LaserArts Scepter 100 hits the sky...

[Arbo]

Got it before christmas. Been tinkering when I get the chance. Couldn't seem to get one of my spoilers to come all the way down, turns out it's warped just enough to stick up 1/16" at one side. But I have been aching to get it in the air, so I just taped them shut and took it out to fly.

One quick hand throw to make sure it's ok. Then off on the bungee. Was my longest flight of the day (by far) just over 30 minutes. Kicked butt!

Did a few more before the aged bungee I borrowed from someone snapped and I packed it in for the day, but they were about 5 minutes each. It seems I caught the one thermal of the day on the first one. ;)

[Guz]

Sweet!! Nice colors (high visable)

[EFD118]

Good looking Bird !!!

[Arbo]

Thanks. I was hoping it would be easy to see. The hope of getting very very high up there. ;) Seems it will do fine in getting up there, and in being seen.

[wingsnapper]

30 ain't bad. If the air is moving at all, you pretty much have to hop into a couple seperate themals to get a flight longer than that. Don't worry, you'll soon turn that big ol bird into a speck.. just don't get too greedy. I've been known to lose a plane from time to time from what I like to call acute altitude delerium. Somehow you just forget how much time, blood, and money went into that little flash in the sky. You start thinking <Maybe I should start timeing this one - I'll bet I can break an hour this time>. All it takes from there is a look down at your watch and poof you can't see anything but eye floaters.

Looks great-good luck
JS

[johnsocj]

Looks Great! This is all that's left of mine... but it flew great!

C.

[Arbo]

Quite a while back I was out flying it, and pushed it a bit hard, and the tail snapped and it went in.. lucky for me, there was just some damage in one of the wings (and the tail of course). It's been sitting a long time, but I just got back to it. I had actually patched up the tail break back then, today I fixed up the wing's and finally got the spoilers set up good.

Now to cover the holes and get it back in the air... just in time for thermal season. Oh, need to make a canopy for it too... (can't find it)...

[marty o]

It flies just fine without a canopy, in case you are in need of some immediate flying time. I've forgotten why I did it but my Scepter made a few flights without a canopy. Didn't affect it at all as far as I could tell.

[Arbo]

Yeah, I put strapping tape across the gear bay, except not over the servos. Worked fine. Even got down about 300 feet down (off a slope) and just as far out if not more, and found a thermal and brought it back. Was a good day.

[Aobid]

I am nearing the completion of my build.......need to finish up the one wing panel and need to cover the other then I am DONE!

I've set this kit aside about 4 times this year, I am not gonna touch anything else until I finish!!! LOL! :o

[Aobid]

Anyone else building one of these guys? would love to see some pix and hear flight reports.

[Aobid]

BTW, a few buddies have remarked at how clean my work area is.........well, that's because I'm in the middle of a build!

Here is a picture of what it looks like when I'm NOT building! :p

[Arbo]

Looking good. I retired mine, sorta. I gave it to a friend for him to rebuild after some damage due to a RX glitch.

[Aobid]

Looking good. I retired mine, sorta. I gave it to a friend for him to rebuild after some damage due to a RX glitch.

Any remarks on it's flying ability? Good, bad, ugly??! :D

Thanks!

[Arbo]

It flies great. I was once flying it off of a slope, and got way out, way way down, so it looked mighty tiny (when you could see it), but hooked something and made it back up above where we were standing. Gotta love that.

[lincoln]

I had one for a while last summer. This one was built by a guy who makes chronically overweight gliders by beefing them up in ways that don't make sense. I was able to get much of the weight out, but it was still heavier than most of these get.

However, it flew ok. Quite a bit more speed than the Oly 2 that inspired it, but not quite as easy to fly. Easy enough, I suppose. Perhaps a really light one would approach the ease of flying that you find in an Oly 2. Of course, if it's going to be windy you'll be far better off with one of these.

Certainly it's better than the Spirits I've flown, by a large margin. But I haven't flown the 100 inch version of the Spirit, which might be a little fairer.

If you have this kit, chances are you won't be sorry if you build it. If you do a good job, anyway.

I hear the Scepter I had is now being flown by a kid who's learning to fly gliders. Unfortunately, I also hear that he's afraid of flying it because it's a crunchie.

[Aobid]

Thanks for the update guys!

Mine is almost done, 1 more panel to cover and then I need to rework the spoilers.

I had set it up so that a long servo arm would simply lift the spoiler to 90 degrees and gravity would bring it back down. After hinging it, this didn't work that way! The spoilers still stuck up about 10 degrees.

I tried springs and rubber bands but it wasn't 100%. So I need to use the included tubing and make up some pushrods to ensure proper deployment and retraction.

Will post pix once she is done.

On another note, I built mine really light but I have noticed that she is a heavy bird in general.

[Aobid]

Well, the covering is all done, only thing left are the spoilers to be hooked up to the servos.

Did anyone put any washout in the wing?

[Arbo]

I don't remember if I had washout or not. I don't think so, as all of the wing built flat on a table.

The spoilers were a pain (for me). Never got the suggested setup to work right, but it was my first plane with them, so the first time I fiddled with them.

[astropuppy]

Has anybody converted one of these to electric with a folding prop?

[lincoln]

I've flown one that had some extra, ill advised reinforcements. A bit heavy but a decent flyer. Built stock it's probably better. Not exceptional, but decent. You will probably have a lot of fun with it.

[Correa]

I am now the happy owner of the Scepter Aobid built! She flies great and goes up in thermals as agile as a 1.5 meter HLG/DLG. The benefit of her 3 meter wingspan is that I can see her even when she's at speck height for those 1.5 m birds. I tried a zoom off a heavy duty high start and bent the stainless steel wingrod. She flew even better with the extra dihedral! So, her wings will bend the wingrod if you get carried away with her agility but the wings were not damaged in any way :)

[lincoln]

A 3 meter Scepter? Did you add extra bays to the wing? Did you stretch the tail to match?