The packaging is up to the usual Top Flight standards (which is first-rate). All major components are individually bagged and the box is nicely compartmented to separate them.

Some of the noticeable features are the sturdy fiberglass cowl and the dummy engine kit that gives a nice scale appearance to the nose (I especially like the little red ignition wires). The P-47 also comes with retractable landing gear and wheel doors and a very attractive instrument panel.

The retract servo mount gets assembled in place. All seemed well on the surface, but I question the vertical placement. There is plenty of room to mount the servo lower, and I would recommend doing so. Beefing it up with some tri-stock on the underside would be a good idea too.

The rest of the installation went well. The retract units were placed, the holes were marked and drilled, and the screws were inserted, and then removed so the holes could be hardened with Thin CA.

Then the pushrods were installed on the retracts and inserted into the guide tubes.

Now comes the real fun! Gear doors! When I read through the instructions I was a little apprehensive, but the manual lays it out so clearly that it really went a lot easier that I thought it would.

You start by laying masking tape in line with the gear wire and marking the centerline of the wire on the tape. Now the gear door is taped in place and again a tape is placed and, using the line you already drew as a guide, a centerline is drawn on the tape on the door. Using the measurements in the manual, the nylon straps are placed and the holes are marked.

The holes can now be drilled on the marks and the straps secure the doors to the struts. It worked! Both doors came out perfect the first time!

Next, the wing is installed and the belly pan is laid in place, so it can be marked and removed to cut away some covering. Then it is epoxied in place.

On to the tail! The stab installation is typical; place and align the stab, mark it, remove the covering, epoxy in place (don't forget the elevator torque rod!) and quadruple-check the alignment with the wing!

Time to call it a night while the epoxy cures.

The next evening, The torque rods were epoxied into the elevators and the CA hinges were installed. I found the hinge slots a little shallow, so I used my Great Planes Slot Machine to deepen them. If you guys don't have one of these, put one on your gift list. They're great!

Now the control horns and pushrods can be installed. I also installed two of the servos at this time.

You need to flip the carb, then the engine can be bolted in place.

With a screw lock connector attached to the throttle arm, you can insert a pushrod wire to mark the firewall for drilling.

Now you can glue the outer pushrod tube in place and install the pushrod and servo. You need to put a slight bend in the pushrod for good alignment.

The dummy radial is slightly time consuming but it just looks so cool when it's done! If you want to skip the detailing you can, but the dummy radial with the cutouts should be installed for proper cooling.

Once you make the cutouts, you need to drill about 15,000 holes (ok, I'm exaggerating)there's only 56.

Aluminum pushrod tubes (2 per head) go into most of the holes, while a supplied piece of red wire goes into the others and everything gets glued in place.

Now the "engine" can get glued to the front of the cowl (after carefully aligning it with the REAL engine) and it's done - and BOY does it look good!

The cowl is drilled and screwed in place. You can see the mounting blocks, so locating the holes is pretty easy.

Finally, the cockpit is glued in place and the canopy is attached with canopy glue. If you use CA to glue in the cockpit, don't make the mistake I did - I didn't allow sufficient time for the CA to cure before attaching the canopy and the next day, the canopy had fogged from the CA.

A few decals and a Du-Bro Remote Safety Igniter later and she's ready to see the light of day!

The maiden flight was taken at a Fun-Fly I was invited to at the TCRC field in Jordan, MN. Now, I have a rule when it comes to maidening a new plane - especially a review plane. That rule is: Don't do anything stupid! My usual routine is to take off and do three or four laps of the field to trim the plane out and get the feel for it. That rule went out the window with the P-47.

I took off to my left, did a 180 degree turn to the right and immediately did a loop. I know it doesn't sound very daring, but it just goes to show how I was immediately comfortable flying it. If I had to trim it at all, I don't remember doing it, I was just enjoying flying this plane! It is SMOOTH and I felt as though I had been flying it for years.

I wasted no time. Since I had my video camera with me, I asked TCRC member (and all-around nice guy) Scott Anderson to fly it so I could get some footage. Scott was having so much fun I could hear him narrating a Japanese Zero attack while he was strafing the deck!

Check out the video to see her in action!

I have now been fortunate enough to have reviewed most of the new Gold Edition ARFs in the Top Flight line up and I can honestly say that there isn't a dog in the bunch! The new P-47 Thunderbolt assembles beautifully and flies even better. The only thing I question is the height of the retract servo. It seems that if it were lower (and there is ample room to lower it), attaching the pushrods would have been much easier. But then I wouldn't have anything to complain about! :-)