Hyper Viper

O.K., What, if any kind of engine comes with the plane? How hard would it be to modify the nose to accept my Norvel .061, or is that too much power? Could I maybe retrofit a drag chute? Maybe (oh, darn!) I'd have to buy another engine. Steel lines, or would Spiderwire do?

I suspect that you could make a plywood firwall the shape of the Sure-start backplate and mount a 1/2A radial mount to that and put in a Tee Dee, Medallion or Norvel. The only real problem with the .061 would be fuel consumption. A short life but a merry one...

The Sure-start engine should power the plane nicely on 40' or so of .008 cable. More nitro is the simplest way to upgrade the power. Also, plenty of room for a floppy balloon tank if you need more run time.

At what point is it silly to modify a RTF model instead of building a Pinto or Stork or Baby Pathfinder, or even the Baby Flite Streak and have a superior model.

I am very impressed so far (dratted weather!!) with the HV, but it is what it is, and that is a high performance sport model, not a full-out stunter. Great (and expendable) for flying demos, basic stunt training, etc. But not in a class with the above mentioned kits.

Talking about the Stork. Any ideas on where to get one? I always thought that they looked like a baby Nobler. I did ask Walter Umland if he was going to get around to kitting them, but no words yet.

Jay

I bought a radial mount from Texas Timers a few years back. It replaces the normal Norvel backplate. They also produced one for a TeeDee. see http://www.texastimers.com/