THSS REVIEWPerformance Composite's: "STARLING"

Specifications:
Wingspan: 60"
Weight: 25 oz.
Wingloading: 9 oz./sq. ft.
Airfoil: RG15
Radio: standard receiver, 3 micro servos
Skill level: Intermediate

Why the Starling. I chose the Starling after asking around on various sources on the internet. I said that I was looking for a good 60" glider that was fast, aerobatic, and could perform well in light lift. A few people responded to my inquiry by recommending a little known manufacturer called Performance Composites. After further investigation I found that the 60" Starling from Performance Composites with its 100% kevlar fuse and obeechi sheeted wings seemed like a good buy, so I got it.

Building the Starling. I actually got the instructions via e-mail before getting the actual plane, so I had time to go over them and plan ahead. When the kit arrived I was impressed by the clean fuse and perfectly done wings. I've never seen a kevlar fuse before and I (and the people who have seen it) thought that the shiny orangish weave pattern was definitely cool. I started with the wings which consisted of glueing on and shaping the leading edges and wing tips, joining the wing halves and glassing them, fitting in the wing servos, covering with ultracote, and attaching the ailerons. Servo holes were already routered out and the ailerons were pre-cut and pre-beveled, making construction quite a bit easier. Mounting the wing was a relatively easy process. I just needed to drill a few holes in the fuse and wing and epoxy on some blind nuts. The stabs were mounted on the fuse without actually touching each other, which is a bit different than I've seen on other planes. I had a bit of a difficult time with connecting and adjusting the elevator controls (it involved soldering and re-soldering and re-soldering... yuck), but it wasn't a big problem. A few more finishing touches, and it was ready to go.

Flying the Starling. Before going out for the first flight I had to get the center of gravity right. To my surprise, it was actually a little bit nose heavy without any extra weight in the nose. Since it wasn't off by much, I decided to fly it as it was instead of adding weight to the tail. The first flight was fantastic. I only had to give it a little elevator trim (which I untrimmed after eventually adding a little weight to the tail like I should have in the first place). After that, it flew very nicely. The light weight of the Starling (around 25 oz.) was very evident in how fast this baby got some altitude. In no time at all, it was way up high and I pointed the nose down to see how fast it could go. A cool howling sound preceeded the Starling's high speed pass and as it leveled out I yanked the stick to the side and sent it spinning like a top (which made another cool whistling sound). After that, I had a great time finding out the limits of this plane and marvelling at its thermalling and turning abilities. Inverted performance was exceptional. It required no elevator compensation at all. On one particular occasion, I yanked back too fast and too hard on the elevator and it sent the plane out of control very close to the ground, after regaining a semblance of control I had to pull out *inverted* to keep it from slamming into the ground. It pulled out just as if it wasn't inverted. That was cool, I was stoked. Compared to my SIG Samurai, the Starling performs better in every aspect except maybe top speed. However, if I were to ballast up the Starling to match the weight of the Samurai, I wouldn't be surprised if it was faster.

Note: This model is hard to find info on. Contact Michael McKeown at perfcomp@community.net

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