XR61

John Roberts 9 wrote on 26/07/2017:

Strengths: The design is a minor work of art and the finished model looks beautiful and flies nicely too. The German distributor, Braeckman.de, are worthy of much praise too. Using them should hold no fears for UK purchasers.

Weaknesses: The list of weaknesses is depressingly long. Don't get me wrong, the XR61 is a beautiful design and the blend of balsa & carbon fibre is both inspired and highly aesthetically pleasing but the whole thing is badly let down by poor manufacturing quality control. Every aspect of the build required me to modify or fettle to get things to fit properly. I won't list all the issues but two of the most annoying concerned the cowl and the horizontal stabilizer. The (beautifully made & finished) cowl was a nightmare. Fitted in the correct position vis-à-vis the prop adapter & spinner meant that the canopy wouldn't fit. Moving the cowl forward enough to enable the canopy to fit meant that an insufficient length of motor shaft was exposed to safely attach the prop assembly. As for the horizontal stabilizer this was more that 15 degrees out of whack relative to the wings. The list goes on but I am sure you get the picture.

Overall: It took me 35+ hours to assemble this 'ARTF'. The end result is a very satisfying aircraft but I suspect that for those without building skills the XR61 would have been a considerable challenge. It now flies very well and looks great in the air. Its light weight (around 4 pounds compared to 6+ pounds for most other '50 size' models) remarkably allows flights of 6 - 7 minutes on 2200mAh batteries. I am a fan of PA products (this is the third PA in my hangar) but I would need to think carefully about buying another. Any prospective purchasers need to go into this one with their eyes wide open. To PA I would say, get your QC act together guys. I have rated the VFM as 'Good'. Poor would be too harsh but in the absence of an 'OK' or 'Moderate' button I felt I had no other option.