This actually makes flying the Firebird XL easier than the original because there's less for a beginner to have to tinker with or keep track of. You can assemble the Firebird XL and have it flying almost as soon as you get it home from the shop. The whole assembly process only takes about 15 minutes, and you may need an hour or two to charge up the battery for the first flight. The main differences between the first Firebird and the new XL version are size and power. Beginners shouldn't fly it with any more wind than about 8 mph, but experienced pilots should be able to fly the XL with confidence in 12-15 mph winds.
Climb performance is outstanding-almost twice that of the original Firebird, in fact.
In several of our test flights, a straight-out climb at full throttle for about 45 seconds would put the Firebird XL at about 800 feet and almost out of sight. To go with the increase in size and power, the Firebird XL features a larger, redesigned V-tail with bigger control surfaces. In addition to providing more authority in turns with the power on, the beefy tail surfaces produce better turn performance with the power off too. This is appreciated most during an approach to landing or when thermalling with the power off. Instead of using wire, high-test nylon fishing line is connected to control horns on top of the control surfaces.