Ed Koffeman
Jan 17, 2003, 01:00 AM
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="50%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center" colspan=2><br><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy1.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy1_t.jpg" border="2"></a> <a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy6.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy6_t.jpg" border="2"></a> <br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Wingspan</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">72.6 inches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Wing Chord</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">7.75 inches at root, tapering to 6.75 inches at the tips</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Wing Area</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">508 square inches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Wing Profile</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">.850 inch think, semi-symmetrical</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Fuselage Length</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">39 inches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Vertical Fin</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">8 inches high including fuselage, 6 inch chord at root, tapering to 4 inches at top</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Horizontal Stab</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">18 inch span, 5.75 inch chord tapering to 4.75 inches at tips</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Weight</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">25.2 ounces minus controller and battery, and roughly 43 ounces ready to fly</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Power System</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">Mabuchi 540 with flux ring, 7 to 8 cells, 7.75 inch diameter propeller</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Available From</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left"><a href="http://www.cermark.com">Cermark</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p><big>Introduction</p></big>
<blockquote>I had been looking for an airplane that could meet several criteria. It had to use a pack of standard sub-C cells so I did not need to buy new ones or a new charger, and have a large fuselage so I didn't need to buy a new receiver. It also had to be largely ready to fly since I have little building time, and not be too serious an airplane so that it would be fun to fly without pushing the limits of technology.</blockquote>
<blockquote>I had always wanted a glider, but had never gotten around to owning one. This made it all the better when this airplane was available for review.</blockquote>
<blockquote>This kit is aimed at people who have never flown electric before, or perhaps not ever flown at all. The instructions can be followed easily, and they even give encouragement in case of crash damage.</blockquote>
<p><big>Kit Contents</p></big>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy2.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy2_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>The first impression of this kit is that it is surprisingly complete and appears truly "Almost Ready to Fly".</blockquote>
<blockquote>There is an incredible amount of assembly already completed by the manufacturer. The supplied servos are already installed, complete with pushrods and clevises at the ends. The flying surfaces are fully covered and trimmed. The supplied "can" motor is installed and pre-wired with a capacitor. The prop and spinner are installed and ready to run. One is left wondering what there is left to do.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy8.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy8_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">The Easy Electro comes with servos already installed in the fuselage.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>The kit includes spare covering, which is an interesting kind of tube of heatshrink material. In case of an incident, the hobbyist can just slide a new tube over the damaged wing and shrink it down with a heat gun. Neat! The kit also includes some decorative stickers to round out the Easy Electro's looks.</blockquote>
<p><big>Construction</p></big>
<blockquote>Cermark advertises that the kit can be finished within 20 minutes. That would have been true except for a few problems I had with assembly.</blockquote>
<blockquote><strong>Fuselage</strong></blockquote>
<blockquote>The plastic used to mold the fuselage reminds me of milk-jug material. It is fairly soft and feels as though it could buckle if picked up wrong, but it never quite does. I get the impression that it would be more flyable in cold weather than the Kyosho type of hard plastic, which can crack when cold. (I won't likely find out here in Dallas.)</blockquote>
<blockquote>The cooling holes are cut out already, though they seem rather small at the front. I may open these out a bit more if there are problems.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy5.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy5_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">The battery hatch comes complete with pre-installed Velcro.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>I was pleasantly surprised to see a pre-installed piece of Velcro ready to attach to a battery pack. This is a very nice touch. The battery access is through the hatch. I found it a bit odd the see the hatch attachment was with two screws. (They very nicely give you about six spare screws! They have done their research on the screw-grabbing and hiding properties of flying-field grass.) The whole point of a battery hatch, especially for a novice, is to allow very quick battery changes (preferably with no tools) so you can keep flying. My old Goldberg Mirage had a nice nylon battery hatch latch that you could slide aside by hand.</blockquote>
<blockquote>It was also very useful to have the holes for a receiver switch cut out and an arming switch pre-drilled. The actual screw holes for the receiver switch were not present, presumably because the spacing of these varies by manufacturer.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy4.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy4_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">Here is the supplied motor, propeller, and spinner, as it comes out of the box. The capacitor has already been installed, and the power wires have been soldered to the motor. The only change I made was to replace the connectors to match my equipment.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>One of the first things I did was to cut off the "bullet" style connectors on the motor wires and replace them with Anderson PowerPole connectors. The motor comes with a capacitor installed. The wires are rather stiff, and they have plastic insulation rather than silicone, but they are useable as they are.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The motor as supplied gives good enough performance, and seems a good match for the supplied propeller and spinner. Perhaps replacing the propeller might give a bit better performance, but the one it comes with is not obviously flawed.</blockquote>
<blockquote><strong>Tail</strong></blockquote>
<blockquote>The first thing I noticed was that the iron-on elevator hinge was apparently made from a layer of diving board material. It was quite springy and thick, not at all free and floppy as you would want. However, it does seem to do the job. As soon as I tried flexing the hinge, however, another problem became obvious. The plastic end caps on the stab interfered with the elevator, and the caps had to be trimmed. I took a bit off the plastic by scraping the inside edges with a #11 blade until it no longer made noise when the elevator moved up and down.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy3.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy3_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">At the rear of the fuselage, the tail is attached via bolts that pass through the bottom of the fuselage.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>The removable tail comes nicely prepared, with two long, thin bolts, complete with washers, already inserted into the vertical stabilizer so they don't get lost. These are easily removed by hand, and then inserted through the holes in the bottom of the fuselage.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The instructions called for setting the angle of the elevator at 90 degrees during the mating of the horizontal stabilizer to the vertical fin and fuselage, but I can't see any reason why this was necessary.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The two bolts connect all three components together in a nice, repairable way. Unfortunately, when I assembled the three pieces into one unit, I found two problems that needed resolving.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The front, topside hole in the fuselage was placed too far to the right by about 1/16", causing the front bolt to want to tilt to the right. This made the fin lean over at an angle.</blockquote>
<blockquote>In addition, the dorsal fin on the fuselage interfered with the base of the tail, causing it to sit either to the right of the dorsal fin, or to its left, but never straight behind it. I had to trim more than 1/16" of the plastic away before this was cleared up.</blockquote>
<blockquote>I enlarged the top-wise front bolt hole toward the left to make it stand more vertically. After a few tries, I managed to get the tail feathers aligned reasonably well. At this point, I discovered that since the bolt hole I had enlarged allowed so much movement, and the fuselage and stab are both rather slippery, the tail alignment is imprecise. If you don't plan to disassemble it again, then I recommend putting on a strip of thin double-sided tape (not the foam kind) to keep things from moving unintentionally.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy7.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy7_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">On the finished tail, notice the two bolts that were inserted through holes in the bottom of the fuselage.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>I also slightly bent the control rods at the rear to make them sit freely at the position where they would be attached to the control horn. Before I did this, they were rather strongly sprung toward the fuselage, and this is one of the things that made the alignment so chancy.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Therefore, while it didn't add up to much more than about 20 minutes work to get the tail feathers into flyable condition, I was surprised that it had to be done at all.</blockquote>
<blockquote>One of the things I like about this airplane is that it is potentially a great one to take on a road trip or even an airplane flight. If you keep it so that the wings and tail can be disassembled (re-ARFing as opposed to re-kitting), you can get it in the original box again! Mine survived being shipped as regular luggage from Detroit to Dallas before being assembled. I think that with a little help from some blocks of foam to keep things in place, it would travel fairly well in a car.</blockquote>
<blockquote><strong>Wing</strong></blockquote>
<blockquote>The first impression of the wing is that it is well built. It has a solid feel, with D-tube sheeting on the large center section and open ribs on the tips, which makes sense. As received, the covering was a bit slack.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Assembling the wing is very quick in theory. All that needs to be done is what you would do at the field in any case. Insert the metal pins into each joint (a long one at the spar, a short locator at the rear), and then you are done! Unfortunately, on one side of the wing, the dowels went in just fine, but I found that the trailing edge of the tip was below the trailing edge of the main wing section by almost 1 mm. I consider this a little dangerous, especially considering that this aircraft lacks ailerons to compensate for it. I had to enlarge the hole downwards to align the angle correctly.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The left tip panel also had a dowel alignment problem. This side could not be assembled at all. The rear dowel holes were misaligned front-to-rear, so the pin would not simultaneously go into both holes. I was able to use a Jeweler's rat-tail file to enlarge the hole in the left wingtip so that it went further to the rear, and then I discovered that the tip would be off by about 1/32", so I went down as well to make the tip alignment accurate.</blockquote>
<blockquote>It seems that there is no final quality control point where the wing undergoes a trial assembly! Perhaps these problems were just with my particular unit, but I'm a little concerned that they could prevent a novice from being successful.</blockquote>
<blockquote>To get the proper initial alignment of the control surfaces, I had to move the clevises to shorten the pushrod lengths by about 1/4" each. In theory, since the factory does a good job of setting the control horns on the servos at the midpoint of the throw, perhaps they could also set the initial position of the clevises to produce a closer setting to neutral on the tail surfaces. This is not a criticism, because we always need to check this and set it correctly, but why not get it as close as possible when it is made.</blockquote>
<p><big>Flying</p></big>
<blockquote>After a quick control check and a range check, Jim Bourke and I walked out into the field at Eastfield College in Dallas to see how it would fly. Jim gave a good, straight and level launch, and with a little up-elevator, the Electro climbed out very nicely into about a 15 M.P.H gusty breeze. It gained altitude very well, but I didn't try to find the point at which it climbed best. Being direct drive and a stock Mabuchi, I knew it would be climbing on the wing and not the propeller. I was pleasantly surprised at how much altitude could be gained from a few easy turns.</blockquote>
<blockquote>When it first leaves your hand, it needs a fairly good throw, and it doesn't seem like it has enough power to climb out to safety. However, every time, it seems to get up to speed and show enough air to convince you that it is OK to haul back a bit on the elevator. I tend to feel my way through the climb by pulling back until I think it is wallowing a bit, and then I ease up a bit. Then I repeat the cycle every five seconds or so. I suppose that with enough practice, this won't be necessary.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The speed controller was an antiquated Futaba helicopter ESC, and my first efforts at thermalling were frustrated somewhat by the lack of a brake. It took just the right slow-speed stall to fold the prop. This usually seemed to occur after about five tries at it, so that it was nearly time to restart the motor for another climb by the time I was ready to find a thermal. I eventually gave up on that controller and installed an old MaxCim brushless controller with the Mabuchi attached across two of the three output leads. Now that the brake is able to stop the propeller reliably, it is relatively easy (in Texas, anyway) to catch and ride a thermal.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The elevator has plenty of control, and loops are no problem. The rudder is adequate, needing the expected bit of time to cause its effect, given the mass and size of the plane. If the plane gets tossed on its side by some active air, it can take a second or two for a full-rudder command to right the ship again, and then you'll briefly wish for ailerons.</blockquote>
<blockquote>I have flown it in gusting, very breezy (20-30 MPH) conditions, and while this makes one fairly active on the sticks, it does handle the wind quite well. Shove the nose down and it penetrates as expected. Slow vertical descents to land are nice.</blockquote>
<blockquote>On a 105°F day, the fuselage plastic is fairly soft, and must be handled gently, but is still rigid enough to fly. When I first flew the Electro, I had not tightened the wing covering, since it seemed adequate, though a little slack. However, I left part of the wing in the cab of a pickup truck for an hour. When I came back, the covering on that panel was much tighter than the other. When I got home, I ran the heat gun over all the panels and they are all nicely drum like now, and didn't slacked off over the next few weeks. I think the covering material has a low shrink point and melting point. I managed to pop a small hole in one place by lingering for a fraction of a second on one spot. The thin plastic tips on all of the surfaces also shrink when they get the heat gun treatment, so it is probably best to avoid them.</blockquote>
<p><big>Recommendation</p></big>
<blockquote>If you want to be able to have a glider in your aerial armada, and want something quick to get going, but don't care too much whether it is the lightest or best at any particular thing, this is a good machine. This kit is also excellent for a beginner to R/C due to the high level of prefabrication, provided the builder doesn't take the alignment of the wing and tail for granted. As with any airplane, you should double-check these things before you make that first flight.</blockquote>
<blockquote>It is also fairly durable, and may survive a few knocks better than the average electric glider. </blockquote>
<blockquote>You can improve on the climb if you care to put in an inline gearbox, I suppose, but the stock drive system works quite well for a sailplane of this type.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><strong>Nice Touches</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="left"><ul>
<li>The built-in skid on front of fuselage stays in pretty good shape.</li>
<li>Removable tail feathers (if you don't tape or glue them in place)</li>
<li>Servos installed, control rods connected, ready to attach to control surfaces (This was a very nice touch, especially since the arms were actually attached where neutral was on my radio. I did not need to remove and align the servo arms at all.)
</li>
<li>Holes for off/on receiver switch, arming switch</li>
<li>Velcro for battery pack supplied and installed</li>
<li>Large hatch for easy battery replacement (Spare screws are supplied!)</li>
<li>The winds and tail surfaces were warp-free</li>
<li>Spare covering material is supplied</li>
</ul></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br><br>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><strong>Misses</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="left"><ul>
<li>Wingtip rear dowels unusable misaligned (Required careful enlargement of holes)</li>
<li>Tail feather alignment not accurate enough to fly as received (Correcting this resulted in too much variability to fly without being fixed.)</li>
<li>Control surface hinge material is only on one side, and is very thick (The adhesive creeps a bit and changes the trim setting, especially the rudder. Over the long haul, I will probably re-hinge the surfaces.)</li>
<li>Control rods were curiously long as received (The clevises needed a lot of adjusting. This is a very minor point, but I don't know why they wouldn't all be made the right length from the start.)</li>
<li>It would be nicer if the hatch were attached with Velcro or some other fastener method than screws so that you wouldn't need any tools to recharge it. (The tiny screws are easily lost.)</li>
</ul></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="50%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center" colspan=2><br><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy1.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy1_t.jpg" border="2"></a> <a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy6.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy6_t.jpg" border="2"></a> <br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Wingspan</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">72.6 inches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Wing Chord</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">7.75 inches at root, tapering to 6.75 inches at the tips</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Wing Area</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">508 square inches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Wing Profile</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">.850 inch think, semi-symmetrical</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Fuselage Length</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">39 inches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Vertical Fin</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">8 inches high including fuselage, 6 inch chord at root, tapering to 4 inches at top</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Horizontal Stab</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">18 inch span, 5.75 inch chord tapering to 4.75 inches at tips</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Weight</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">25.2 ounces minus controller and battery, and roughly 43 ounces ready to fly</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Power System</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left">Mabuchi 540 with flux ring, 7 to 8 cells, 7.75 inch diameter propeller</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="30%" align="left"><strong>Available From</strong></td>
<td width="70%" align="left"><a href="http://www.cermark.com">Cermark</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p><big>Introduction</p></big>
<blockquote>I had been looking for an airplane that could meet several criteria. It had to use a pack of standard sub-C cells so I did not need to buy new ones or a new charger, and have a large fuselage so I didn't need to buy a new receiver. It also had to be largely ready to fly since I have little building time, and not be too serious an airplane so that it would be fun to fly without pushing the limits of technology.</blockquote>
<blockquote>I had always wanted a glider, but had never gotten around to owning one. This made it all the better when this airplane was available for review.</blockquote>
<blockquote>This kit is aimed at people who have never flown electric before, or perhaps not ever flown at all. The instructions can be followed easily, and they even give encouragement in case of crash damage.</blockquote>
<p><big>Kit Contents</p></big>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy2.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy2_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>The first impression of this kit is that it is surprisingly complete and appears truly "Almost Ready to Fly".</blockquote>
<blockquote>There is an incredible amount of assembly already completed by the manufacturer. The supplied servos are already installed, complete with pushrods and clevises at the ends. The flying surfaces are fully covered and trimmed. The supplied "can" motor is installed and pre-wired with a capacitor. The prop and spinner are installed and ready to run. One is left wondering what there is left to do.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy8.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy8_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">The Easy Electro comes with servos already installed in the fuselage.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>The kit includes spare covering, which is an interesting kind of tube of heatshrink material. In case of an incident, the hobbyist can just slide a new tube over the damaged wing and shrink it down with a heat gun. Neat! The kit also includes some decorative stickers to round out the Easy Electro's looks.</blockquote>
<p><big>Construction</p></big>
<blockquote>Cermark advertises that the kit can be finished within 20 minutes. That would have been true except for a few problems I had with assembly.</blockquote>
<blockquote><strong>Fuselage</strong></blockquote>
<blockquote>The plastic used to mold the fuselage reminds me of milk-jug material. It is fairly soft and feels as though it could buckle if picked up wrong, but it never quite does. I get the impression that it would be more flyable in cold weather than the Kyosho type of hard plastic, which can crack when cold. (I won't likely find out here in Dallas.)</blockquote>
<blockquote>The cooling holes are cut out already, though they seem rather small at the front. I may open these out a bit more if there are problems.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy5.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy5_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">The battery hatch comes complete with pre-installed Velcro.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>I was pleasantly surprised to see a pre-installed piece of Velcro ready to attach to a battery pack. This is a very nice touch. The battery access is through the hatch. I found it a bit odd the see the hatch attachment was with two screws. (They very nicely give you about six spare screws! They have done their research on the screw-grabbing and hiding properties of flying-field grass.) The whole point of a battery hatch, especially for a novice, is to allow very quick battery changes (preferably with no tools) so you can keep flying. My old Goldberg Mirage had a nice nylon battery hatch latch that you could slide aside by hand.</blockquote>
<blockquote>It was also very useful to have the holes for a receiver switch cut out and an arming switch pre-drilled. The actual screw holes for the receiver switch were not present, presumably because the spacing of these varies by manufacturer.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy4.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy4_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">Here is the supplied motor, propeller, and spinner, as it comes out of the box. The capacitor has already been installed, and the power wires have been soldered to the motor. The only change I made was to replace the connectors to match my equipment.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>One of the first things I did was to cut off the "bullet" style connectors on the motor wires and replace them with Anderson PowerPole connectors. The motor comes with a capacitor installed. The wires are rather stiff, and they have plastic insulation rather than silicone, but they are useable as they are.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The motor as supplied gives good enough performance, and seems a good match for the supplied propeller and spinner. Perhaps replacing the propeller might give a bit better performance, but the one it comes with is not obviously flawed.</blockquote>
<blockquote><strong>Tail</strong></blockquote>
<blockquote>The first thing I noticed was that the iron-on elevator hinge was apparently made from a layer of diving board material. It was quite springy and thick, not at all free and floppy as you would want. However, it does seem to do the job. As soon as I tried flexing the hinge, however, another problem became obvious. The plastic end caps on the stab interfered with the elevator, and the caps had to be trimmed. I took a bit off the plastic by scraping the inside edges with a #11 blade until it no longer made noise when the elevator moved up and down.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy3.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy3_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">At the rear of the fuselage, the tail is attached via bolts that pass through the bottom of the fuselage.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>The removable tail comes nicely prepared, with two long, thin bolts, complete with washers, already inserted into the vertical stabilizer so they don't get lost. These are easily removed by hand, and then inserted through the holes in the bottom of the fuselage.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The instructions called for setting the angle of the elevator at 90 degrees during the mating of the horizontal stabilizer to the vertical fin and fuselage, but I can't see any reason why this was necessary.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The two bolts connect all three components together in a nice, repairable way. Unfortunately, when I assembled the three pieces into one unit, I found two problems that needed resolving.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The front, topside hole in the fuselage was placed too far to the right by about 1/16", causing the front bolt to want to tilt to the right. This made the fin lean over at an angle.</blockquote>
<blockquote>In addition, the dorsal fin on the fuselage interfered with the base of the tail, causing it to sit either to the right of the dorsal fin, or to its left, but never straight behind it. I had to trim more than 1/16" of the plastic away before this was cleared up.</blockquote>
<blockquote>I enlarged the top-wise front bolt hole toward the left to make it stand more vertically. After a few tries, I managed to get the tail feathers aligned reasonably well. At this point, I discovered that since the bolt hole I had enlarged allowed so much movement, and the fuselage and stab are both rather slippery, the tail alignment is imprecise. If you don't plan to disassemble it again, then I recommend putting on a strip of thin double-sided tape (not the foam kind) to keep things from moving unintentionally.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><a href="/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy7.jpg"><img src="http://static.rcgroups.com/articles/liftzone/2003/jan/ee/easy7_t.jpg" border="2"></a> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center">On the finished tail, notice the two bolts that were inserted through holes in the bottom of the fuselage.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<blockquote>I also slightly bent the control rods at the rear to make them sit freely at the position where they would be attached to the control horn. Before I did this, they were rather strongly sprung toward the fuselage, and this is one of the things that made the alignment so chancy.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Therefore, while it didn't add up to much more than about 20 minutes work to get the tail feathers into flyable condition, I was surprised that it had to be done at all.</blockquote>
<blockquote>One of the things I like about this airplane is that it is potentially a great one to take on a road trip or even an airplane flight. If you keep it so that the wings and tail can be disassembled (re-ARFing as opposed to re-kitting), you can get it in the original box again! Mine survived being shipped as regular luggage from Detroit to Dallas before being assembled. I think that with a little help from some blocks of foam to keep things in place, it would travel fairly well in a car.</blockquote>
<blockquote><strong>Wing</strong></blockquote>
<blockquote>The first impression of the wing is that it is well built. It has a solid feel, with D-tube sheeting on the large center section and open ribs on the tips, which makes sense. As received, the covering was a bit slack.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Assembling the wing is very quick in theory. All that needs to be done is what you would do at the field in any case. Insert the metal pins into each joint (a long one at the spar, a short locator at the rear), and then you are done! Unfortunately, on one side of the wing, the dowels went in just fine, but I found that the trailing edge of the tip was below the trailing edge of the main wing section by almost 1 mm. I consider this a little dangerous, especially considering that this aircraft lacks ailerons to compensate for it. I had to enlarge the hole downwards to align the angle correctly.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The left tip panel also had a dowel alignment problem. This side could not be assembled at all. The rear dowel holes were misaligned front-to-rear, so the pin would not simultaneously go into both holes. I was able to use a Jeweler's rat-tail file to enlarge the hole in the left wingtip so that it went further to the rear, and then I discovered that the tip would be off by about 1/32", so I went down as well to make the tip alignment accurate.</blockquote>
<blockquote>It seems that there is no final quality control point where the wing undergoes a trial assembly! Perhaps these problems were just with my particular unit, but I'm a little concerned that they could prevent a novice from being successful.</blockquote>
<blockquote>To get the proper initial alignment of the control surfaces, I had to move the clevises to shorten the pushrod lengths by about 1/4" each. In theory, since the factory does a good job of setting the control horns on the servos at the midpoint of the throw, perhaps they could also set the initial position of the clevises to produce a closer setting to neutral on the tail surfaces. This is not a criticism, because we always need to check this and set it correctly, but why not get it as close as possible when it is made.</blockquote>
<p><big>Flying</p></big>
<blockquote>After a quick control check and a range check, Jim Bourke and I walked out into the field at Eastfield College in Dallas to see how it would fly. Jim gave a good, straight and level launch, and with a little up-elevator, the Electro climbed out very nicely into about a 15 M.P.H gusty breeze. It gained altitude very well, but I didn't try to find the point at which it climbed best. Being direct drive and a stock Mabuchi, I knew it would be climbing on the wing and not the propeller. I was pleasantly surprised at how much altitude could be gained from a few easy turns.</blockquote>
<blockquote>When it first leaves your hand, it needs a fairly good throw, and it doesn't seem like it has enough power to climb out to safety. However, every time, it seems to get up to speed and show enough air to convince you that it is OK to haul back a bit on the elevator. I tend to feel my way through the climb by pulling back until I think it is wallowing a bit, and then I ease up a bit. Then I repeat the cycle every five seconds or so. I suppose that with enough practice, this won't be necessary.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The speed controller was an antiquated Futaba helicopter ESC, and my first efforts at thermalling were frustrated somewhat by the lack of a brake. It took just the right slow-speed stall to fold the prop. This usually seemed to occur after about five tries at it, so that it was nearly time to restart the motor for another climb by the time I was ready to find a thermal. I eventually gave up on that controller and installed an old MaxCim brushless controller with the Mabuchi attached across two of the three output leads. Now that the brake is able to stop the propeller reliably, it is relatively easy (in Texas, anyway) to catch and ride a thermal.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The elevator has plenty of control, and loops are no problem. The rudder is adequate, needing the expected bit of time to cause its effect, given the mass and size of the plane. If the plane gets tossed on its side by some active air, it can take a second or two for a full-rudder command to right the ship again, and then you'll briefly wish for ailerons.</blockquote>
<blockquote>I have flown it in gusting, very breezy (20-30 MPH) conditions, and while this makes one fairly active on the sticks, it does handle the wind quite well. Shove the nose down and it penetrates as expected. Slow vertical descents to land are nice.</blockquote>
<blockquote>On a 105°F day, the fuselage plastic is fairly soft, and must be handled gently, but is still rigid enough to fly. When I first flew the Electro, I had not tightened the wing covering, since it seemed adequate, though a little slack. However, I left part of the wing in the cab of a pickup truck for an hour. When I came back, the covering on that panel was much tighter than the other. When I got home, I ran the heat gun over all the panels and they are all nicely drum like now, and didn't slacked off over the next few weeks. I think the covering material has a low shrink point and melting point. I managed to pop a small hole in one place by lingering for a fraction of a second on one spot. The thin plastic tips on all of the surfaces also shrink when they get the heat gun treatment, so it is probably best to avoid them.</blockquote>
<p><big>Recommendation</p></big>
<blockquote>If you want to be able to have a glider in your aerial armada, and want something quick to get going, but don't care too much whether it is the lightest or best at any particular thing, this is a good machine. This kit is also excellent for a beginner to R/C due to the high level of prefabrication, provided the builder doesn't take the alignment of the wing and tail for granted. As with any airplane, you should double-check these things before you make that first flight.</blockquote>
<blockquote>It is also fairly durable, and may survive a few knocks better than the average electric glider. </blockquote>
<blockquote>You can improve on the climb if you care to put in an inline gearbox, I suppose, but the stock drive system works quite well for a sailplane of this type.</blockquote>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><strong>Nice Touches</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="left"><ul>
<li>The built-in skid on front of fuselage stays in pretty good shape.</li>
<li>Removable tail feathers (if you don't tape or glue them in place)</li>
<li>Servos installed, control rods connected, ready to attach to control surfaces (This was a very nice touch, especially since the arms were actually attached where neutral was on my radio. I did not need to remove and align the servo arms at all.)
</li>
<li>Holes for off/on receiver switch, arming switch</li>
<li>Velcro for battery pack supplied and installed</li>
<li>Large hatch for easy battery replacement (Spare screws are supplied!)</li>
<li>The winds and tail surfaces were warp-free</li>
<li>Spare covering material is supplied</li>
</ul></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br><br>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpaddin="4" cellspacing="0" width="80%" bgcolor="#E6E6E6">
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="center"><strong>Misses</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="100%" align="left"><ul>
<li>Wingtip rear dowels unusable misaligned (Required careful enlargement of holes)</li>
<li>Tail feather alignment not accurate enough to fly as received (Correcting this resulted in too much variability to fly without being fixed.)</li>
<li>Control surface hinge material is only on one side, and is very thick (The adhesive creeps a bit and changes the trim setting, especially the rudder. Over the long haul, I will probably re-hinge the surfaces.)</li>
<li>Control rods were curiously long as received (The clevises needed a lot of adjusting. This is a very minor point, but I don't know why they wouldn't all be made the right length from the start.)</li>
<li>It would be nicer if the hatch were attached with Velcro or some other fastener method than screws so that you wouldn't need any tools to recharge it. (The tiny screws are easily lost.)</li>
</ul></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>