F3J..Thermal

[DG300]

Hi guys!

Could you suggest a great thermal sailplane in the priserange 6-800$
Now i got an Airtronics Legend,and it is not good enough if you know what i mean.

Best regards From Norway

[onemetre]

I'd look into a Thermal Dancer. www.polecataero.com There's a build thread in this forum as well.

It's not a true F3J ship but does Thermal Duration quite nicely and meets the budget constraint.

Rob

[bobby legue]

Or perhaps the Ava from Kennedy.

[Richard S]

The above are great thermal duration, but will not be competitive for serious f3j competition, the AVA is a rudder elevator model and you need ailerons to win slots in f3j (in europe you are much better off sourcing direct from the manufacturer, vladimirs models at http://www.airplane-model.com) He does produce some VERY competitve f3j gliders as well as the ava, the supra and graphite2 in particular.

The Thermal Dancer will not take a gorilla f3j launch, and is not as pre-fabricated as fully molded models.

Two affordable f3j models in your price range are the x-perience pro (for every condition except very light winds and marginal conditions) or the shadow (for those exact conditions) These are comparable to more expensive models such as the Pike Perfect, and were flown to great effect at the recent world champs in Slovakia. Take a look at http://www.acemodel.co.uk who are able to supply these.

For an excellent source of f3j info from the top Norwegian F3J pilot, take a look at Jojo Grini's diary at http://www.workflow.as/jogrini/diary/index.htm and some great links from his homepage at http://www.grini.no/

Richard

[onemetre]

I think if he truly wants F3J then he needs a bit more budget. The ships Richard mentions are well into the $950+ range based upon what I'm seeing.

Rob

[mrfski]

Check out the molded Onyx, there were several at Visalia that did well and it is in your price range.

[davidjensen]

A freind of mine has a moulded Onyx for sale at $800 +- with servo's and battery + shipping.

[Wing-span]

The Onyx is a great plane when set up correctly. But it does have a few week areas. When flying well it is capable of out flying much more expensive machines.

I thought mine was great....till it broke. :mad:

[Chipwillis]

The Onyx is a great plane when set up correctly. But it does have a few week areas. When flying well it is capable of out flying much more expensive machines.

I thought mine was great....till it broke. :mad:
What Broke on it?

[DG300]

Thanks for your replys... Is the Tsunami a good plane? :rolleyes:
I liked both your links Richard S,and the price for the Xperience pro was nice too.
What does a Pike Perfect cost?

[Chipwillis]

Tsunami- My friend Ron Mong has one. I watched him fly it at the Fall Roundup contest last weekend.

I was impressed by its ability to launch high and range to the edge of visibility and handle well while out there, and come home swiftly.

Handled strong winches easily and zoomed with the best of them.

The finish was super too.

[Wing-span]

I have a V tailed Onyx 3.4. The spar broke in the tail plane on the first winch launch. Still imanaged to land the plane with the tailplane visibly flapping with elavator inputs. On inspection I noticed the balsa spar, which is caped with carbon had split/cracked along the grain, which runs length way's to the tip. I lost confidence in the plane after this. To repair it I cut open the skin on the underside and dribbled CA along the grain to hold it together and then reinforced the centre section with shreded carbon fibers and epoxy. The heavy landing had damaged the left wing joiner as I did notice some slight external deformation (which I chose to ignore).

The left hand joiner broke in the zoom on the next windy day's launch. :eek:

I managed to land it without the left hand wing tip, which fluttered down wind. I now need a new wing. :(

I bought an Xperience Pro V.

[tonyestep]

Richard's comments are on the mark. For F3J you need a plane that can handle a launch that's stronger than the strongest TD winch can deliver. The Tsunami is a good plane, was flown in the WC2002 by the eventual winner Arend Borst. This year's crop of planes in the flyoffs included Pike Perfect, Xperience Pro, Supra, and Icon. The Xperience is very close to the Pike Superior, which won the 2002 WC.

Instead of buying a cheap plane that will bust on launch, maybe you can find a used plane that you know is F3J-capable.

A Pike Perfect costs about $1600 in the U.S. if you can get one. For Euro prices, check JoJo's website.

[Richard S]

pike perfect is approx 1020 euro's depending on layup etc. Current waiting list is up to april 2007!!

I think the Xperience pro is the most affordable f3j model which is in the very top performance range.

More info here:

http://www.mibomodeli.si/show.asp?ID=96

also a build thread :-

http://www.flyquiet.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=271.0

[allanp]

Check out www.espiritmodel.com ,they're selling the EXP pro for $960 US

[DG300]

Thanks guys!

I`ll think i would go for the Xperience Pro :rolleyes: :D .
Now i would have to decide on x-tail or V-tail..now i am pretty sure it would be an V-tailed XP Pro.
Any suggestions? A red V-tailed XP Pro with white or green wingtips.
Could i order a special coulorsheme?

Best regards from Norway

[Bernd Brunner]

If you take the v-tail i can guarantee your next will have an x-tail. The handling is more exact with the x-tail.

Bernd

[Richard S]

v-tail is slightly lighter than the x-tail.

If you are used to flying co-ordinated turns with the rudder and slight opposite aileron then the x-tail might going to be better suited. If you fly with CAR and don't use your rudder so much then the v-tail could better.

[davidjensen]

My Esprit V-Tail has good rudder authroity. Once I add rudder to start the turn and then stop rudder and use elevator this ship needs opposite aileron to keep the wing from rolling into the turn.

[DG300]

So i shoulf go with the x-tail then?

[Richard S]

i'd go with what you are most confident in flying (not that there is going to be much noticable difference)

By far the biggest majority of xperience pro's are V-Tails (from what I have seen)

[Wing-span]

Go with what you think looks the best. It is as simple as that. They both handle pretty much the same. The X-tails seem to be harder to get hold of though.

The Xperience Pro is such a well sorted plane that both formats are equally effective. The V-tail was by far the most popular format at the recent WC2006 in Slovenia. It flew into second place!

[Kaan]

Hi to everyone, this is my first post to the site. I m reading the posts about xprience pro, vision, shadow....

I have 2 visions and I heard few things about the other models listed.

First of all, vision has the very effective v-tail for circling, and elevation. Once you adjusted very nice and EASY to circle and land. No need for x-tail. Only you may look for x-tail during on the line!

As heard, xprience is more slipery model, and when you replace short tips with shadow's, you have a shadow.

A friend of mine has shadow, who used vision, pikes, and many other models. He insist on shadow is a very good one. A clue! tail boom and v tail is same with vision!

Hope the info above helps.

[Richard S]

Although the Shadow comes from the same manufaturers as the Xperience-Pro, it uses a different wing section, longer chord, and longer fuz. I've been told by the UK importer for these that they are very different models. (He flys both in competition depending on the conditions)

I've ordered my X-tail full carbon xperience pro today :) Apparently there is no weight different between this and the carbon D-box version

[davidjensen]

The main reason I got the X tail so I can transport it easier in a flat padded travel bag. I have a Muller Esprit V tail and the rudder works OK and I have little experience with X tails in 3+M TD ships. I have briefly flown a Superior a Perfect a Starlight and a Victor and notice they all have better yaw stability. These are all current designs and the Esprit is a 1992 design.

[Wing-span]

So, what you get in the end DG300? Get that order in and get flying!

[ThermalBuster]

I'm tail agnostic. But you might want to read this. It may help you decide -- or it may confuse you more.....

http://www.orlandobuzzards.org/vtail.htm

Hope it helps.

So i shoulf go with the x-tail then?