“Like this plane so much I have to post a review now that I have it built. Tiny missed areas to the paint job but overall one of the best finishes I have seen, 1 coat of clear minwax acrylic instead of two and the finish is perfect! Water slide 12als finally allow me to do a good job with the 12als. Always seemed to lay one of the vinyl 12als on crooked and once on if you remove it to reposition it takes paint with it and looks terrible. The water slide 12als are fragile but if you work carefully and keep your fingers wet you can position them perfectly. I did tear two of them slightly but when dry you cannot see the tears at all. Also the water slide 12als dry great and are so thin they look a lot more realistic. The few screws used in assembly all lined up spot on and went in easily although it would be nice if they were a little better quality as the heads strip out to easy. Assembly was simple except center your elevator and rudder servos before joining the wing to fuselage, I forgot to do this and my elevator push rod was to short and I needed to take the wing off and adjust it at the servo. Retracts seem solid and it is nice to see more metal at critical areas and less plastic. One final suggestion is to either slice the tail 12al in half vertically and apply the two halves to the tail and rudder 09arately as it is next to impossible to put this thin of a 12al on the tail as shown in the instructions. I ended up leaving it off the rudder and just moved it forward onto the tail and did not have to work it into the ridges and valley of the rudder. Looks just fine where I put it and a lot easier to apply. Overall I am so pleased with this I am looking at a preorder on the spitfire or maybe the sea fury. If they only made an F4F Wildcat life would be perfect!”
“I reviewed this plane after a couple of flights but may have been a little hasty in forming my opinion. There are a several issues I have been dealing with:1. The plane with the recommended battery seemed heavy to me so I weighed mine. It comes in at 60 ounces while the specs say 47 ounces. Not necessarily a problem but I think the weigh effects the ground handling and take off and landing characteristics. I'm flying now with a 4 cell 2800, and it seems to be easier to get a take-off.2. The motor has plenty of power for the weigh once in the air but the take off torque roll is truly terrible. It is really hard to get in the air without a tip stall to the left on take off.3. The propeller system, with independent blades held to the spinner hub, seems to be causing sever vibration because it is difficult to keep the screws that hold the blades tight. The hub is easily damaged if there is a prop strike. I plan to use a standard two blade prop in the future.These issues may be easily handled by a better pilot than I but I have been flying other planes, like the Freewing Mig-15 and Stringer, Dynam ME 262, FMS P-39, Multiplex Stunt Master and Dynam SU-26M, to mention a few, without these problems for the last 5 years or so.I hope others don't have the problems I'm having with this model.”
“I've put a few flights on the La-7. It's everything that the reviews have said. It's fast in the stock setup, flies rock steady, and if you want, looks like a pylon racer going around the poles. I really like the ability to pick out a 12al scheme with the five different schemes available. This means that even if another flier gets one at your field, it want be the same cookie cutter look. Hopefully other manufacturers will follow their lead. My kit had the water slide 12als but I see that future kits will have vinyl 12als. I had no problem with them except they took longer to apply than it took to assemble the plane. The only flaw I can complain about is that the pilot is not period correct, it's the same one they use for the A-6 and A-10. Hopefully that will be corrected and the pilot will be available as a spare. In all, if you want a plane that no one else has, flies great, and let's you customize the look, get this plane. Hopefully this company will continue to bring unusual aircraft to the market.”
“Plane arrived yesterday in good condition with no flaws. Assembly was easy with no problems. All the electrics work perfectly. Water-slide 12als brought back memories of plastic models from many years ago. Not sure where Motion got the 12als they used for their video on the assembly but the ones in the box I got were good quality water-slide type. It took a while to figure out what they were as most today are what was in the Motion video. I was glad I had put them on before I assembled the plane. They all go on the fuselage and vertical tail. It was hard to get the star on the tail correctly, so look at the pictures on the web site, not on the box or instructions. The backing was really hard to remove from the chrome cowl strips but they look great once installed.I had a maiden flight this morning and after a pretty shaky take off from a hard surface the plane flew fine, with the normal need to trim, etc. I used a 4 cell 4000 mah battery all the way to the front and flew about 5 minutes on less than 1/2 the charge. I added some Velcro under the battery and on it. The battery strap is actually useful but the Velcro stops any movement aft. Landed on short but not smooth grass with full flaps and just nosed over at the end of the roll out. I think the wheels are plenty big enough for grass takeoffs and landings. The second flight was an even worse take off but, due to pilot error, in the air for the return turn. I didn't maintain enough speed while fooling with the landing gear and stalled about 30 feet up. The glide path for this plane is like most relatively heavy war birds, like a rock. Broke the fuselage behind the wing and one propeller blade, plus a few other minor items. Ordered spares this afternoon. Its great Motion has parts. Nothing a little CA won't fix. I'd say the air frame is plenty tough.All in all, I think this plane is a first class war bird with plenty of power for the weigh and more than enough speed for the average park. Just keep the speed up and you will have a great flier. Thanks Motion and Freewing.”
“Just opened my La-7 and could not be more pleased. Packaging is excellent, no damage to anything. The finish of the parts and the paint job is really nice. I hesitated to order this as I thought the wing had a strange shape and the ailerons looked to small in the pictures. Looking at it up close now that I have the actual aircraft I think everything is perfect with the wing. I really like the colors of this plane and the white tail and red stars are really an eye grabber. Cannot wait to build this and take it for a test flight.”
