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[Keith Jackson]

Finally got the new Strato SB in the air, maidening at Hurley a few weeks ago and then some more flights in SCRCS in Middlewich just now. It's very different from the Glacial BP I have flown for the last couple of years, and I have to say quite promising. The rolls are very "delicate", in that it is quite easy to define point rolls in both of the long rolling manoeuvres in P-27. Whilst I'd say it is a pretty standard weight coming in at 3704g, it feels very light in the air not needing oodles of power to fly through tall manoeuvres like the first centre humpty bump. The Strato SB needs only very slight mixing when built to the standard C of G and looks great in knife edge, colours being particularly vivid on a cold winter day like today. The model can be held easily before the stall allowing a good entry into the reverse spins.

The Strato SB is quite a departure for me and one reason for this was to finally give the low cost DxG contra drive some air time. This is an unusual system using a centre pinion gear to drive two large gears in opposition. From memory it weighed in at 547g with its own brand brushless motor. The mounting system is a bit hard and I will look to soften this in the winter period. The system turns Falcon 22 x 22 at 4000 rpm which is on par with the other systems around. In the air it sounds louder than my Akiba drive, more like the Adverun/VLV/Dualsky systems on offer. Power is absolutely fine and I have not had it anywhere near full throttle yet. Probably move it onto 23 x 20's front and back in the coming months.

I've attached a few photos below and will add more in the Jan edition of RCM&E if I can make the deadline!

Keith