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Linn Orris

Manzano short-kit of Just Aircraft's "Highlander" STOL airplane. Still trying to figure out the best color for a covering!

The Highlander build is my second Manzano kit. The previous winter I built their B-25 Mitchell, and was not really completely happy with that kit. There were very few birch wood pieces and so the structural rigidity was not good. However, the Highlander had numerous birch pieces in all the right places where structure is extremely important. Both kits had EXCELLENT plans. In fact, with some of your own birch pieces you could build another plane right off of them. Instructions were good and I found a link on the Manzano website that had a build full of pictures which helped immensely. It took me about 3 months of on and off work to get the pieces completed and another couple of hours for final assembly. I had to buy the balsa stringers and the aluminum tubing for the struts separately. I think everything else was in the kit. It has a 54" wingspan which would make it close to the Turbo Timber Evolution. I set it all up for electrification and completed all the servo trays, but for now it will be on hanging display over my train layout. I tried a couple of monocote colors on it in places, but didn't really settle on either one. I'm only in my second year of flying so I'm not ready to risk all the assembly work yet!!!  It was the third plane I have ever built and a very fun build - way better than the B-25. The only other plane I've built from a kit was the Great Planes Ultimate Biplane, which was much bigger, and in a lot ways, easier.

Just Aircrafts Highlander Mansano kit.jpg
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