First post for December - soapbox edition

Welcome to December!  This year has gone quick, but it was just over a year ago (by two weeks) that I picked up a pile of formers, a carbon tube, some plastic bits and a set of foam wings for an amount of cash that has previously bought me a Pike WR (with servos)!

Doesn't seem fair really, as the Pike has - and will - get a lot more air time than the Hog ever will, but then F3F-shaped aircraft are two-a-penny.  Actually probably more like 4-a-penny.  They all look the same to me - elliptical tips / skinny fuselage / vee-tail.  It really does look like they all came from the same mold, and if they were all the same colour, I bet most people would struggle to tell the difference between any of them.  To me, the only one that stands out is the old Elita.  I'd seen one once, and loved it - such a refreshing shape with that keel under the fus.

I'm feeling suddenly nostalgic.  Here is a picture of the keel area of an Elita.

And a pic from KNewt's site.  Oh look, a cruciform tail.

(If anyone has one for sale, or wants to swap for a Pike WR (carbon fus / carbon d-box), I am interested)

Yes they all look the same, and yes, fliers of the type tend to just fly fast looping circuits in front of themselves ALL DAMN DAY ("I'm practicing" - for what? being a boring knob?), but these aircraft really do instil confidence when you chuck them off the edge in ANY sort of wind.  They will just work, and work very well. Obviously capable, but just so boring.

Which makes the price of a Hog (I stopped adding up the column on the spreadsheet when I got over £850..before it was painted) sort-of-worth it.  Yes, it needs specific conditions, but bejasus - it has character and presence, something another moulded clone will always fail to have.

And if someone asks me again "why don't you just put turbines in it", I will stick the nose section up their arse, blunt end first.