I had a great time yesterday flying the Mini leader during lunch! I worked at home and had to drop off my wife and it turned out that the plane, radio and a fully charged battery had been brought along too, and that the subwaystation I dropped her off at was very close to a sizeable park. What luck!
There was a bit of wind but that was OK, it’s no good judging a plane from it’s zero-wind characteristics. I flew a beginner’s schedule called “vingtreff” that consists of a procedure turn, two loops, one slow roll, stall turn and immelmann. I was surprised to see the Mini leader handle stall turns very nicely, the rudder is deceptively small but has sufficient authority for both stallturns and climbing knife-edge.
It was a bit squirrely in wind but that’s to be expected at 600 grams and a park full of turbulent wind blowing over the treetops. All in all it handles much like any other plane I’ve flown in wind. (With the exception of the Calypso which is rock solid in winds you would never attempt to fly in)
My only dissapointment is that rolls are not very axial, to the right they are OK but to the left it barrel rolls. No doubt due to the sentral aileron servo and lack of differential but it’s also caused by a tendency to dive inverted. I’m not used to putting in so much down elevator. It might also be caused by the fact that it has a lot of v-shape and that it is primarily designed as an intermediate trainer. It is exceptionally stable although it waggles it’s tail somewhat at slow speeds.
Another slightly bigger battery pack and better servos has been aquired also. Pictures to follow.