I’ve been mostly flying my Chocofly JS3 on the slope. For my club’s airfield I have my scratch-built JS3, which is lighter and has more wing-flexibility (allowing for awesome thermalling). But I’ve very much grown to like the Chocofly JS3 and am keen to give this one a go at our club’s airfield as well. Unfortunately, our club doesn’t allow the use of impellers or noisy motors – it’s in a very quiet and sensitive area. To enable me to fly the Chocofly JS3 at my favourite airfield I thus ordered a 2nd fuselage a (long) while ago.

The 2nd fuselage arrived a few weeks ago. It’s in the usual excellent quality. Initially I considered installing a landing gear, but in the end decided against it. The reason is that I’d like an even lighter version of the JS3 for situations where lift is very bad, especially in early spring or late autumn. My Chocofly JETEC JS3 weighs around 6.8kg, my scratch-built one around 6.6kg, the Chocofly FES Edition will hopefully end up under 6kg.

The fuselage didn’t need much work to finish. I installed the FES with my usual method. I used the outrunner and ESC combination that I’ve been using for just about every build in the last few years, a Dualsky XM5060EA-14SE with a Castle Lite 100 ESC. On recommendation of Dani (Chocofly) I went for an 18×10 GM scale Propeller and the usual Freudenthaler 43mm scale spinner. The result looks really good. The fuselage is now ready for its maiden flight – once I receive a new set of winglets (see previous post)….