Schilke are renowned for the quality of their instruments, and this is no different. The valves are silky smooth right out of the box, and only get better as they break in. Usefully, Schilke ship the 1040FL with two tuning pipes, one for each of the common tapers used on flugelhorn mouthpieces; for those players who already have a flugelhorn mouthpiece they're happy with, this avoids the need for a 'mouthpiece safari', or going to the hassle and expense of getting a copy of the existing mouthpiece made with a different shank.
The 1040FL is extremely comfortable to hold, and the trigger is ergonomically placed to allow for easy fine tuning of the low C# and D.