This past weekend I put five flights on my Mini A Heli - which were my very first-ever helicopter recovery flights (not counting the Gyroc). It works just wonderfully!

The first flight (on the recommended A10-3T) boosted with only a little roll, deployed the blades at the top and proceeded to spin up, coming down very slowly so that it wound up almost at the edge of the field some 600 feet from the launch point. Several long-time rocketeers remarked on how well it worked and are now contemplating getting this kit for themselves.

The next day, after the Cub Scouts were all gone, I put up four more flights, two on A10s and two on A3-4Ts and this time I timed them as well. I got over a minute in dead air on two of the flights (one on each motor type), one 20-odd second flight which recovered safely even though I forgot to attach the rubber bands to the blades before launching it :eek and one in the mid 30s where it turned nose down as it deployed and came down that way.

My model was built entirely stock - no modifications or tweaks at all - and per directions. There are a couple of tweaks I want to try for models for NARAM but one thing I will not change is the mechanical arrangement, which works every time as designed. My competition philosophy has always been "getting a good score every flight is better than getting a great score once in awhile" and this model is right in line with that.

Thanks to JumpJet for a great design and to Estes for a good execution of the design and for making it available at a nice price.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE