How Good A Flyer is the Stratos SL

[screamin' eagle]

I have a Stratos SL that I fly on the slope, and have put up on the winch a few times. How does it compare to the other molded slope ships? I haven't been terribly impressed with mine, but then again I have yet to dial in the proper mixes for camber, ie.

Thanks,
Dominic

[Ollie]

A pilot is a good flyer. A good plane has potential.

[screamin' eagle]

How much potential does the Stratos SL have in the hands of a good flyer?

[winchdoc]

Some guy named JW flew them a while back when they first came out (V-tail) and won a few contests. Everyone wanted them, they became the plane to have. It fell from favor when the X-tail trend took over. They still fly great. Same thing is supposed to happen to ICONS now that the Supra has made them into lead turkeys.

Setup is very important. I once had a plane that flew great, had no bad habits, wonderful. I lost the transmitter setup and had to re-do it. It was a total PIG until I got the setup back close to where it was before.
Nice thing about flying a thermal plane on the slope is you get to see how it flies UP CLOSE and not some little speked out dot. Give it a chance, and try setting up the mixes like you said. You might find a new favorite plane.
Doc

[jfrickie]

I have been flying a Stratos SL in TD competition since 2000. Ive won the Texas National Tournament twice and The Gateway open and a lot of other Midwest contests with it. The big issue is like Ollie said. Practice,practice,practice. Its my plane of choice for the Masters. I also have a Sharon Pro 3.7. But I still go back to the Stratos.(I also have a new SL that I got from Bro at Soaring Usa) I know shameless plug.

[spatial]

According to www.f3j.dk the Stratos SL is designed for F3J. That might go some way to explaining why you find the SL disappointing on the slope.

[screamin' eagle]

According to www.f3j.dk the Stratos SL is designed for F3J. That might go some way to explaining why you find the SL disappointing on the slope.

I like it much better on the slope than for TD, actually. I am an experienced sloper but a beginning TD flyer, and I find lift much more easily with the slow poly ships. I knew it was an F3J ship when I bought it a few months ago, and it's actually what got me back to the TD field after an 18 year absence.

[screamin' eagle]

Some guy named JW flew them a while back when they first came out (V-tail) and won a few contests. Everyone wanted them, they became the plane to have. It fell from favor when the X-tail trend took over. They still fly great. Same thing is supposed to happen to ICONS now that the Supra has made them into lead turkeys.

Setup is very important. I once had a plane that flew great, had no bad habits, wonderful. I lost the transmitter setup and had to re-do it. It was a total PIG until I got the setup back close to where it was before.
Nice thing about flying a thermal plane on the slope is you get to see how it flies UP CLOSE and not some little speked out dot. Give it a chance, and try setting up the mixes like you said. You might find a new favorite plane.
Doc

Interestingly, my plane used to below to Joe W, then was sold to Pat Bowman, followed by Joe Zepeda, then me. :D

[wakumann]

Dominic,

the Stratos SL may be a good allrounder for sport flying for this countless light lift days when others fly only HLG's on the slope.

It never won any big F3J competions in Europe and the SL is maybe a bit boring for the Slope, because if you fly it hard and fully ballasted there will be some flex in the wing and the MH32 is famous that it feels a bit dull in comparison to the faster slope foil as a MG 06 or HD45.

The design is 7-8 years old so it can't really compete nowadays with the newer F3J designs.

I expect you got it for a reasonable price, because it switched so many hands.


Cheers
Thomas

[Tuomo]

The design is 7-8 years old so it can't really compete nowadays with the newer F3J designs.


Sharon Pro is also quite old design. So is Tsunami, Pike Superior, Evolution, Ghost, Zenith/Corado, Stork2... All these planes are capable of winning. Fortunately F3J competitions are still more about flying and less about plane development.

Not knowing Stratos first hand, I would believe that it is perfectly good competition weapon for an average F3J flyer. There are new ships that are more fashionable but any 3m+ moldie with 2-2.3kg AUW, reasonable aerodynamics, strong structure and well functioning flaps is satifactory. As stated before, setting up the plane is much more important than having the latest and greatest equipment.

To me the point of bying a new ship like Xperince Pro or Perfect is that one can expect it to be in production for many years to come. Staying in one design is one key to succes and one cannot really fly a plane in competition if spares are not readily available.

[wakumann]

Sharon Pro is also quite old design. So is Tsunami, Pike Superior, Evolution, Ghost, Zenith/Corado, Stork2... All these planes are capable of winning. Fortunately F3J competitions are still more about flying and less about plane development.



Hi Tuomo
Tsunami, Pike Superior, Evolution, Ghost are all newer designs, the Tsunami was first flew by Arndt Borst in 03.

All of them have a larger wing area, and lower wing loading as the Stratos.

I did a slope trip in 2003 with a buddy who flew in 2 WC's and used partly the Stratos SL, believe me I know how good it flys on the slope and on the flats.
By todays standard it is too small for the light thermal days.

The 2006 WC starts in 10 days in Slovakia, I bet there aren't many Stratos, guess why??
Have to admit I’m not a big fan of TD/ F3J flying, mostly happens too far away( for my eyesight), not much dynamics and the strange landing rules (pegging) IMO.

For this reason I sold my TD ship.

Cheers
Thomas