Got the 3DHS Slick in, took it over to The Shop(tm) and, well, it's nearly ready to maiden. The weather needs to cooperate. Thunderstorms and 20mph winds supposedly today, so that's Right Out. Tomorrow, maybe. Friday I've got something else scheduled and Saturday we'll be at Sheep Street, south of Indy. I may be able to fly towards evening on Sat, but probably not till Sunday!

The Slick's every bit as nice as I'd expected. Everything is perfectly built and goes together like it's supposed to. The "bad" part of these planes is the covering is so high quality it's hard to cut the openings for servos and the like. ;) That's a good "bad" thing, though.

There's 3 motors people commonly run in this bird, and I got the kind of "middle of the road" one, the 720kv Torque motor. It should be a good match for my flying. My friend Chad's putting the Hacker setup in his, and that's the motor the plane was more or less designed around. Then there's the Reaper GR-45, which has insane power. Chad's planning to build a second Slick with that setup. I expect the wings will rip off. :D

There was a thread started on RCGroups, asking which plane was better, the 55" 3DHS Extra SHP (which I own the 47" version of), or another similarly-sized plane from one of the "Big Guys". I personally think it was meant as a troll post, since that's sort of akin to asking "what's better, a 1970 Toyota Corolla that's missing 2 tires, or a Ferrari..." But anyway, various people responded, most of them with surprising restraint and class, especially for Teh Intarwebbernetz. Even Ben, the owner of 3DHS, finally responded, basically saying that the two planes really fill completely different needs, and that both of them were very nice, for what they're meant for.

My take on it is this (and I posted such). The planes from the "Big Guys", many of them fly pretty well. The fit and finish on the ARFs is "ok", if highly variable from time to time. These items fill a niche in the hobby. They're widely available, because every LHS carries them. So, basically, they get people into the hobby, and if they don't have bad luck and choose the wrong model, they provide a (sometimes) nice experience getting in. But when you get a little experience and start looking at what else is available, you end up finding the smaller guys, the more customer focused companies. These are companies such as 3D Hobby Shop, Precision Aerobatics, Hyperion, companies like that. Then you start to see huge gaps in quality -- which directly translates to a smoother building/assembly process, and also translates directly into better flight. I compared it like this: The "Big Guys'" planes are the beater you got when you turned 16 and got your license. Sure, it was cool, YOU HAD A CAR!!!!!!!@@ But, it was pretty basic. The higher quality stuff is the car you bought when you became an adult and bought the first car you wanted to buy. It's what you wanted, and it drove, looked, and performed much better than that beater.

I didn't manage to do the biking thing yet. I realized I don't really want to hang out at work all day in biking shorts, and I've got nothing to tote a change of clothes in, LOL. So I ordered a bag at Hodson's and it'll be in soon. And today it's supposed to pour anyway. I'm going to do it though! Heck, it's one of the reasons we bought the bikes in the first place. The vehicle I drive to work, while nice (and we have equity in it!), has a 5.7l gas sucking beast in it so it's not exactly a great idea to put a lot of miles on it anyway!

You may notice that I mentioned up there that we'll be at Sheep Street on Saturday. About 3 weeks ago we bought a spinning wheel. Apparently you can't just buy them off the shelf; they're more or less custom-built as needed. So now it's time to go pick it up! Which means a fun road trip! And a stop at The Strange Brew, easily the best coffee shop in Indiana! (Though Greyhouse is a close second, and local!) It'll be a fun road trip.