Being an “old school” balsa and covering type of person I never really cared all that much for “foam flyers” until deciding to scratch build a F-18 twin EDF. While searching the internet for articles, I ran across this one and it caught my eye. The video link I saw (also done by Yardbird RC) closed the deal. Their clip is really a better one than mine but mine will validate that it really does fly very much like their “commercial” shows. With the sticks in the right hands it could probably be duplicated 100% You have to keep in mind that I’ve been away from this hobby for many years and just started again about 6 months ago. (I never was an “ace” even back then)
That said, here’s the scoop.

First thoughts were that the kit was a bit overpriced but, the precision of the CNC milled parts and fit are really excellent. I have to say the customer service was great as well. I placed my order on a Wednesday morning (I think) and by the time I got home from work that evening, already had a shipping confirmation in my email. The owner, Rick Meeks, has been bery good at responding to emails with the few questions I had also. My kit arrived two days later well packaged and with no damage. Since it was Friday (after a long hard week) didn’t do much more than look inside and say “yep there’s a kit in there” and let it go at that.

Saturday morning I woke up “fired up” to see how this kit would build. I also purchased a bottle of their “Ultimate RC Foam Glue” and if used properly this stuff is “the stuff” for working with foam models. I’ve tried the “foam safe” CA’s and quickly decided that 30 minute epoxy was faster. Bonding properties of the URCFG are similar to UHU but a little faster to set. Very strong when fully cured too. When you consider that a 1.5 oz tube of UHU goes for around 8 bucks and a 4 oz bottle of URCFG goes for 12 it doesn’t take a genius to do the math. Be sure to check out the videos at www.yardbirdrc,com for how to get the best results.

The kit builds really fast and I completed the basic airframe in less than a full day even with allowing dry time for the adhesive before moving on to the next step. I’m not going to waste a lot of time writing about things that need to be fixed because there’s no need. The manual gives good step by step instructions and the fit of parts is excellent. The manual can be viewed or downloaded from Yardbird in Adobe PDF format if you want to check it out. If I were to add anything it would be a suggestion to bevel the leading edge of the elevons after cutting the hinge slots to make for a good tight fit with good up/down movement. I almost forgot, the manual doesn't give the recommended throws for the elevons, (or maybe I'm just blind) but an email got a response of about 30 degrees up and down at full throws. 
If I had been smart and ordered the combo package I could have had it ready to fly Sunday morning, but didn’t because I was thinking I might use the motor & ESC from another model. So, I wound up ordering the recommended motor and ESC on Monday of the following week. Had I gone that route to start with it would have made a savings to about pay for the lipo pack. My completed model (radio gear installed) weighed in at 8 oz without a battery and flight ready at about 12 oz with a 1800 ma 10c lipo that I had laying around. For radio I used an AR6000 receiver along with a couple of the servos that came with my Spektrum DX6. The transmitter is a Spektrum DX7.

July 22, 2007 The moment of truth.
This is a great little flyer! I just don’t know how else to put it. The flight characteristics of this design is fantastic. It will cruise along at little more than a walking pace or accelerate straight up almost out of sight if you want it to. (And, I’m not that great of a pilot either) A 10 minute flight using throttle management leaves the battery at ambient air temperature. 10 minutes at near full throttle warms it slightly. I left the review video short but both full length flights are on the video page. If I were to complain about anything it would have to be the color scheme since it doesn’t work well with my eyes on a day when there are dark clouds in the sky.

Yes, I stuffed mine in on it’s 3rd flight when it blended into the above mentioned dark cloud and I lost orientation on it. It’s repairable, but I didn’t bother with making any tracing of the parts prior to building so had to order another kit. I’m going to trace the needed parts from this one before starting a fresh build. I can’t hope to get the same accuracy of cutting them as the original but it will do for repair purposes. I’m going to take a little more time with construction of the 2nd kit as well. I want to round all the leading edges and bevel the trailing edges of the elevons & vertical fins to see if it will make it more slippery for faster wide open flight. I’m planning on adding a bit more weight to it with a red, white & blue EconoKote color scheme, too. I’ll let you know how that works out when it’s done.

YARDBIRD RC   F-22

August 5, 2007 Just an update .
I received my 2nd F22 kit on Thursday July 26th. I used it for making patterns of the lower front fuselage, radio box and nose. I was able to cut all the pieces needed for the repair from the extra "test" piece of material that's included with the kit and had it repaired by the end of the night. F22 number 1 flew again last Sunday 7/29 and by July 31st had completed building (and covering) the basic airframe of F22 number 2. This one I did make a set of construction photos on. They can be found on the photo page .