With control issues sorted, it was down to the lake with the Pilot Boat. After a quick check that everything was working, I placed the model on the water and it didn't sink. That is always a good start.
Gently easing the left stick forward, she moved off toward the middle. Waggling the right stick showed steering worked although I needed a lot of trim to get anything like a straight line.
At this point a sensible modeller would carefully increase speed while performing gentle manoeuvres to ensure all is well. They wouldn't just shove the speed up to full.
It went well though. The nose sticks in the air, sorry, she gets up on the plane quickly. If I'm being picky, perhaps the nose is a little too high but dropping the speed back a notch on the control (unsprung stick on a Planet 2.4 controller) sorts this out and provides a nice looking scale speed. The water washes up the sides well enough - possibly more spray rails might help although nothings going inside even with the unglazed windows.
Duration on 1 pack appears to be about 20 minutes. Enough for a play. I might be able to improve this by tweaking the motor position a bit as despite all my best efforts the driveline doesn't sound as well lined up as I'd like. The noise isn't unrealistic though, a bit like the Class 22 on my model railway layout Flockburgh which growls alarmingly and fools some people into thinking a noise chip is fitted.
Steering also needs a look. The rudder position is perfect so I think the requirement for loads of trim is due to torque steering caused by a powerful single prop drive. I would have investigated more but none of the Allen keys in model boat toolbox didn't fit the adjuster.
Anyway, the boat sails, stays dry inside and remains on the topside of the water. Looks good too.
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