5/30/04 Lance, The 60mm header ended up working well. It's little tall, but it's fine. The 30mm would have been too close to the fuselage. I flew the Hydeout with 3m 170 yesterday for the first time. Good Lord! The power is overwhelming. My other Hydeout has a 140L. I consider it perfectly adequate, but the 3M has unbelievably effortless power. My father is coming to visit me next week. I know he is eager to try it out. I'm certain he won't be disappointed. Thanks for your help. Allen

5/5/2004  Lance,
I got to put a gallon of fuel through the Mintor 170 yesterday.  Wow is
all that can be said.  It hauls the 10.6 lbs Focus around like a rag
doll.  I let Andre` fly it yesterday and he is pretty impressed.  I
think he's wondering if he can fit one in Smaragd #2.  I also let
another one of the FAI flyers (YS Junky) at my club fly the Focus.  He
said the same thing about the motor.  He's thinking about putting it in
his next ship.  Thanks once again.

Michael Laggis
System Administrator
Alaska Communication Systems, Inc

Posted by Eric Henderson on the NSRCA discussion list on 5/27/03:

It was warm and muggy today after all of the rain. The Mintor had the "target" 17 x 13 APC strapped on the front. With three gallons through the engine it was time to really see what the 1.70 was made of! Engine was set at 7,900 rpm on the ground using Powermaster 15/16. The Hydeout was ready for the ride. Here's how it flew P-03, or at least a description of a few of the maneuvers as I saw them unfold. Sq. loop on corner - Straight and level into the 45 climb at 1/3 throttle. Nice even pull. Increase power around the first corner to 3/4. Perform 1/2 roll and got on to full power (WOT). Plane continues on at slightly increased and smooth speed with the real need to back of the gas over the top corner. Long down line 45's and the engine responds smoothly on the bottom pullout to level. No gurgle. Upon reflection it was a big loop before I noticed. Hour glass - very similar with a lot of grunt on the up 45 line. All vertical lines were easy with a big punch over the top of maneuvers such as Humpty-bumps. The down lines were flown very long to look at speed etc. The idle can be set low and it does not quit. This helped the down lines and allowed pull-outs that did not bend the wing tubes. The idle for spin entry was actually too low and a purr had to be added to both reach the middle and get the nose up. The big test was the figure-9 with 3 x 1/2 rolls going up. An entry at 1/4 throttle as I pushed followed by a incrementing amount of throttle as each 1/2 roll was executed ending in full throttle over the top of the 9. This was a big 9. Too big for good points but just right for free adrenaline shots! So how does it (1.70) compare with the OS 1.60. About 200 rpm less on the ground but 4.0 oz lighter. Vertical behavior very similar between equal weighted planes. So how about the DZ. In the same plane it was clear that the DZ had the edge in the mid range grunt-dept. Vertical snap rolls were equal however in vertical line recovery. In the end it comes down to probably five things. Price, Serviceability, Reliability, weight and price. Depending upon what you need you can chose the performance of a 2-c or a 4-c the personal taste of sound and throttle timing. I would run all three for equal fun, but as far as price goes, (The OS in this case is an FI), the Mintor has a big edge. Regards, Eric.