Swoop. 1.2m aerobatic slope soarer

After having a brief go with a dreamflight Ahi, and liking it, i thought would it be possible to design something with similar flight characteristics out of balsa? This is my first attempt, its all built now just need to cover and chuck it off a slope. Another motivation was maybe to sell a few kits, so hopefully it flies well enough to put it into production.

Anyway this is it so far. Its mainly 3/32 laser cut balsa. Bit of 1/4" for the tail.

Its light at the moment at 137g, so is probably going to come in under the targeted 350g

Can of Stella for size reference! Its 1.2m span

Beautiful Dan - clearly a candidate for transparent film

Dan that is gorgeous, up to your usual standard and you can see the Dan DNA in it. Looking forward to the flight reports.

Cheers guys, yes it will be covered in transparent, be a shame to cover it up!

Im waiting on servos for it, so maybe next weekend it will be ready, then i'll need to find a good slope!

Looks good. I would like one. Any idea what the kit cost would be if it goes into production?

Malcolm

Or stick a motor in its snout. No hills here on the Norfolk / Suffolk border

Malcolm, i'm not entirely sure yet as i've already got a list of modifications to make, for ease of build and for rigidity. So not sure yet how much wood and laser cut time there will be for the final version. What i was looking to offer though was a full wood kit, ie more than a short kit so it has all the wood you would need to build it and leave the buyer to provide hardware, electronics etc

Ron, maybe a powered version will come shortly after. Depends how easy it is to strap a motor on and make it look pretty at the same time!!

Dan

Few coats of halfords spray cans before covering with clear oracover...

A novel idea Dan! Really interested to see how that works out with clear Oracover! Be interesting to use the same technique on decorating an all sheet structure - like an F3A model!

Now that is clever as it will give a 3D effect due to the colours going into the structure.

Edited By Ron Gray on 27/06/2020 13:56:48

Looks great Dan, following with interest

Edited By David Ashby - Moderator on 08/07/2020 05:59:25

Looks promising

Looks great with the painted balsa & clear oracover, although my slope experience tells me that the vegetation on some slopes can be a bit course and can make little rips & tears in thin coverings, (not all slopes have long, lush grass), so for me I'd be tempted to cover the wings at least with a very thin lam film.

Very nice Dan.

How did you do the rib alignment in the wing? They're all at different angles, is it a self jigging sort of structure?

Steve, i used oracover lite which was great to use, it will probably get a tear here and there but being clear you'll barely see any repairs. Darker colours maybe. I've never used any laminating film, how is that applied?

Nigel, they all push into slots on the leading and trailing edge and on the spar. Once thats on you then add the top and bottom spars, l.e sheeting etc.

Looks impressive - a mix of Ahi, Phase 6 and my old favourite the Limit EX. Stick and underslung fin on and that will DLG even better from the flat; it might help knife edge on the slope too! Fishy fishy fishy…

Edited By MattyB on 08/07/2020 14:05:52

Edited By Steve Houghton 1 on 08/07/2020 15:39:45

Laminating film does shrink! But you need more heat than with covering film. I use 38 micron and it covers solid and built up surfaces really well and is very strong, much stronger than film. The other nice thing with it is if you need a hole for, say a cable, then you can just heat up a piece of wire and push it through. It will melt the hole through the lam.

Shrinking has not been my experience, or if it has then it's not been noticable. Maybe I just don't have my iron set as hot as you. I tend to use a lowish setting, (120° at first to adhere it to the wing, then increase the temperature and go over it again at about 140° C. Maybe I haven't noticed shrinkage as I've only used it on foam wings and not a balsa framework?

Edited By Steve Houghton 1 on 10/07/2020 11:34:35