The mgasa chat on a RE 2 metre postals for 2010, maybe (just maybe) bolstered with launch height limit e power, plus the need for Drakensberg holiday play plane, sparked Mark Phillips to cobble this interesting looking 2 metre together.
A Baker Rascal fuselage mated to a Baker Impulse(?) two metre wing provided the base for a completely home brew pylon fashioned out of foam, resin and glass cloth. Power was provided from an ancient Dualsky 400 brushless and a Rhino 1250 pack from a Witblitz racer.
To say this writer was somewhat dubious pre the sunrise launch would be an understatement....... Even the builder was moved to say a test was a must before applying the cosmetic finishes to the model.
Ir was decided to hand launch to trim and the plane flew out of launcher Mark's hand true as a die and kept going and kept more going, so the throttle was tickled on and eventually opened wide open in to a true off the drawing board first flight. The Dualsky 400 easily prodded the plane up to a thumb suck "launch" height in well under 30 seconds, much to the pilot's surprise.
The plane flew amazingly well and covered sky most efficiently. There was an ever so slight initial nose down pitch if the throttle was poked open, probably a nice feature from a launch stability aspect.
Landing revealed that thread lock was a needed as the motor mounting screws were coming loose - unfortunately something that could not be resolved on the field and the day was called after a couple more test flights.
I had always regarded pylon mount as iffy but this result on a real cheapie power option really impressed and is an obvious improvement on nose mounts for spot landings - definite food for thought.....
No comments:
Post a Comment