I purchased the model from our well-known supplier at Spire Models in September last year. It was to be my winter project with the idea of having it finished all ready to fly for next Easter and good weather! (There’s hoping)

On getting my purchase home full of enthusiasm as this was to be my first model larger than 60 " and my introduction to something bigger and faster, as previous models flown were trainers.

I must say I was impressed with how well it was presented on opening the box. The wings being all wrapped in cardboard and all the smaller items sealed in a plastic bag. The fuselage is moulded from white epoxy/cloth with all the fairings for the control rods moulded in. The holes for the tail joiner wires are pre-drilled and the tubes fitted. The fuselage has a minimal join line and one of the nicest finished high gloss carbon canopies I have seen, fitting into the fuselage recess with a perfect fit. The wing is in two parts and each has all the joiner assemblies already installed. The servo boxes are per-cut and ailerons routed out. The wing tips are swept back and downwards. All linkages, horns, push rods and servo covers are supplied. In the bottom is a large size sheet to unfold which are the instructions. On unfolding, my enthusiasm soon waned on realising; that I don’t recognise any of the words, disaster. Very quickly realising the whole lot is in b-----y German. Well after a few moments pondering and coming to all good engineer’s realisations – only refer to the instructions when all else fails, I carried on.

From the drawing one decision had to be made, a two servo wing or a four servo wing. For the four servo wing you would have to cut the servo boxes yourself and measure out the flaps for which dimensions are given. I opted for the two servo wing. Building was relatively straight forward. All parts being ready profiled just requiring sanding. On completing of sanding, the next choice to be made was what covering to use, profilm or glass cloth. I choose to glass cloth the wing and tail plane, mainly with the thought of having some durability built in, for my experience as a flyer and my first larger model. These came up very well, even though I say so myself, but a lot more time and effort than using profilm.

Kitting it out I used two JR341 servos in the wing, fitting exactly in the space provided. For the rudder and tailplane I used Futaba standard S148 as there was plenty of room in the fuselage to mount these (photo provided). The receiver used is a Futaba 138DF. All the throws for control surfaces are given, however managed to find an old German/English dictionary (one of the children’s) to find out which was rudder/elevator and aileron. All these set up without a problem. Then the C. G. a large amount of lead had to be added to get this exactly on the right point. A little nervous as the model seemed rather heavy compared to previous builds. All set up and ready to fly in March.

Its first excursion out to the slopes and daylight was a trip to Wales, conditions not right for a first flight, but it had travelled a few hundred miles. Needless to say there were many more outings to the slopes with the same result and I eventually launched it at OXO two Sundays ago. It flew much faster than my previous models but after a few minutes the nerves settled and I began to enjoy it. Then the dreaded thought came to mind – landing, yes the landing. So after three landing circuits all with nerves going well I thought I had it all worked out, right this is it and down she came an absolutely perfect text book landing. So I can now say I am a delighted owner of a Sagitta Project 2.