would like to know more about the real thing then click one this link: Wikipedia PC9
