Funtana 40
A popular .40-size sport-aerobatic ARF — the kind of friendly midweight balsa airframe that bridges the trainer-to-3D gap on a club budget.
About
The Funtana is a sport-aerobatic ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) airframe in the Hangar 9 product line, a Horizon Hobby brand specializing in balsa-and-ply RC ARF kits. Like every well-loved sport-aerobatic ARF, the Funtana earns its place in the hobby by being three things at once: light enough for honest aerobatic figures, strong enough to absorb the bumps of intermediate flying, and simple enough to assemble in a long evening at the workbench.
The .40-size class refers to the 0.40-cubic-inch (about 6.5cc) glow engine that powers it — a comfortable middle ground between the small foam park-flyers and the heavy giant-scale gas-powered competition airframes. The simulator configuration uses a Saito-62A four-stroke for power. At this size the airframe is typical of the "second airplane" segment: large enough to see clearly at altitude, robust enough to forgive bad inputs while you're learning, and capable enough to keep teaching for years after you've graduated to it.
The bigger picture is the category itself. Sport-aerobatic ARFs — whether Hangar 9 Funtana, Ultra Stick, U-Can-Do, or any of dozens of similar designs from competing brands — are the natural progression for pilots who have outgrown a foam trainer but aren't ready for the cost and commitment of giant-scale 3D. They've become one of the most populous categories at the average flying field, and many of the modern intermediate-aerobatic foam ARFs sold by online RC retailers ultimately trace their proportions back to this size of balsa airframe.
In the simulator
A natural step up from the trainer category. The Funtana 40 is forgiving by aerobatic-airframe standards but still rewards a light hand on the sticks: full aileron-rudder coordination matters, stalls are predictable but not non-existent, and the symmetrical airfoil means it's just as happy inverted as upright. Use it to graduate from the basic loop-and-roll vocabulary into more challenging figures: the Cuban eight, the stall turn, the slow roll, and the inverted level pass. Pairs well with grass strips and any landscape that gives you a clean aerobatic box. A natural lead-in to the U-Can-DO 40 and Ultra Stick 120 in this same pack — and a substantial step up from the Magister or the Decathlon in the Aerobatic Trainers pack.
