RBSIII
Apr 17, 2006, 07:42 PM
Based on lot of stuff I won't go into just now, I bought a Spirit 100 sailplane ARF with a Futaba 9 channel radio system.
Here are some of my observations... bear in mind that I have not done any modeling since a Saggita 900 in 1990 or thereabouts...
The kit is quite pretty (at first glance), but then I got to noticing that a lot of the covering was not sealed to wood where it should be, there were several wrinkles, and the solid surfaces like elevator, ailerons and flaps look like they had no sanding, someone just slapped the monokote on the bare and rough wood surfaces...and things just did not fit like I would have expected them to do... After about 4-5 hours, I had it all together. I decided that having those long lengths of pushrod wire hanging aft of the CG was not a good deal, so I replaced them with carbon fiber pushrods. Even so, there is an AWFUL LOT of lead in t he nose to get the CG where it belongs. The tow hook is another problem area. It is not clear from the manual that one needs to enlarge the hole in the fiberglas fuse so that the stop nut can rest against the blind nut and plywood. The tape hinges were not well sealed to the structural members. (more on that in a minute). Went hand gliding on a small hillock to work out the trim... Pitch was almost right on... only one click of up trim and it was solid. Yaw took a couple of clicks of rudder... but then came roll... I got it more or less going straight, but the urge to get it on the high start was too great... Day 1 I had three flights, the longest being about 10 minutes in extremely light lift at day's end. When I got home to work on the crow programming (not used on day 1), I noticed quite a bit of play in the aileron servo... had stripped a gear in the servo somehow... guess I didn't think them so fragile... Futaba 3101s... replaced it... Next weekend, back out to the field. A little (no quite a lot) windy... the first launch was pretty hairy, with some weaving back and forth, but finally off the top for a few minutes... landing was good, and in the grass where I wanted it. But control had been a real issue... It wanted to turn right ALL THE TIME.... I checked aileron alignment and it was nominal...... the flap appears to be warped, and the tape will not hold it in place... Tried one more flight and the launch was horrid... it came off the line sideways at about 25 feet, rolled to the right and just barely got caught... wrestled it to the ground and looked at surfaces again...but then I noticed that the left flap was deflected downward at the outer end. No amount of sealing with the iron would keep it in place... so I decided to just put in some regular hinges... I had cut away the covering at the first hinge location to discover that underneath was not balsa as I expected, but a carbon fiber cap... so, back to the drawing board... placed and order for some more stuff and waiting for it to arrive tomorrow... So, five flights...
About the radio... It takes some learning, but once you get the feel, it programs quite easily... one caution... the servo which is flap #2 which is in position 8 on the RX was in reverse mode. This creates lag.. one flap works noticable behind the other. Solved that by physically reversing the servo and moving the control horn... the Futaba folks say this is pretty normal...
OK, enough of that... I have a couple of questions if you have gotten this far... I am searching for some kits to build. Have just discovered Harleys website today, and will be spending some time there... any other suggestions for kits or even plans... and how about publicaitons... what are they and where? As mentioned above, I had a Saggita 900 once upon a time, and thought it a beautiful and fine performing machine... I would love to have another... anyone know where I can get plans ... or heaven fobid, a kit?
Help is greatly appreciated...
Raleigh
Here are some of my observations... bear in mind that I have not done any modeling since a Saggita 900 in 1990 or thereabouts...
The kit is quite pretty (at first glance), but then I got to noticing that a lot of the covering was not sealed to wood where it should be, there were several wrinkles, and the solid surfaces like elevator, ailerons and flaps look like they had no sanding, someone just slapped the monokote on the bare and rough wood surfaces...and things just did not fit like I would have expected them to do... After about 4-5 hours, I had it all together. I decided that having those long lengths of pushrod wire hanging aft of the CG was not a good deal, so I replaced them with carbon fiber pushrods. Even so, there is an AWFUL LOT of lead in t he nose to get the CG where it belongs. The tow hook is another problem area. It is not clear from the manual that one needs to enlarge the hole in the fiberglas fuse so that the stop nut can rest against the blind nut and plywood. The tape hinges were not well sealed to the structural members. (more on that in a minute). Went hand gliding on a small hillock to work out the trim... Pitch was almost right on... only one click of up trim and it was solid. Yaw took a couple of clicks of rudder... but then came roll... I got it more or less going straight, but the urge to get it on the high start was too great... Day 1 I had three flights, the longest being about 10 minutes in extremely light lift at day's end. When I got home to work on the crow programming (not used on day 1), I noticed quite a bit of play in the aileron servo... had stripped a gear in the servo somehow... guess I didn't think them so fragile... Futaba 3101s... replaced it... Next weekend, back out to the field. A little (no quite a lot) windy... the first launch was pretty hairy, with some weaving back and forth, but finally off the top for a few minutes... landing was good, and in the grass where I wanted it. But control had been a real issue... It wanted to turn right ALL THE TIME.... I checked aileron alignment and it was nominal...... the flap appears to be warped, and the tape will not hold it in place... Tried one more flight and the launch was horrid... it came off the line sideways at about 25 feet, rolled to the right and just barely got caught... wrestled it to the ground and looked at surfaces again...but then I noticed that the left flap was deflected downward at the outer end. No amount of sealing with the iron would keep it in place... so I decided to just put in some regular hinges... I had cut away the covering at the first hinge location to discover that underneath was not balsa as I expected, but a carbon fiber cap... so, back to the drawing board... placed and order for some more stuff and waiting for it to arrive tomorrow... So, five flights...
About the radio... It takes some learning, but once you get the feel, it programs quite easily... one caution... the servo which is flap #2 which is in position 8 on the RX was in reverse mode. This creates lag.. one flap works noticable behind the other. Solved that by physically reversing the servo and moving the control horn... the Futaba folks say this is pretty normal...
OK, enough of that... I have a couple of questions if you have gotten this far... I am searching for some kits to build. Have just discovered Harleys website today, and will be spending some time there... any other suggestions for kits or even plans... and how about publicaitons... what are they and where? As mentioned above, I had a Saggita 900 once upon a time, and thought it a beautiful and fine performing machine... I would love to have another... anyone know where I can get plans ... or heaven fobid, a kit?
Help is greatly appreciated...
Raleigh