An Early Summer Texas Evening with the Simprop Lift Off XXS

• Fast and small. It's usually closer, to you and to the ground, then it looks. Marking the wing undersides helps to tell attitude at distance.
• Tracks well, loops predictably, rolls fast & precisely.
• Landings are just fine with spoilerons. Steep angle of descent, but controlable. Have landed it cross-wind, cross-terrain, on a 30deg-slope.
• Default control throws are just fine for me as a german. American fliers say "I want three times that."
• It's tough: one cartwheel, one two-meter stall, no traces. Small fuse cracks and popped wing bolt from a too-fast, sudden landing. Order extra metric bolts.
• 600AE don't go very far, but are light. Larger packs are waiting. Pack changes through the canopy.
• Brushless direct drive provides scary-plenty of power - for a mostly-zagi pilot. Goes vertical, although a geared drive, with bigger prop would certainly be stronger. Cheaper brushed drive should be just fine too.
• Matching spinner & blades hard to find for this particular combination of nose diameter (34mm) / shaft diameter (3.17mm) / prop blade root size (most blades are too thick to fit right).
• Short control linkages.
• Fits into the trunk of a 99 Miata, together with a big flight box, two small speed400 planes, a backpack and a laptop.

Simprop Classic spinner with Robbe blades; painted canopy.
Tape over the wing - I don't trust the non-metric replacement screw.
Spoileron deflection, servo cover, yellow attitude marker.
Elevator control horn, antenna guide tube.
Tape-covered elevator servo position.
Big ESC.
Tiny motor: Kontronik Fun 400-23 direct drive.
Small chair, small plane.
Canopy mount; I also tape the front for flights.
Room for larger packs. I didn't mount the provided battery tray.
Little fixed cracks from a high-energy landing.
Battery mounting mechanism. Foam barrier for correct position in the back.