I finally maidened my Sky Surfer yesterday morning (I have had it since May). It was my first 4-channel plane and I have only limited hands-on experience with 3-channel, although I have flown 4-channel planes in a flight sim.

Simply put, it was awesome. At first there was too much right aileron, but once I got this trimmed out it flew like it was on rails. What a smooth and responsive plane, a real joy to fly.

It's tough, too. At one point I piled it in from about 40 or 50 feet (pilot error) and the canopy and wings popped off, but no damage at all to the plane. I put it right back in the air. Glad it was over soft soccer field grass.

Oh and I flew it on high rates the whole time and really had no issues with control. I did find that it takes some room to turn and I certainly needed the space I had to control it. I am sure I will get better with time. At my friend's encouragement I took it up high and did a little power-off gliding, what a blast.

It seems a little nose-heavy and adding some weight to the back might slow it down, but I am not sure I want to change the COG because it flies so well as is. I want to try to slow it down without that first.

My flying buddy Greg, who has been flying for years and knows a lot about RC planes, was totally impressed, which is a great endorsement.

Now I just need another battery so I can fly longer!

Originally Posted by Greg_Vincent

I finally maidened my Sky Surfer yesterday morning (I have had it since May). It was my first 4-channel plane and I have only limited hands-on experience with 3-channel, although I have flown 4-channel planes in a flight sim.

Simply put, it was awesome. At first there was too much right aileron, but once I got this trimmed out it flew like it was on rails. What a smooth and responsive plane, a real joy to fly.

It's tough, too. At one point I piled it in from about 40 or 50 feet (pilot error) and the canopy and wings popped off, but no damage at all to the plane. I put it right back in the air. Glad it was over soft soccer field grass.

Oh and I flew it on high rates the whole time and really had no issues with control. I did find that it takes some room to turn and I certainly needed the space I had to control it. I am sure I will get better with time. At my friend's encouragement I took it up high and did a little power-off gliding, what a blast.

It seems a little nose-heavy and adding some weight to the back might slow it down, but I am not sure I want to change the COG because it flies so well as is. I want to try to slow it down without that first.

My flying buddy Greg, who has been flying for years and knows a lot about RC planes, was totally impressed, which is a great endorsement.

Now I just need another battery so I can fly longer!

Awesome report and of course, well written to boot! Did you fly it stock out of the box with the small amount of aileron trim needed? What was your weather flying conditions like?

I ordered one also and this should be arriving in a few days. I plan to dress it up properly with some of my scale Suisse graphics http://kewlartdesigns.com , not sure exactly what it will end up looking like as it really isn't a scale sailplane. Might make red underside wings and red winglets. Should make a nice companion to my Radian.

I ordered two additional Zippy 350mHa 20C 2S to go with. Looking forward to making some 808 #11 camera videos soon.

Cheers, Thompson

The zippys work but you have to be a little creative in positioning them, set them on end and all the way to the back, balance's perfectly. Still in the process of modding mine brushless and with real micro servo's

Originally Posted by skydvejam

The zippys work but you have to be a little creative in positioning them, set them on end and all the way to the back, balance's perfectly. Still in the process of modding mine brushless and with real micro servo's

Can you post a few photos of how you mounted the Zippy's to fit? That would be awesome. I took your que and ordered these.

At some point I plan to convert to brushless so I can fly with my DX6i and have a propeller / motor brake. I'd prefer to stuff the HK 1811 motor into the fuselage more and use the Graupner Cam folding prop and spinner, see attached photos.

Here is my proposed setup (thanks to Elvill's inspiration ! and what I've found others converting the non-powered Robbe Arcus Airy 780 in Europe).

- HK 1811 - 2000kv 10g micro brushless motor
- Zippy 2S, 350mAh 20C
- HK R415 OrangeRx, DSM2
- HK 5320 1.7g servos x 3
- TowerPro 9g w12A ESC
- Graupner Cam 4,7x2,4 folding prop

(Note: Attached photos are from the thread on RCLine.de in Germany and NOT from me. I signed up on the RCLine forum to see and review. I attached for users here to see another setup).

Robbe Arcus Airy 780 ref.
http://www.rclineforum.de/forum/boar..._3#post4075032


Cheers, Thompson

Originally Posted by studioRS

Awesome report and of course, well written to boot! Did you fly it stock out of the box with the small amount of aileron trim needed? What was your weather flying conditions like?

I ordered one also and this should be arriving in a few days. I plan to dress it up properly with some of my scale Suisse graphics http://kewlartdesigns.com , not sure exactly what it will end up looking like as it really isn't a scale sailplane. Might make red underside wings and red winglets. Should make a nice companion to my Radian.

I ordered two additional Zippy 350mHa 20C 2S to go with. Looking forward to making some 808 #11 camera videos soon.

Cheers, Thompson

Yes, it was stock with only aileron trim needed. Weather was hot and humid (typical Florida summer) with a slight breeze. I am sure it could handle even more wind than I was experiencing.

Hope you enjoy yours!

Another note: I also fly a Parkzone Radian and the Nine Eagles SkySurfer / Robbe Arcus Ariy 780 profile is extremely similar in proportions, IF you widen the wing span a little on the Surfer. The Radian is supreme for thermals and floating, the glide ratio is beyond words, you have to experience one to understand.

Anyway, I will fly stock for now but, I thought it would be nice to improve the glide ratio some on the Surfer so I overlaid an image of the Radian on top of the Surfer to compare. WOW, almost exact! Maybe purchasing another BNF soon.

Stay tuned on this...

OK for those who want to know, and yes this one is wrecked I am working on a new fuse and thinking of something like the one above, but might use an old gift card for the servo mount, not 100% sure yet though.
Anyways here is how you fit the Zippy 350 in it without CG issues.
Battery and glider.


And how to fit it so you can also use the standard battery as well. I also brace the front with some small CF rods for stability.


Key points to take away from this though, ensure your servo's do not have anything leaning on them, that will cause issues.

@ skydvejam - Thank you for taking the time and shooting the photos, absolutely perfect.

I just received my new Nine Eagles Sky Surfer minutes ago from HK warehouse in WA, USA and this little sailplane is tiny! OMG. All my sailplanes have wingspans of at least 2m so this little baby is going to take a bit of getting used to (although, it should be the hot ticket for slope soaring on holidays, love the little box it came in). Promptly parked it on my hobby shop table next to my UM Mossie for some company and open box photos.

For those of you that are thinking of purchasing, I snapped off some quick box opening photos and details of the packaging, "wunderbares kleines Segelflugzeug!" (wonderful little sailplane!). I noticed some translation inaccuracies on the box packaging and will forward corrections to Nine Eagles headquarters post haste. Not that they will do anything about it, but at least I made the attempt.

At first I didn't see the two extra Zippy batteries that I ordered in the packing. Hmm, possibly they stuffed them into the Surfer box? Yup, all good, the photos above that skydvejam took make the little 350mAh 2S batteries look gigantic! They are a little wider than the stock 250mAh that was supplied.

This will make a really neat Suisse or German sailplane graphic project. I plan to make a clear canopy and small light weight pilot and will source the ultimate bottle shape. You can see photos of my available 2m designs and graphic work http://kewlartdesigns.com I will most likely have a PDF design available for the Surfer.

More details to come, hope you enjoy the photos and my enthusiasm.

Cheers, Thompson

It's still one of my favorite flyer, on calm days. The wing servo is a bit weak, so I am on my third now. One of my Sky Surfers, hung in tree for six weeks. When the storm blew it down, everything was still working.

If I still had the wing servo on mine I would snap a pic of how I fixed that, but let me try and explain. Take an exato and make a little channel about .5 inches, 1.5 cm, long for out metric friends and CA the wires in, makes the servo last a lot longer.

Originally Posted by skydvejam

If I still had the wing servo on mine I would snap a pic of how I fixed that, but let me try and explain. Take an exato and make a little channel about .5 inches, 1.5 cm, long for out metric friends and CA the wires in, makes the servo last a lot longer.

I'm confused on this. Do you mean to CA the wires down into the wing foam near where they exit the wing servo?

Here are some photos. Added my http://kewlartdesigns.com sailplane graphic stickers ( I used some of my 2m extra stickers and printed some out on the ink jet, clear laminate over for now ). I will have a PDF available in Suisse, German and UK registry on the website soon.

Painted wing tips and underside with Krylon Short Cuts pepper red.

This Surfer looks like a cross between a DG-1000, ASW-17 and Radian (If you squint real hard there is a scale look there somewhere). So I made it more look like a ASW-17

Had to add a small screw to balance with the Zippy 350mAh, enjoy.

Cheers, Thompson

Very nice, made this plane has another statement.

Edmond

Originally Posted by skydvejam

If I still had the wing servo on mine I would snap a pic of how I fixed that, but let me try and explain. Take an exato and make a little channel about .5 inches, 1.5 cm, long for out metric friends and CA the wires in, makes the servo last a lot longer.

@skydvejam - I think I figured out what you are referencing, here are some photos, is this correct?

I can see that the servo wires on the wing need to be be recessed into the foam and secured. Certainly a lot of movement with the wire, just fiddling with getting the wing on and off once was an indication it needed securing.

I cut a small channel as you indicated and put in a few drops of CA at the plug end, then placed a piece of clear tape over.

Cheers, Thompson

A good idea to secure the cables from the wing servo. I will try that solution to a problem.
Did it! Think it will work great. Now it's just to wait to the endless wind and rain to calm down.