thing the manufacturer recommended andhence the combo version comprising of the car-bon landing gear set, carbon servo arm exten-sions, PA Thrust 10 outrunner, PA 18A ESC andPA 1000 mAh 3s1P Lipo pack to test fly thisplane with a stock factory setup. The plan wasto ensure no deviations were done with theexception of the APC 10X3.8SF which was theonly sized prop I had at the time. I wanted toknow how good is good.

First ImpressionsThe Electric Shock arrived and as usual I

could not wait to open the box, probably ajuvenile habit I never seemed to learn to kick orso my better half seems to think. Everything waswell packed in clear plastic and tape. Good, theplane survived the journey intact. The firstthings that caught my eye were the carbon bits.The landing gear and wheels (yes carbonwheels), motor mount, wing tube, push rods,control horns and the tiny carbon servo armextensions. While being so used to seeing eitherwooden, plastic or at best fibreglass parts, thecarbon bits were a welcome sight for sore eyes.The word “Sexy” comes to mind!

The parts were then unpacked and I pro-ceeded to check each and every part. The pro-file fuselage was the first to be check by placingon a flat surface to see if it cupped, twisted orbowed a very common case of balsa profiles.The fuselage check out fine, no cups no bowsno twist, impressive. The pre-hinged horizontalstabilizers were then checked out. No warps ortwist and had enormous throws and very freemovement. Good news since being the lazybum that I am, I usually hate to hinge control

Having owned a similar 3D balsa profile pre-viously, I was initially a bit sceptical about thePA Electric Shock. It was also the reason why Ionly purchased the combo version that camewith only one PA 1000 mAh 15C Lipo packbeing curious about what the enthusiastic rav-ing was all about in the forums. Having flown aconsiderable amount of foamies on a regularbasis over the span of two years, I became veryjaded about how great foamies were especiallywhen it comes to learning 3D due to its robust-ness, exceptional low wing loading and mostimportantly, the relative ease of maintaining sta-ble hovers. So how could this skinny balsa pro-file be any better, I initially though.

Anyway curiosity got the better of me andagainst all my initial preconceptions, I suc-cumbed to getting one. Unlike my previous pur-chases in the past, I told myself to get every-

surfaces anyway. The two piece wing was thenchecked out. No warps or twist there either.

Again the “user friendly” pre-hinged aileronswere a welcome sight. They had massiveamounts of throws and movements weresmooth. There was a slight warp in one of theailerons but then the instructions clearly statedthat this was to be expected and was easilycured with an iron. The rudder is huge for itsize. Appears to be more than adequate to exe-cute with knife edge manoeuvres and probablyhas the potential to execute knife edge loops.

Dry fitting came next to check out how thiswill be assembled and to also plan the build.Putting everything aside and trying hard to resistthe temptation to build, I went through the man-ual in detail to plan the build to make assemblyeasier. The build photos in the manual were awelcome sight and were a great help to visual-ize the build.

The BuildThe build has been pretty much a walk in the

park and with the clear and concise graphicalinstallation guide it should be a fairly easy taskfor most average modellers with prior experi-ence building balsa ARF’s or foamies. Some keyaspects that an average modeller may face dur-ing the build shall be covered in greater detail.

The key to a successful build in this case, isto follow the steps without the usual skippingback and forth and to digest the manual beforeattempting the build and to dry fit the majorcomponents together to see where things go.

The manual begins with a section on equip-ment selection that list the various componentsfor optimum performance. A peculiar statementin the manual “The Electric Shock does NOTrequire LG” caught my attention. It’s very rare tosee a statement like this as most 3D park flyerswill either come equipped with or without land-ing gear and there is no mention in the manualif you need it or not and is usually left for theowner to decide. It is a gutsy statement I thoughtto myself, especially considering that I haveordered my combo along with the optional car-bon fibre landing gear and wheels and here themanual implies “You don’t really need it”. Thiscan only mean one thing; “Easy hand catches”.Wow! Since I had already purchased the carbonfibre landing gear, I decided to install it. The car-bon fibre wheels are just too funky and wouldbe a waste not to have them installed.

I found the pre-assembly steps very informa-tive and clearly address aspects in dealing withpotential warps and twist in the airframe attrib-uted to environmental conditions during ship-ping. This has been a great help in quicklyresolving the slight aileron twist which might bemind boggling to the uninitiated.

The Thrust 10 simply bolts on to hard pointson the fuselage via a CNC cut carbon fibre motormount. Although the manual indicated thatsanding the hard points may be necessary to getthe 2 deg right offset, I was delighted to find thatthe angle was spot on right out of the box.

Next, the necessary openings in the fuselageand wings were made in one go by means of ahot soldering gun to accommodate the carbonwing tube, landing gear, horizontal stab,pushrod guides and servos. With the preplan-ning done the previous evening, I had madealignment marks on the ply pushrod guides thatmade the assembly and precise pushrod align-ment a breeze.

Work on the wings proceeded without ahitch and only entailed shaving off the servoopenings a hair wider to accommodate the HS55servos. The PA carbon optional arm extensionswere already installed during preparation. Thecarbon control horns were then prepped bylight sanding to get a better glue bond and DRYinstalled into both ailerons and proceeded on towork on the carbon pushrods.

Probably the only challenging aspect of thebuild that an average modeller may face is in theinstallation of the carbon pushrods as this is notcommon feature in most contemporary ARF’sincluding foamies and park flyers. The onlyrecent ones that I have ever encountered withthis method of carbon linkage installation so farwere in the E-flite Tensor 4D and PA Katana Mini.

However seasoned modellers should find thisfamiliar “old school” method of pushrod con-struction with a modern twist by the use of car-bon instead of wood pretty elementary. It’s inter-esting bringing the old construction techniquesinto the use of modern space-age materials.

Installation of the Berg DSP 5 receiver was asimple process of connecting servos, wrappingthe receiver in foam padding and inserting itinto the left wing. This, along with the ESC helpsmaintain lateral balance by counterbalancing thebattery pack and as such it is best to mount theelectronics in the recommended positions indi-cated in the manual.

The antenna was then routed to the rightwing and taped beneath using clear tape to keepa safe distance from the ESC which is mountedusing rubbery double sided sticky tape thatmakes future removal easy.

The removable wings are then assembledusing nylon bolts with the servo wires neatlyhidden inside. Although there was mention of

anti-rotation pins in an earlier section of themanual, the need for theses pins have beennegated by the nylon bolts and as such is nolonger included in the box.

The assembly of the horizontal stabilizer andelevator came next. This required cutting a slotat the aft of the fuselage, wide enough toaccommodate the horizontal stabilizer assemblywhich is then patched back with the includedbalsa block. Very little sanding was required toalign the horizontal stabilizer with the wings.The rudder was then assembled and ready forthe pushrod assembly.

Both linkages were assembled using themethod described above, however both rudderand elevator linkage assembly are a little bittricky as it entails assembly of the rods in situand has the potential risk to be prone to irre-versible mistakes. Therefore care and pre-plan-ning needs to be done upfront with a constantvigilant eye on the entire length of the linkage toensure perfect alignment before CA is applied.

The last items in the list of assembly were thecarbon landing gear (optional), tail skid and bat-tery and the radio setup. Here is where I usual-ly deviate from the manual as a matter of pref-erence. The PCM9X was set for triple rates, thefist two being the recommended high-low con-servative rates and the third, my personal pref-erence (all maxed out) linked on single threeposition flight mode switch for convenience.

The Maiden FlightAs I could not wait for the weekend, I made

it a point to maiden the Electric Shock on aFriday evening and I really don’t know where to

begin. Prior to the flight, I had all intentions toconduct a structured method in flight testing,beginning with a conservative rolling take off,level flight to trim and proceed with basic aero-batic manoeuvres, the basic stuff you would readin most reviews. I did a quick routine pre-flightcheck and discovered that the HS55 servo on therudder was not centring in-spite of adjusting thesub-trim and trim on the TX. It rested about10mm either side of neutral. I almost felt likekicking myself in the behind for not checkingthis the previous evening. Not so good.

Since I was already at the flying field, I wasnot about to go home empty handed and alldepressed. I needed my fix, well at least my planat the time was to fly the Electric Shock high justto be on the conservative side of things and thenlater fix the servo at home. By hook or by crook,the Electric Shock had to be flown at least onceas I was at that point bursting out of curiosityand excitement all at the same time. I had spentthe previous two evenings building it and I justcouldn’t wait for the weekend anymore.

So with small cautious steps, on rate 1, I dida rolling take of and the Electric Shock wasquick to get into the air, in a typical 3D airplanefashion. The PA Thrust 10 is powerful I thoughto myself while grinning at the thought of theoversized box the motor came in. PA must betrying to say, ‘Small Motor, BIG Power!’

A quick circuit around the field with a cou-ple of clicks on the aileron trim and the bird wasnow trimmed and flying beautifully despite therudder servo being way off trim.

With the rudder having to be hand trimmedon the fly by means of the stick, I began myplan of executing basic manoeuvres to get com-fortable with the plane, increasing the dual ratesas I went to wring out any bad behaviour traits.There were none!

Since it had rudder servo problems, I did nottest the knife edge capabilities as this would bedifficult to judge at that juncture so I tried ahover and was immediately blown away by howstable it held a hover and had surplus power topunch out. It was effortless in a hover and exe-cuting tail touches were a walk in the park. ThePA Thrust 10 combo is more than adequate andI would not change a thing.

The immediate impression I got was that theElectric Shock reminded me so much of a verygood 3D foamie. This plane rocks! The hoversare easy or maybe too easy! It’s very rare that Iwould execute a hover low and close to me ortail touch on a maiden flight but with theElectric Shock it was a rare exception. I felt thatit was exceptionally easy to get comfortable within such a short span of time. It usually takes meseveral flights over a few weekends to get com-fortable with a new airplane but this was theexception to the rule. Somehow the ElectricShock has that same familiar “foamy” feel to it toa point where I totally forgot that it was balsaand was doing the things I would instinctivelydo on a foamie without giving a second thought,and within minutes of the take off the ElectricShock was flying very close to the ground.

The hovers are so stable that hand catchescould be done on demand. Unlike some other3D or freestyle airplanes, where you have keepworking to stabilize the hover, the ElectricShock gets into a stable hover very quickly withalmost no effort at all. Any pilot with rudimen-tary hovering skills would find absolutely noproblems to execute the hover. I suppose PA isquite right about not including the landing gearsin the box as the immediate impression I gotwas that you don’t need it, if you could manage

a hover (Note: The landing gear was subse-quently removed on the following day).

After so much fun on the maiden flight (apretty long one too), I had to stop because itwas getting dark and with only one 1000mAhpack, a recharge could not be done in time.Sigh! The Electric Shock is just simply addictive!

Eventually reaching home and suffering fromacute Electric Shock withdrawal symptoms, Ireplaced the rudder servo and test flew again onthe following day. With a good servo in place, itwas ready to execute knife edge manoeuvresamong other things. I found executing a knifeedge harrier relatively easy and with the powerof the Thrust 10, it could even manage a knifeedge loop. That’s a lot of rudder! The words“Got Rudder?” comes to mind. Without the rec-ommended mix (which I deliberately did notset), it had a slight tendency to belly-in with atouch of coupling in fast and level knife edgedepartment. However, the manual does explicit-ly explain how to deal with coupling in theOption Radio Setup section and as such is not ademerit in my assessment.

Rolling harriers were very easy to execute andthis could be safely done low and slow. To becompletely honest, I have never dared executerolling harriers with balsa airplanes that low tothe ground before, but somehow with the ElectricShock it just happened naturally. It is the “foamiefeel” that had made me completely forget it is infact a balsa airplane and I got very comfortable.

Flying in slow at high alpha with no hint ofwing rock, both inverted and right-side-up har-riers were simply flawless in spite of not using

the recommended spoileron mix stated in themanual. Blenders and snaps were also relativelyalso easy to execute.

I finally managed to get an APC 10X4.7SFprop, which was the recommended prop to teston the following weekend. With the 10X4.7SF inplaced, the Electric Shock was put though itspaces of fast level flying, hard walls, snap rolls,hovers and square loops. I was amazed at howtight it could execute a square loop withoutdropping a wing. The APC10X4.7SF was perfect.

I must admit that I had a difficult time tryingto keep focus on flight testing the Electric Shockand I frequently find myself digressing to justdoing fun stuff instead of executing pre-plannedset manoeuvres and documenting them. Thishappens on every flight which is one of the pri-mary reasons why this review is way overdue!.Quite frankly the Electric Shock has got theword FUN written all over it and I am hooked.The only drawback is that I was having so muchfun with the Electric Shock that my regularfavourite airplane got sidetracked quite a fair bit!

ConclusionAll in all, the Electric Shock is certainly an

excellent 3D airplane for anyone who eitherwants to learn 3D or for an experience pilotlooking to hone their 3D skills or for anyonewho just wants to have obscene fun. It is also anideal alternative to 3D foamies. To be frank,having owned a similar 3D balsa profile modelpreviously, I was initially a bit sceptical aboutthe Electric Shock, besides, having owned a PAKatana Mini, I wasn’t sure if PA could produce

another airplane that anyone or they themselvescould beat to becoming my favourite. Now afterhaving flown Electric Shock, I am glad I wasproven wrong! It has also made it very hard for

me to go ever back to 3D foamies again. Andtrue to the words on the conspicuous yellowwarning label at the side of the box, the ElectricShock is simply just too addictive. As a matter of

fact, insanely addictive to point where I havehad PA ship me another Electric Shock alongwith 5 additional battery packs for moreElectric Shock “Therapy”!