The Berkut F5J is a result of Oleg Golovidov's collaboration with Flyinger (formerly HQ Composites) who are the manufacturers of the Falcon-2 and Hawk 2 hand launch planes and the popular Joy electric 2.5m glider. Their quality and manufacturing skills are among the best in the world. The Berkut was developed using the experience Oleg gained designing and then flying the highly appreciated Volo. If you liked flying a Volo, you will definitely like Berkut, and hopefully will like it even more.
By working with the airfoils and changing the wing geometry slightly, the performance envelop of Berkut was expanded, as compared to Volo, on both ends of the spectrum - a bit more float at low speeds, and a bit more penetration at higher speeds.
Oleg decided to go with a V-tail, at least as the initial implementation, simply because V-tails are cool and because there were a lot of requests for V-tail Volos, which never materialized. The V-tails are designed to be of 'proper' size to closely match the behavior of the conventional tails. This means you should not feel any lack of control or stability all the way to a very low speed. The tail moment arm is generously long but not excessive and should provide a very balanced feel in the air.
The wing is 4-piece and the fuselage is a 2-piece design, both have become a 'must have' feature recently. Transporting a Berkut will be easy and will require a very small model box.
See the artwork pics to fuel your imagination, and some pics of the first Berkut parts being produced. The first Berkut production models are being built now and HyperFlight hopes to have some early 2024.