Flown it now on three separate days. Two were complete crud - all blow and no go. Today I at least had some good air in with the rest.
I'm starting to have had enough air time with it to form an opinion, although there's still a lot of testing to be done. So far I can confidently say a number of things - the Viking is capable of winning F3F competitions at any level - the Viking responds to lift and accelerates faster than any plane I've known - until I get my set-up sorted it is more of a challenge to fly than some others.
The handling of the Viking is interesting - early indications are that it's not as rock solid as the Brio and it's not as flicky as the Acacia. It is somewhere in between, it will let go, but it will give you enough warning to make it your own fault. My earlier comparison with the venerable Masterpiece remains - the Viking has the natural pace and acceleration, may be even more so, and the handling is an improvement.
One thing is for sure, if you're on the waiting list for a Viking you should be ticking the days off your calendar as you're in for a treat.
So how does it compare with the Brio? Mmm, too early to say - the crucial thing is that they are both top quality, they are both capable of exceeding the expectations of a sport flyer and they are both top end competition aircraft.
Click on any photo to see a larger version - thanks to BarkWeb for the webspace
