Alfa Model MIG 15, flight test Sunday, May 2nd, 2005
			Alfa Model is a Czech company which produces models of both piston engined and jet powered fighters.  Their kits are imported to the US by Hobby-Lobby International. My Mig 15 was purchased from Atlanta Hobby in February.  It was an impulse purchase.  It looked so good I figured I just had to have one.   Out came the credit cards and it was in my truck and on the way home.
		The quality of products produced in the Czech Republic has to be seen to be believed.  The MIG 15 is made from a foam we commonly call Depron but it is molded with panel lines and rivets on the surface and includes hard plastic parts for the belly, wing fillets and several other places. When examining the parts I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the moveable surfaces were all hinged, the control rods were in place and the control horns were pre-installed. The 59MM ducted fan unit is Alfa's second generation.  It mounts to a lite ply bulkhead that is pre-installed.  The fuselage is two pieces that interlock behind the fan unit.  The internal ducting was all pre-installed and quite nice and light. The builder only has to assemble and balance the fan unit, install the servos, glue on the wing and stab halves, then install the radio equipment. After researching power systems for the Alfa Mig I settled on the following system: - Motor - Himaxx 2015, 5400Kv,  brushless - Battery - ThunderPower Gen 2, 3 cell, 2100 Mah lithium polymer - Castle Creations 25 Amp controller Control was handled by a Hitec 555 receiver and two HS 55 Servos. The maiden flight was made Sunday May 2nd.  The winds were blowing 15 plus mph.  Brad Burroughs did the honors of hand launching the Mig for me.  Did I mention how loud the motor is as it shrieks at full power.  It makes a lot of noise.  After the motor spooled up (love those jet words) Brad gave it an overhand toss into the wind.  Within milliseconds of a myocardial infarction I was ready on the sticks for whatever might come.  It turned out to be a non-event as the Mig flew straight out from Brad's launch and required only a couple of clicks of down trim to fly true. We allowed it to accelerate to top speed and climb to altitude before trying any maneuvers.  This jet is fast, and with a span of only a little more than 30" becomes a speck in the sky quickly. I flew it three times that day.  The first flight was 6 minutes, the next 8 minutes and the last one 10 minutes.  At no time did I lose power and the batteries had a lot left in them at the end of each flight. The two comments I continued to get at the GMA club field all day long were: " I can't believe how long it flies on a charge...." "Wow that thing is really fast and cool....".