A flight update: I put 5 batteries through her on Saturday and she was a beauty! Putting the 1800mah battery just 1 inch further forward from the maiden flight position made a big positive difference in handling. Every takeoff she likes to do the same 'reach for the sky' behavior and once she's airborne I actually have to push a little down elevator to keep the climb to 'two mistakes high' at a comfortable rate.
I spent most of the packs doing lazy circles around the field, with a couple interesting rolls recovering from loss of orientation. While the cream and black design looks dynamite on the ground, the cream is actually a little translucent in the sky and the black pattern on the top of the wing shows right through. To help with that, I've added some 2" wide white vinyl tape stripes with black borders on the bottom of the wings. Fingers crossed I can keep better track of her next time. Until I'm confident on visibility and orientation, I won't be intentionally heading up for any loops or anything else that would get her inverted.
She does bounce a little bit in wind gusts with an 1800mah pack, and on a couple flights I had to correct for a good bit of weather-vane behavior. Joe, I like the idea of trying her with a 2200mah pack - these sport wings give her plenty of lift, and it might help a bit with keeping her more solid in the sky.
Landing the EVA was a very new experience for me. I'm used to coming around on the base leg at low power and cutting the engine all together after making the last turn into the final decent leg. I usually try keep myself about 30-40 feet up (as measured by the height of the plane eating trees) on the base leg, and with most of my foamies and wings I can set the plane down within 20 feet of my position if I manage elevator and small throttle movements right. However, the EVA with the throttle cut at 40 feet up will float along down the entire length of the runway and still be 10 feet off the ground at the other end! I overshot at least 4 or 5 landing attempts, and twice ended up with touchdown a couple hundred feet away at the other end of the field.
I am happy to say that all landings were nearly perfect 3 pointers on the tricycle gear - very smooth - except for one. My one nose over occurred when she set down in a rough patch on the field and somehow the linkage to the nose wheel slipped. The nose wheel twisted sideways and the plane flipped over. The set screw did have thread locker - but somehow it still let the control rod slip out. But there was no damage to the plane, and the nose gear was easily fixed at the field and she went back up for a couple more flights after that.
TLDR; So in summary, she handles great, I'm learning new landing techniques, and she has taken a place as my favorite flying plane in the hangar right now. If you're thinking about building one of these, stop thinking and order the kit right now. If you haven't finished your build yet, stop waiting! You'll love how she performs. :applause: