Hey guys,
Just finished a couple of flights on the new plane from Mountain Models called the Dandy. Doug sent out a couple of Beta kits and below is what came of it. I have been looking for a plane that I could teach my 6 yr old boy to fly on. I have a Tiger Moth.. but I learned on a polyhedral sailplane (20 yrs ago) and liked the idea of a poly-type glider with a motor. Along comes the Dandy...

Kevin looks like he has a thread about the build, so I'll just show some pictures . Overall the build was typical Mountain Models with no glitches. I built it in about 2 hrs to the point where I was ready to sand (granted I build quick) but I would think that its a one weekend project for most modelers to get it done ( and that includes some flying on Sunday) .

The wings are two seperate pieces that are held together with a ply joiner bar. The wings rubberband on (for those inevitable crashes) the tail pieces are sheet balsa and the fuse is primarily balsa sheet and ply/balsa formers. It has a very cool battery hatch on the bottom of the fuse for battery changes without removing the wings. As well the ldg gear is removable and held in with a bolt.

Anyway here's a pic of my son Andrew with the plane...

First flight was from my driveway... er.....runway.

Here's a picture of the plane right before the first flight

*Flight report*

Takeoff was uneventful and about 10 feet long. I'm using the reccomended EPS100-A box with 8x700 nimh's. Don't know the AUW as I haven't taken it to the post office to weigh it yet!?!

I am also using a GWS 11x4.7 slow flyer prop (adjusted up from 10X8 for the thin air up here in Colorado) and it jumped off the ground with authority at about Tiger Moth speeds. The elevator and rudder have very nice authority. I have it set up with 50% dual rates on low and max rates on high. It climbed very nicely to about 150 feet and did some stalls. Mine has a tendency to drop the left wing very slightly when stalled power off and to the right with power on (duh!?!). Definately has power to spare with this set-up.

The plane has no bad tendencies that I've found yet... so I handed the controller to my son (no buddy box either ) and while he has been using FMS he flew the plane very well. He can turn left and right and roll out of a turn within say 90 degrees of where he wants to.. Overall a good first lesson on his new plane. It is very stable even in a bit of wind...

Here's some proof that it flies..

Flt Rep Cont...

My son has an attention span of about 4-6 minutes so after he had his fun he wanted to go shoot hoops and I had some battery left to burn so I did some acro. Acro you say? Yep on max rates it'll loop no problem from a very short dive. It'll also spin very nicely with predictable recovery. While I didn't do any knife-edge testing (Doug...) I did find that it'll also do a loose snap roll and limited inverted (descending slightly the whole time) Hey, gotta test that wing!

Held up fine. This is a really fun plane and I think ideal for learning. It is such a simple build that just about anyone could do it. The flying characteristics are very docile and ideal for a trainer.

Landing was very straight forward with no problems. The only thing that some may find is that is glides very well power off (much better than say a Tiger Moth) and they may overshoot their first few landings (yep got that t-shirt).

Yet another fun plane from Mountain Models... I'd highly reccomend it. Seems that it could also be used in a photo mission environment. The eps300C slides right on the stick

Another inflight pic...

I love those colors! Nice plane, Scott. Your son's off to a great start. Now go out and test out the roll coupling in knife edge.

And another thing.... if you don't mind, I may have to come and camp on your lawn so that I can use your driveway as my own personal runway! That's such a perfect site! You chose your house well

Martin

Very nice! It's really pretty and sounds like a very relaxing flyer.....

One thing though. You said "I am also using a GWS 11x4.7 slow flyer prop (adjusted up from 10X8 for the thin air up here in Colorado)"

Remember it was designed and developed at 6500 feet in Colorado Springs. Going to lower pitch is the WRONG way to go for higher altitudes. Now down here at sea level, we might want to experiment with an 11X4.7 or such.....

BEC,
Thanks for the input... I've found that what you said is generally true, however not always. GWS recomends a range of props... 10x8, 11x4.7, and 11x8. . Been doing this for a while and I've found that I usually have to go to the high end for their prop reccomendation i.e. 11x8 in this case. This applies almost universally with the EPS 300's that I use in my Miniflash, Park Cap, etc... type planes. However in the slowflyers (which this most definately is...) I get good performance that matches the speed of the plane quite nicely with the rpm and climbing performance by using a one inch increase in diameter and a decrease in pitch. Go figure... Also it keeps the amps quite low and the duration way up... For a trainer it works well.

BTW I tried all three out consecutively and I still like the 11x4.7 the best. The 11x8 (which I would normally use on the GWS EPS 300C-C) had worse climb, more speed (not needed in a powered glider) and shorter duration.

Here are the spec on the plane (wife got back to from the Post Office)

2 hs-55 servos
4Rp rx
GP c10 esc
8x700 nimh's
GWS EPS 100C-A
GWS 11x4.7
AUW 12.1 oz

Scott

Wow Scott, Great job on the covering! Now I feel bad that I didnt spend much time on covering mine. She looks great all dressed up. I cant wait to get her out and fly her. Glad to hear your son was able to enjoy the Dandy too. Hmmmm I think after the maiden flight I will need to recover her to make it the beauty queen she can be.
Kevin

Martin,
You can camp out in my yard any time you want...(as long as my wife is out of town...)

Kevin,
Thanks... Hope the wind dies down for you... she flies great!
What a cool kit huh?

Scott

I love it so far Scott. I have tried to be as picky as possible to help Doug, but honeslty have had a hard time finding any major faults, this was very well thought out kit. I agree that anyone should be able to build it even as a fist time kit. Are you going to try Kokams? I think it will be a great platform for them also. Well i will find out this weekend one way or another. I have scheduled an indoor flight and cant wait to get some stick time on her.

Kevin

Scott and Kevin,

I added the blind nut to the landing gear as you both suggested. The other beta kits that were sent out don't have it but the production kits will.

To the other beta testers: you might want to glue the gear nut to the back of F3.

Doug

Scott:

After seeing the pic of your driveway and front yard, I have only one thing to say: I hate you!

Neil

Hey I love the covering job!!! You know I would if you have seen my mini Flash! Me likes blue white and silver. Looks GREAT!

Doug looks like you got another weiner! This fuse design looks like it can be another multiuse airplane. I wonder if a Pen cam will fit inside the Fuse if you cut a hole and shot straight down. It would be so nice to get rid of the extra parasitic drag of the camera.

Congrats to your Son for the first un-buddy boxed flight!

Kirby

Neil,
.... just kidding

Kirby,
Yours is still the prettiest Miniflash I've seen. More than enough inspiration.

Scott