T E A M
As I await my hot babes to arrive.....if and when they arrive, I still needed some stick time to refresh on how to program a transmitter and all the other stuff that I seemed to have been forgotten. I decided to get myself a gentle lady with smooth lines. So I visited Hyperflight which seems to stock a lot of Vladimir's very nice and juicy models. Having previously flown a mini graphite, I knew Vladimir's models won't disappoint.
I wanted something you can toss around while also being able to thermal at a relaxing pace. I landed on the Sprite Thermal Electric. 5 days after placing the order the box arrives with a loud neon orange bird. Nice and visible against a blue sky.
The build was impeded by having
1. The wrong motor.....the MVVS would not fit.
2. Non digital tail servos. Not that hit really mattered....but a nice bird deserves nice innards.
Space in this bird is tight. So no dreams of some humongous power system. (Its suppose to be a gentle lady). However, I did want a rather spirited climb so I opted for something in the 700 watt range. Visiting e calc I landed on something german with a 4.4 gearbox. That also meant a new ESC I did not have....
Oh well, best to invest upfront and transfer gear from bird to bird later.
1 week later after the bird arrives....the motor arrived followed by the servos.
The build took about 1 week of late nights and one weekend and a very late Friday nite before the maiden day. Generally straight forward until I realized why I wasn't getting enuf throws on the aileron.....I forgot to notch the subspar to give more room for the linkage to move...
With everything all setup....I arrived at the field at 8.15 am and waited for my Flight instructor to show up to help me maiden this beauty.
Launch was uneventful as the plane jumped right out of my Instructors hands with a slight toss. The planed ballooned like no tomorrow. Down trim down trim. For a moment I did not like the way the plane handled as it kept doing the porpoise. After taming it down, I took it for a few laps to get a feel of the plane. Just to vouch for the quality of the plane, I did not have to trim the ailerons or rudder 1 click....only the elevator gave me trouble. So I decided to land the plane and got rid of the AAA battery used as tail weight (12 grams in all). Reset the elevator zero via sub trim and zeroed the trims.
2nd flight was so much better, a slight ballon on power up and she settle nicely into the wind. Full power was only on for about 10 seconds top and she was almost starting to get hard to see. The visual signature of this 2m bird is somewhat smaller than the mini graphite. Landing with crow was also a little unsettling as it had a habit of pitching up sharply. The plane landed in 1 piece thankfully after the 2nd flight.
In the evening, I went out again with new set of trims and throws especially on the elevator. This time round she lept into the sky straight and true with no ballooning. I pointed her into the wind and cambered the flaps and ailerons to 6 degrees and watched her gently glide effortlessly around the gloomy sky. A steep dive also showed no ballooning tendencies. Good....finally the plane is settling into the way I like it to fly. A few rolls also showed her to be axial, rather than barrelling around like in the morning.
She's a keeper.
Setup
Ailerons and Flaps - MKS Servos
Rudder and Elevator - Hyperion Servos
Motor - B408L with 4.4 gearbox
Prop - 14.5 x 10
ESC - Jeti
Battery - 3s 2250mah
Tail lead - 42 grams
AUW - 1366 grams
I wanted something you can toss around while also being able to thermal at a relaxing pace. I landed on the Sprite Thermal Electric. 5 days after placing the order the box arrives with a loud neon orange bird. Nice and visible against a blue sky.
The build was impeded by having
1. The wrong motor.....the MVVS would not fit.
2. Non digital tail servos. Not that hit really mattered....but a nice bird deserves nice innards.
Space in this bird is tight. So no dreams of some humongous power system. (Its suppose to be a gentle lady). However, I did want a rather spirited climb so I opted for something in the 700 watt range. Visiting e calc I landed on something german with a 4.4 gearbox. That also meant a new ESC I did not have....
Oh well, best to invest upfront and transfer gear from bird to bird later.
1 week later after the bird arrives....the motor arrived followed by the servos.
The build took about 1 week of late nights and one weekend and a very late Friday nite before the maiden day. Generally straight forward until I realized why I wasn't getting enuf throws on the aileron.....I forgot to notch the subspar to give more room for the linkage to move...
With everything all setup....I arrived at the field at 8.15 am and waited for my Flight instructor to show up to help me maiden this beauty.
Launch was uneventful as the plane jumped right out of my Instructors hands with a slight toss. The planed ballooned like no tomorrow. Down trim down trim. For a moment I did not like the way the plane handled as it kept doing the porpoise. After taming it down, I took it for a few laps to get a feel of the plane. Just to vouch for the quality of the plane, I did not have to trim the ailerons or rudder 1 click....only the elevator gave me trouble. So I decided to land the plane and got rid of the AAA battery used as tail weight (12 grams in all). Reset the elevator zero via sub trim and zeroed the trims.
2nd flight was so much better, a slight ballon on power up and she settle nicely into the wind. Full power was only on for about 10 seconds top and she was almost starting to get hard to see. The visual signature of this 2m bird is somewhat smaller than the mini graphite. Landing with crow was also a little unsettling as it had a habit of pitching up sharply. The plane landed in 1 piece thankfully after the 2nd flight.
In the evening, I went out again with new set of trims and throws especially on the elevator. This time round she lept into the sky straight and true with no ballooning. I pointed her into the wind and cambered the flaps and ailerons to 6 degrees and watched her gently glide effortlessly around the gloomy sky. A steep dive also showed no ballooning tendencies. Good....finally the plane is settling into the way I like it to fly. A few rolls also showed her to be axial, rather than barrelling around like in the morning.
She's a keeper.
Setup
Ailerons and Flaps - MKS Servos
Rudder and Elevator - Hyperion Servos
Motor - B408L with 4.4 gearbox
Prop - 14.5 x 10
ESC - Jeti
Battery - 3s 2250mah
Tail lead - 42 grams
AUW - 1366 grams
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