Here are some pictures of our customers, their planes, engine installations, and flying...

Giant UCD and Katana - Bror Faber and his son Eric have each built their own different DL50 engined airplanes. They live in a beautiful area of the country as long as you don't mind a bit of snow in the winter. Here are some excerpts of their progress reports on the planes (and the not so cooperative weather).

Patty Wagstaf Extra 300 - Roy Foreman has shared some pictures of his recently finished PW Extra 300. I've always liked the looks of these planes and have come close to buying one of them several times.

Christen Eagle - Ken Loftin has finished a DL50 conversion on his Christen Eagle. It was originally powered by a Zenoah G62 which he found less than ideal.

P40 - Randy Larson has a very interesting variant of a DL50 powered airplane. As you can see from his pictures, the DL50 fits inside his P40 quite nicely.

          Randy lives in Minnesota and is currently surrounded by snow so he doesn't yet have a flying report for us but has promised to provide one when the weather permits.

GP Ultimate - Wayne Galligan has been nice enough to send in some pictures of his Great Planes Ultimate biplane. All these nice biplanes sure has me thinking of getting one for myself. Here's what Wayne has to say about his.

          "The motor has been running flawlessly since the first day flipped it.  Initial run it popped on the 10th flip and started on the second flip.  Since day one it has started reliably and the same every time on just a few flips from choke.  No flame outs and transition has been great since the last minor low end adjustment after one gallon.  Turns my Vess 22A at 7100.  Switching over to synthetic now and looking forward to even MORE power.   Never a dull moment with flying it in the GP Ultimate.   I couldn't be any happier in experiencing may first gasser.

LQQK forward to more DL powered planes.  Hhmmmm  maybe a QS Pitts Python or Yak.

Thanks for the support."

Christen Eagle II - Straight from the owners mouth - "I'm Johnny Stancil from Benson, North Carolina. I've been flying RC for the last 20 years. The Great planes Christen Eagle II was an ARF I had waiting for the perfect gas engine project.

Years ago the Weed Wacker conversions just didn't do much for me. The power to weight ratio had it's limits on what could be flown with the heavy magneto based engines. For this reason I have stuck with the large glow based two and four strokes over the years to power large models. When the DL 50 came along I decided this was the engine for me. The DL 50 fit be bill in all categories, power, weight and price.

The Christen Eagle weighs in at 17 lbs. It flies like its on rails. The vertical up lines are very scale for the plane. The snaps, rolls and loops all track very true with little correction needed. The balance came out on the money with no additional ballast needed. I've tested both the Pro Zinger 22 X 8 and the VESS 22B prop on the DL50 and both work equally well. The DL50 is still in it's TLC state of break in so I'm not pushing it too hard. I will keep you informed on the progress and after a couple more gallons through the engine I'm going to "unleash the cat" and see what it will do. Thanks again for bringing to the market a great product and I'll be looking for more DL products in the future."

SD Model 30% Yak 54 - Chris O. of Austin, TX chose the SD Yak and DL50 for his first gas powered plane. It's equipped with a JTec pitts style exhaust and came in with a finished weight of 17.3lbs dry.

        He has close to 2 gallons of break in gas through it now and says it generates lots of interest at the club field. "All I can tell is that I had to answer many questions during the week-end about this engine, many people were impressed and very interested." I'm not surprised; the plane looks great and I know how well the engine runs. He's getting close to the switchover to synthetic point and he'll see even better performance out of it after that.

Stevens Acrobat - Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Mike Whitley taught his 10+ year old Stevens Acrobat some new tricks when he replaced its Precision Equipment 4.2 engine with a DL50. The plane lost several pounds in the conversion and ended up with a flying weight of 19lbs. Considering it has a 96in wingspan, I'd consider that quite light.

        I was lucky enough to see it fly today and man was I impressed. It takes off with an amazingly short roll and would climb straight out of sight if you'd let it. Its colors and size really make it stand out in the sky, and sitting on the ground next to the DLUSA 262 make it look like a dwarf. Its complete with a scale cockpit and pilot too.

        Mike liked the DL50's performance so well he's considering converting his Bearcat and P51 too. I've seen the Bearcat and it's a sight to behold, having custom fabricated landing gear along with scale rivets, cockpit, pilot and other features. I can just imaging it ripping across the field in a low level high speed pass with a 4 blade prop driven by a DL50.

CMP 330L Extra - Hector Gonzales of Coppell, TX just today (6/16/07), maidened his DL50 powered 330L. To do so, he was forced by bad weather to spend 6hrs traveling back and forth between two different flying fields trying to avoid roaming downpours. His perseverance paid off when he finally got it in the air. He flew it three times (all his heart could take), with the engine providing truly "unlimited" performance.

        This is his first gas plane and judging by the grin on his face, it won't be his last. His poor glow planes are going to get so lonely sitting in the garage collecting dust.

        His wife Gina contributed to the plane by selecting and modifying a bumble bee pilot for the inside of the canopy. The bee contributes to their nickname for the plane, "Beextra". I expect we're going to be seeing some videos of him flying it very soon, including some from his plane mounted camera. Congratulations Hector!

Wild Hare Edge - Here's a picture of Thomas Bakon of Grangemouth, United Kingdom with his WH Edge. It looks like the plane was originally set up with a 3W engine, at least that's what the cowl sticker would indicate. One can only imagine that he went looking for an increase in power and performance and made the logical choice to install a DL50.

        The popularity of the DLUSA DL50 engine is spreading quickly throughout the world. While Canada leads the pack in shipments, other countries include Mexico, Australia, Thailand, Spain, and Puerto Rico.

Hangar 9 Extra 260 - Scott Gains of Rogers, AR has joined the ever growing group of DL50 equipped H9 260 owners. "My poor plane has had a rough life, it's my "gas trainer" I went from a trainer to a Funtana 40 to H9 Extra 260, it was a tough learning curve jumping to the Extra, so she's a little banged up :)"

        The 260 has a fairly high wing loading and also has a relatively sharp stall fall. It's not the best gas trainer but sure is fun when you get used to it.

        "I flew a couple of times today, got cut short because I was silly enough to try H9 Carbon gear again. The landing was a little rough but the gear popped on one side, delaminating at the bend. The plane didn't go down, I actually went up again before looking at the gear, luckily second landing was pretty good.

        Air still bad today, humid about 83deg,1400 asl, getting 6700+ from a 22x8 JXF(aka Xoar?) I impress everyone with how easy it starts, especially because the choke is on a servo, no fiddling with the plane, choke on, idle, flip flip flip, pop, choke off, 2-3 clicks throttle, flip flip, running.

        Ordered graphtech carbon fiber gear and a PT carbon 22x8. I probably only have 40-50 ounces of fuel thru it so far. I have the mixture pretty close now, not much burble and no 4 stroking. The first day I flew it I experienced the biggest need to lean it down, didn't run but about 18 ounces thru it on the ground."

Great Planes Giant UCD - Here are a couple shots of Jerry Wilson of Chino Valley, AZ (skreamer on RCU), and his DL50 powered Giant UCD. He's been giving us a play by play account of his experiences with the plane / engine combination in the RCU forum. When asked how he's got it set up; with flaps / spoilers or if all the wings controllable surfaces are devoted to ailerons he answered "I did not set up flaps but used all for aileron. This plane will slow to the point where the peanut gallery is saying "Give it gas!" "Your gonna stall!" and then it slows even more and lands light as a feather.  I have built three of these with diff engines and weights up to 16lbs and still did not see the need for flaps."

        The shot at the right gives you an idea of what he had to do to get enough ground clearance for that 22X8 prop. It looks to me like he added about 3in. extensions to the stock landing gear. Can you say "stilts"? It also shows how to properly expose an engine to cooling air. Set up this way, Jerry's engine should never overheat from lack of air.

Aeroworks Extra 260 QB - I first met Mike Robertson a little over a year ago when he was flying a Hangar 9 Funtana 40 equipped with a YS63. After that plane was brutally attacked by a tree, he moved the YS to a Twist 40 which he flew until recently. In February 2007, Mike stepped up to his first gas powered plane. It was constructed  with a DL50 engine, Spektrum radio and HiTec servos. Its finished weight is 15lbs 14oz and the DL50 flies it beautifully. Turning a 22X8 prop at over 7300rpm, the plane has truly "unlimited" performance.

         I've had the privilege of flying this beauty and it is exceptional. It's one of the most stable planes I've ever flown, something that an IMAC flyer would absolutely love. It also has control surfaces that make it equally as lovable for the 3D flyer. This one's definitely a keeper!

Seagull Bling - This is one of DLUSA's own test mules. It was originally constructed with a DA50 before the DL50 was available. It's now been fitted with a DL50 which only required some very minor cowl cut out modification to clear the slightly larger DL exhaust. The stock DL extrusion mounts were used in the conversion.

        The planes CG was not affected in the conversion nor was its overall weight (13.5lbs). There's no discernable difference in flight characteristics between the two engines; both fly the plane extremely well and allow it to do just about anything you want to try with it. It's definitely one of my favorites especially since it's low price and high quality make it an excellent match for the DL50. It's equipped with HiTEC high torque digital servos and a 6V NiMH battery to drive them. It "floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee" and has really helped me develop my 3D trick repertoire.  Bob Kramer, Irving, TX

Hangar 9 Extra 262 - So named because it's been resurrected so many times. It was originally built with a Brison 2.4 which powered it well, but not great. A DA50 was installed and that made the difference; a huge difference. Regrettably on New Years Day 2007, the left stab partially detached at the end of a full throttle vertical blender and the resulting crash destroyed the fuselage. It was rebuilt with a DL50 engine and mounts, and just like with the Bling, there is no noticeable difference in performance between the two engines.

        It flies like a big foamy with these 50cc engines and really inspires me with confidence given its abundance of excess power. I got bit with some overconfidence a short while ago though, and snapped it in while playing around down low. It's been rebuilt again and flies just as good as ever. This airframe really isn't designed for 3D flying but actually, that's what makes it so much fun. I often amaze myself with what I can make it do and that really puts a grin on my face. The fun factor rating is quite high on this one and so is its affordability factor. My last one was $325 out the door at the LHS.    Bob Kramer, Irving, TX