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Messerschmit ME-109.

This has got to be one of the best scale models I have flown for a long time, even if it is only semi-scale. The retracts fold the wrong way, and the tail is slightly larger than scale. It is made in Germany by Jamara and is well finished with a desert colour scheme. As an ARTF, it is quite good, but typically the retracts get ripped out if landed on our site with the wheels down. So we belly-land it instead. Powered by an Irvine 53, it has a very good turn of speed and carries a lovely sound with it through the air. It has a real groove about it and when you do a flat out low pass with the wheels up it looks fantastic.

As you can see from the picture above, it really does look like a ME-109.

Unfortunately, it does have a few flaws. The retracts we have already mentioned, but there is another, more fatal one. The tailplane is made from flat sheet balsa, but is only about 1/8" thick, and is very weak around the centre point where it goes through the fin...as we found out one windy afternoon. Pulling through a turn to come into wind, but well downwind of the runway, the plane suddenly rolled sharp left, and then into a seemingly unstoppable spiral dive. Then something flew off it and we were able to recover it back into level flight. Everything looked ok, but as it got closer, we noticed that part of the tailplane was missing...the whole left side of it! Wwe left the wheels up, and kept about quarter throttle to settle into a smoothe approach as possible, then closed the motor and let it settle onto the grass. The tail cad cracked right on the edge where it exits the fin, and had taken the elevator from the same side with it, ripping a hinge from the elevator on the opposite side too. Very dangerous.

On the whole, it is very good, looks great in the air, but would need a few small mods to make it safer. Verdict: 7 out of 10.