I've had this kit for a few years, bought it from Ed "Sky KIng" some time ago when it was on sale. I tried to sell it twice, but nobody wanted to buy it at my cost, so I decided to build it. Needed to buy a bit of lumber to finish it. There was some strange bits and pieces that didn't quite match the thickness of the wing sub TE and LE, so I cut my own. The glass work on the fuselage was crude but nice and strong, so I dig that. Mark Grand kitted these originally, and Ed licensed the design, to sell, and I think he changed the airfoil to a RG14 or something close. These are cute little planes, take the SR7 and scale it down to a 44" wingspan.

I built it with balsa wing sheeting, didn't do the "horner" curved wing tips, and made my elevator full span on the horizontal stab. Covering is ultra coat, or what ever they call it lately. 2- HS 85 MGs and a square 1/2 AA 600 MAH battery bring the AUW to 28 oz. I was really happy with the fit of the canopy. These can be a royal pain in the A, and if you kook it, youre done. It's the clear plastic, I spray it with a mist of silver, then black RC car paint on the inside. Its held on with a front pin and rear magnet set up....teee-ight.

Could be a while before it gets flown, but should be a fun, great looking model for close in work and half pipe fun.

Andy

Sporty shape...nice build.

What kind of flying is it made for? is it a sloper?

Great Job on the build droydx,
Your going to have a blast with this plane. I bought one when he had them on sale too and built it just about the same. I gave up on the split elevator thing, moved the H stab back a bit and went with a full span elevator.
I have flown mine many times and still love it. Mines a bit heavy cause I glassed the wings so it takes a bit more wind, but still it will fly in pretty light air.
After a bad landing that removed the tails for me, I made the tails removable so it packs flat for travel.

I used the clear canopy to make a mold then I laid up a carbon canopy for mine.
I also put two servos in for the ailerons so I could have spoileron/flaperons but really this planes slows down well enough without them.
Let us know how the maidan goes


TIM

Yup, a slope glider it is.
Tim, yes, great build that you did...I considered the single straight elevator route, but ended up going stock, your extended h stab would give you some straight line stability too. With the two servos, do you find that spoileron position makes it pitch up, flaps down? I remember doing a SOS that had this and you could really have fun with it.
Andy

Hi Andy,

Yes exactly, I think the wide chord kind of makes the wing act like a flying wing. spoilerons make the plane pitch up and flaperons make it pitch down. I think you could almost fly it with a fixed elevator and use the ailerons for pitch and roll......might be fun to try. Set the spoileron/flaperons up on a slider or throttle stick, leave the elevator alone and see what happens.......
Also I found that too much of either stalls the wing out and the plane wants to fall out of the sky.
Fun plane though, I like how it looks like a jet when it flys by.
I flew mine in 40 mph at Eagle Butte and it did HUGE half pipes.
I think mine weighs in at about 35 oz though.

Brian Cortice had one at Eagle the same time I had mine there his was over 50 oz, but I didnt get to see it fly.

I'm hopin to fly mine this fall/winter if we ever get any wind around here. Its been dead here seems like forever.

TIM

Tim, they must get crazy at those weights. I tend to build my stuff very light for around Santa Barbara. The heavy stuff I have, just sits in my garage because I don't get to travel enough to get the true vertical lift component that they need.

If you can recall ,where is your CG set aft of the wing LE? I think mine is about 4 1/2" back...tried to measure off the plans where it is marked, but that looks pretty conservative with all the sweep it has.

We are in our doldrums here too...won't get good until we get some storms clearing through later in January, February, March.

Andy

Hi Andy,
sorry I didnt get back to you, I forgot to check on your blog.

Mine is at 104 mm which is about 4 1/4 inches back but I know it can go back further cause inverted takes a bit of down stick. Mine seems to like about 15 mph and up, not sure I would try it in less than that. But maybe if I move the CG back a bit it will fly better in lighter air.

We are getting south wind big time here now but along with it is huge amounts of rain too. Tomorrow I am headed for Petersons Butte south of Portland. The rain is supposed to let up but so is the wind. I am hoping to maiden my Raven and my Stinger45. Maybe I'll throw the Mini in the truck too and see if I have time to dial it in better.

take care

TIM

Tim,
Yes! I tried to maiden mine the other day. We had a cold front dip down and clear through with winds from the N - NW. We had about 12 -15 at our local spot. Flew my prodiji, stingeron and a new to me Bird. I thought that I would have a shot at the Mini, so I threw it out, bad call. I have the CG at 4.5 aft. It sank, and I tried to let it run out, like a mini sled, but ran out of glide path into a gnarly dead scrub oak. It hit hard on the left wing panel, and I thought that it was major repair time, but the bass wood LE, held, and only a small ding for my efforts. In the nano seconds that I flew it, it seemed tail heavy, very twitchy on roll, so I will add a touch nose lead to bring it out, and wait for 15 -20 for next trial. I'll treat this like a small PSS ship, and it should be fun when the conditions are right!
Thanks,
Andy

got to fly her finally...not the best conditions but plenty of lift, once I could get off the slope and into the meat of it, off our North facing slope up at the ruins. This is a fairly high comitment toss off, if it goes down past about 25 yards out, you'll never see it again. Two tosses went in to the dirt, but on the third I got it out past the top ridge round off and it flew well, pretty conservative CG, but that helped with the blustery conditions. The SR tracks well for a little ship, and does the classic PSS type turns, not a crank and bank moldie here! Roll rate was insane on high, and nice and axial all around. Inverted flight took a little down stick but not that bad, I could live with it the way it is. This thing handles lift insanely for it's AUW, it flies bigger than it's size, which is good. Landing was hair raising, it's a tough spoteven with a model that you can use crow on. The SR flies very quickly, and it was hard to slow down. I ran it back side a bit too far, and stopped dead in the rotor. The "hand of god" swatted the little ship down, from about 6', missed some rocks and didn't take any damage!

I hope to fly it on our lower spot on a good NW day, should be a fun ship to do spins with , as I move the CG aft. As far as trim goes, I trimed it to 0-0 took a little up at the front of the horizontal stab to get it there, didn't need any trim for level flight and has a nice slightly nose down stance when it is running at speed.

Andy

HI Andy,

Great to hear that your maiden went so well. Its a fun ship for sure. Mine is one of my favorite planes to fly. Has a great roll rate and gets flying really fast in decent wind. Huge half pipes too.

Did you get to do any CG adjustments, if so where didn it end up.

thanks

TIM

Tim,
I was flying mine at 4 3/8 " aft CG. It took just a touch of up stick to fly inverted, I think that it might go back a bit more, maybe to 4 1/2, but I will wait for a smooth day to try to move it back. I liked the way it flew at 4 3/8 and could live with it as is.

When I set my incidence, I had to add 1/32" to the front of the horizontal to bring it to 0 - 0. With my CG where it is, the stab is centered on the fixed middle piece, so things look pretty lined up that way. They are exciting little planes, and fly very well for their size! There was snow in our Mtns, about 6 miles across from where I fly, so that cold front dug down pretty far indeed!
Andy