Don’t tell anybody, but my sweetie is a bit spoiled. Just a tad.

This was his Valentine’s Day gift. Yep. A giant plane.

He already had one Sniper, but that one must have been a Medium and he decided that it wasn’t quite big enough. Thus, he needed the XL.

If this was what he wanted then it was fine with me. It required no guessing on my part and he happily ordered it.

When it arrived and I was looking at it, it reminded me of something. A hornet? Nope. There was something about the pointy nose and the black canopy that harkened back to my childhood…

Yep… Spy vs Spy. If you’ve ever cracked open a Mad Magazine then you know exactly what I’m talking about. In my head I refer to this jet as the Spy Jet. lol

According to Jay, “Friends don’t let friends buy HET.” My guess is because you have to do a lot of work to this ARF in order to get it ready to fly. It’s not just a simple matter of putting it together and voila!

It required some work when installing the fan.

And I believe that there was some work required on the tail. I think. I know that there was a LOT of work required on the tail with his Sniper Medium.

Here’s a look up the back of the intake pipe. I enjoy these interesting shots because you don’t see them very often. I believe that this is when Jay was installing the servos for the rear control surfaces. I can’t recall what they are called in this jet. Elevons? Rudderators? Elevadders? 

 After adding the landing gear, the nose gear, and gear doors it was time for the Sniper XL to go down for a nap. Shhh! If you look close you might be able to see the ailerons twitching… it must be dreaming of future flights! Awww…. how cute!

It has had its maiden flight as of today, but I don’t have pictures of it in flight. Instead I will leave you with a picture of it before its maiden flight. Please ignore the woman who felt the need to be in the picture with Jay, the Sniper XL and the Huey.