As all the reviews state: definitely a building kit. You get a box full of balsa and plywood. Plan and instructions are easy to follow. After a couple of weeks (4-5 in my case) you hold a beautiful model in your hand. Take another 4-5 evenings for tissue covering and camouflage...it's worth it!

Technical data, Motor and R/C equipment

Update October 2003:
Installed Brushless-Motor, here's the changes in technical data:

Well, it takes time. Lots of glueing and lots of sanding...but if you like scale-looking planes then it's really worth the pain. The wing and fuselage are light-weighted, though very stable.
Since I had to put approx 40gr of lead in the nose, I decided to replace the plastic cowl by a solid balsa one: it's more stable and extra weight just where it belongs. Again, this was lots of sanding, but worth the pain.
Since I do not feel comfortable with 'belly landing' I decided to add some 'vats' to the bottom of the wing. Another midification: I replaced the plastic cowl by a solid balsa one, since I had to put lead in the nose anyway.
Mine required approx 60gr of lead in the nose, still!

After assembling my FW190A ready-to-fly (see picture below), I gave it a firm hand-launch into the wind, giving it a little elevator trim to make sure it does climb away. I was amazed how well that bird climbs with the Speed 600 motor! I just flew around a bit, getting familiar with the plane. Even without camouflage, it looks nice in the air. Speed is rather fast for an electric plane, but the plane is easy to control. This model is an excellent glider, so landing is soft and uncritical.
After 3 very nice flights I decided to finish the plane by adding cowl blisters, cockpit, pilot and camouflage.
Here's my summary after flying the finished model:
- hand-launch is possible, easy and safe
- The Speed 600 motor gives just enogh power for nice 'cruising around'
- handling is easy and uncritical
- flying time approx 7 minutes
Update June 2003: Over time I was getting tired of the motor's power, which was enough for a 'nice cruising around', but I'm looking for something more spectacular. So I finally decided to fit this model with a brushless motor.

Update October 2003: Brushless motor is installed. I also rearranged servos and receiver in order to get rid of some lead (reduction from 84g down to 24g!) and optimize the model's overall weight. I am VERY happy with the model's performance on 8 cells. Scale cruising can easily be done at 30%-50% throttle. At full throttle, loops from level flight are no problem, even after 4 minutes of flight. Power consumption is remarquably reduced compared to the Speed 600 motor, despite the huge increase in power.
I wonder how the model will perform on 10 cells or even 12 cells.
Update November 2003: Some mistakes nag your brain, especially when you fail hand-launching your model. The result was a broken motor mount, so I built a new one. See below a picture with the brushless motor on the new motor mount and the 10x7APC propeller.
Update June 2005:
Using the brushless motor, performance remarquably increased, and also the flying duration! Some massive adjustment to motor down thrust had to be done. Furthermore, the airplane behaves like a fighter jet in the air...always keep your fingers on the controls! Nevertheless, landing is easy, though fast due to the model's weight - definitely a candidate to change from NiCd to LiPo batteries.

The result is worth the construction effort - It looks and flies very well. I decided on buying another kit.

Pictures (click to enlarge, then press backspace to return)