Yup, it's a pile of wood. And some electronics.

Actually, it's a Stevens Aero Edge 540 kit. That pile of laser-cut wood will eventually become an R/C airplane, and a pretty nice one at that. The electronics include an E10-12 motor and Z-45 speed control from Common Sense RC. I'll order some HXT-900 servos from China today.

This will be my first kit build and I'm pretty excited. I know that in the overall scheme of kits, this one is more of a "3D puzzle" than a kit, but hey, I'm still going to be building an airplane for my first time and it'll be cool. Most R/C airplanes these days are "ARFs", short for "Almost Ready to Fly", and only require basic assembly such as electronics installation.

I wanted to have the experience of building from a kit while I still could. As ARFs become more and more popular, the number of companies making kits becomes smaller and smaller. Almost none of the "major" hobby companies make kits now, and it's only smaller, more niche companies like Stevens Aero that still make them. SA has an awesome reputation so I'm excited to build this one.

I probably won't start on it for about 3 weeks, as I'll be having surgery in about 2, but after that, I'll document the build here.