Spirit Elite

[nr5a]

:cool: After my first slope experience yesterday I went out and brought a Sprint Elite kit. I've just started building it. Anyone got any hits, mods, for it as I build?

Crashin J:D

[Vince inTX.]

I built mine last winter and I love it. I did make some minor mods and one that is structuraly minor but makes the plane store much easier. One of the small mods was to abandon the "stock" canopy attachment method and use a rare earth magnet attached to the bottom front of the canopy assembly to anchor the canopy to a washer attached to a small cross piece in the very front compartment. It's easy, convenient, and makes access to your radio compartment much easier.

The other mod was to make the horizontal stab removable. I used a section of lite ply cut to the same shape of the center "solid" portion of the stab for the "mount". I then put blind nuts on the stab itself and drilled the mount for the bolts. (position the blind nuts as close to the corners of the center section as you can without sacraficing strength) You will need to take some material off the bottom of the rudder to accomidatethe added thickness of the lite ply. During final assembly mount the stab to the mount before gluing the mount permantly to the plane. Then remove the stab until you are ready to fly. Make sure to grind the bolts flush with the top side of the stab so they dont interfere with rudder movement

Okay yes this last mod does make the plane tail heavy, calling for more lead to balance it out and thus raising the overall weight of the plane. I tend to build heavy planes. This plane ended up at 44oz. :eek: the up side is that the stab can be removed for transport, I can adjust the decalage if need be, I will also be able to rebuild the stab WHEN not IF it draggs accrossed a rock or crawdad mound on a landing.

I can take some pics of the mods if that will help....let me know, but gimme a little time because I dont have a digital camera.


Vince

[beefa]

I just built the Spirit and found this site, I believe that some of the info is relevant to the Elite as well as the original Spirit.

http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles/kitmods/dickwilliamson_gpspiritmods.htm

The mods I made were:
a) Dropped the rear of the stab 1/8
b)Sheeted the wings all the way to the tips... Im a first time builder and found this rather easy, so dont be put off.
c) Slightly more aggressive COG.
I was flying on the weekend and during a rather steeply banked turn i watched in horror as the lead sinkers i placed in the nose to balance the COG, fell from the sky into long grass.
I hurridly landed it and found of the 6 in there, all but 2 were gone.
The reason for the failure is the front nose of the canopy mounts via a small dowel that is braced against the balsa canopy floor when mounted. This had torn through (3 ever flight !) So i found a rock that would fill the rest of the space where the sinkers fell out and continued to fly without problems. (Canopy nose was now held down by rubber band.)

One thing I also noticed, but dont know enuff to know if this is normal is the "angle" of the plane in the air.
I was sloping it in rather strong winds and during fly pasts, the nose was pointing down like it was in a constant shallow dive.
I assume this is due to the strong lift and not the incidence and decalage.

Regs,
Beefa.

[Vince inTX.]

Those mods are fine for the "Spirit" but the "Spirit Elite" is a different plane. It has the full sheeting. As far as rudder area and decalage are concerned....well I dont know if the "Elite" suffers from those problems. If it does I have some adjusting to do. I would be interested to hear if Mark Drela has the same concerns in regard to the "Elite"

[tempest411]

Ok, I don't mean to come off as a 'hater', but I picked up one of these kits a couple of years ago and thought it was terrible! The die cutting was inexcusably sloppy, and there was going to be so much sanding needed on the wing rib profiles to get them to match that I wondered why they even suggested that it was supposed to match any particular known section at all. Great Planes needs to get with the program and either invest some time and money into decent die cutting, like the Graupner kit I had just built before the Elite, or just switch to laser cutting altogether...

Rick

[beefa]

Mine seemed to go together ok, bugger all sanding required on the ribs.

Fly's straight and true with no complaints, maybe i got lucky ; )

[Flatspin]

Is anyone flying the ARF version of the Spirit Elite, with the glass fuse. How does the arf compare to the kit? TIA

Ron

[Michael Heer]

Dear Ron:
At least three guys in our sailplane club have gotten the Spirit Elite ARF this past year and they have been very happy with them. One of the guys flies it and likes it more then his more expensive ARF from another place. All three have been doing well with it for flight times and landing points and think it is a great deal at the price. I don't have one but if I lost a plane I might consider getting one myself. Hope that helps. Mike

[D-Woods]

Crashin

Im building my second Elite kit now, have made several mods on the first and more on this one. Keep in mind i was contesting this plane and launched it real hard and had some rough landings.

1. carbon tape in the fuse sides from the front of the wing back
( tends to crack at the rear of the wing and at the last bulkhead in front of the stab.)
2. removable stab. your choice of how to do it, i have pics if you need.
3. pull - pull rudder (save weight)
4. throw away all of there plastic horns and build ply horns to be glued in. (save time and lots of weight!)
5. throw out nyrod and replace with piano wire or carbon rod unless you like chasing elevator trim.
6. carbon tape on spars( top and bottom)
7. wrap outer spar joiners with kevlar string
8. add 1/4 balsa block in front of spar at root rib , shape to air foil ( not much wood around dowels, tend to pull root rib away from wing if you catch a wing tip)
9. although the wing joiner is alot stronger than the regular Spirit i did manage to break it in half after many full peddle winch launches so this time im working on an all alluminum one and thinking about laying up a carbon fiber one.


This is a great plane ( no pun intended) one of the best two meter full house birds ive flown. Ive got a molded whisper right now and can't wait till i finish my elite!

Duane