This review focus on the Flasher 600 ESP kit from Heliguru.sg. The Flasher 600 ESP kit comes very complete with CF frames , full metal head and tail and torque tube drive. Another Glass Fiber with belt version is also available. The bare bone kit versions are particular suitable for modellers who wish to use their own electronics.
Kit. - The kit comes in a nicely packed box with the components grouped into their respective packaging.
Head Assembly - Pretty much the standard stuff, quality of the metal and finishing is reasonably good. The swash uses sealed bearings.
Frame - Frames follow the newer ESP design and at 2mm thick, are slightly thicker than the standard Align ones. Carbon weave was uniform throughout and well cut out. One thing to note, the metal aileron levelers are the old electric version and not the new ESP version which is slighly slanted at an angle. This should not affect the flying in anyway as the geometry of the linkages remains the same.
Metal holder with CF servo frame for tail servo
Torque Tube Drive - Gears fit well together and torque tube is solid.
Tail assembly - Tail comes all metal with the metal tail pitch slider and metal tail rotor holder. Pitch slider slides smoothly on the tail shaft.
Canopy is the standard lighting yellow fiberglass canopy. Material is solid and paint work is ok.
Issues and conclusion.
The assembly of the kit is fairly standard, the only issue i faced during the assembly was the tail rotor hub needs abit of sanding for the tail rotor shaft to go through smoothly. Other than that, everything fitted well together.Quality and finishing is reasonably good. Will review how it flies after i fit the electronics on it.
Its time of the year again, looks like its almost there, the winds are coming straight through from northeast, once the rain clears, hopefully the slope season will be here. Dust off those gliders, recharge those batts.
Just came back from test flying the Predator 2 DLG. This kit is available from Soaring Composites.
Building
Not so many build pics as I built it stock following the build thread here. Build process was not too hard as the instructions in the build thread was clear. I used HS45hb x4 , 4.8v 300mah rx pack and berg 7 rx. The space in the fuselage was small and it was a tight squeeze to get all the wiring in. I ended up slightly nose heavy and had to add 5 gram lead at the tail to get the CG to 72mm from LE. The boom was cut at 68mm so those using heavy electronics may want to leave a longer boom. AUW was 285g.Flying
I did a few javelin throws to get it trimmed. After adding in few clicks of up elevator, it was gliding like forever. As this was my first DLG, and have not tried DLing before, i had some hesitation discus launching it. Kept doing some more javelin throws till pick up enough guts to just do it. Started with small on the spot discus throws. Slowly got the hang of it and progressed to full discus launches. Was surprised i managed to get quite high launches towards the end as this was my first time doing DLs. Woo hoo it was getting addictive to launch the glider up high. When my TX batt dropped low, i told myself it will be the last launch, but every time i picked up the peg, i just wanted to go at it again!.
Didn't managed to get any good thermals as it was fairly windy and cloudy. The P2 penetrated the wind well and was responsive to any slight draft of wind. It was quite agile in turning and stall characteristics was predictable. It was great first session getting to know the plane, even managed some hand catches towards the end. The only spoiler was that the wing hit a stone on one of the landing. I think it was like the only stone on the field.... duh, some luck. Overall, its a good value first DLG kit, not to difficult to build, good flying characteristics.
Charging my batts now, looking forward to the next session later...
Got back from F3F Typhoon race 2 weeks ago. It was a great trip, eye opener for us and we learn so much from it. More TR updates at the team blog. After we got back, i seem to be a bit lethargic for RC. It seems that its not only me, but the rest of the team members as well.I guess its cos of all the anticipation, excitement, adrenaline flow is now over, we need to recover abit. Well on a personal level, i'm glad i got this trip started and ended with what we set out to do. I hope this will pave the way for future pilots from SG to venture overseas and take part. It showed as long as we put our hearts to it, we can do it even without the proper resources (like a F3F capable slope in Sg)
Time for a break from the slope, another 6 months before the slope season comes at the end of the year. New goals to set, new targets to be achieve.
Some final preparations before going to Korea next week.
Added in the ballast tube for javelin. Ballast will add another 800 grams , with full ballast AUW will be 3.6kg. Packing and made the box to carry the planes.
We did it again, winds came back in April for 3 years in a row now and we managed to have some extra time at the slope. Although the winds are not as strong as in Feb, it was smooth to fly.
I managed to maiden my 3m Javelin before bringing it to korea for the race.
This season was a short one , ended 1,2 weeks after CNY, being able to slope again after 1.5 months was great. If we are lucky we may be able to get 1 or 2 more weeks with flyable wind on some days as past 2 years the wind stop around mid Arp. Hope for the best and the windgods may just give us some time extension again.
One more month to go, we are getting ready for the trip. Here's how the cost like:
Flight tickets : SG to Seoul via Cathay - $580 (with extension in HK on the way back) Seoul to Jeju via Asiana air - $181 Hotel : USD67 (~SGD 102) per room per nite for twin sharing. So each person 6 nites (102 x 6)/2 = $306 Registration and banquet - USD70 ~ SGD $106
580+181+306+106 = $1170 per person, thats excluding meals and other expenditure.
A few of us got together and formed Segar Aeromodelling Club at Zhenghua CC.
The CC has kindly reserved the street soccer court for our funfly. For now due to space constrains we are starting with electric helis, 250/450 size is great. 500 size prob ok for scale flying.
The koreans put up some pics of the competition site.
Flying at the volcano! Flying is possible in every wind direction. View from top looks manificent. Looks like its possible to DS in the middle of the crater as well.
We have been flying slope for a few years now. Our only slope in Singapore is very gentle so the lift is not very strong, it is more suited for thermals. Hence we have been travelling to other parts in nearby regions (Sedili, phuket) to fly in stronger winds condition.
And this year, most of us have graduated into big composites. We luv the size and speed and want to find better conditions to really fly the planes out. It started with a innocent suggestion at sedili, "Hey maybe we can go to hongkong to try out F3F" as they good flyable conditions all year round. Then it so happens there is going to be a regional F3F race coming up in Korea in May. Ho Ho Ho. I decided to just do it, life is too short to think too much, grab hold of a few other crazy enough flying buddies and proposed to them that we send a team there.
After much discussions and persuasions, Team F3F Singapore is formed to take part in the upcoming Typhoon race in Korea. We hope to go there and do our best as well as make friends with fellow slope pilots from the region.
I hope by sharing our experiences here will encourage more fellow slopers to join us on the next trip.
This year's slope season has to be the shortest ever, winds suddenly stopped 3weeks ago and the directions went all haywire. And now it has been raining cats and dogs almost every day. Not just here, everywhere else in the world seems to be experiencing weird weather. Extreme weather weather patterns have hit Australia, USA, UK, China with cyclones, snow and heatwaves , I wonder if all these are due to the global warming.
Most of us have not had enough of sloping yet, although the weather does not look very promising for any more slope flying this season, deep down we hope the winds will come back.
Many a time, we often have to add a lot of lead weights to the front of our gliders to get the correct CG. An alternative and quick method to casting your own lead is to buy fishing weights that are of the correct shape to fit the front of fuselage.
A wide range of shape and sizes are available from fishing shops. One good place to get them locally in Singapore is at Joe's Tackle at Beach road. They come in different shape and sizes. The ball and bullet shape ones will fit our glider fuselage very nicely. Cut away any hooks and use blue tack to stick them in. Fill up the gaps with smaller lead shots.
A group of us slope soaring fanatics went up north to Sedili for some crazy slope fun over the weekend last week. It was located at a resort with steep cliff facing the south china sea, this offers us superb slope lift during the northeast monsoon. Normally we make one or two trips there each season.
Directions
The place we headed to is tanjung sutrera resort. Its about 2 hours drive away from the causeway. After crossing the causeway, get on highway 3 towards kota tinggi, drive towards Mersing. After about an hour or so, turn right when you see the signs towards sedili. Follow the signs towards sedili besar, you will cross a bridge then turn into a plantation. Keep driving till you reach the resort. Packing all 6 glider in the car There is a great eatary famous for its Bak Kut Teh along the way which we normally stop by halfway towards sedili. Was too busy savouring the food, forgot to take photos of the Bak Kut Teh. Bridge towards sedili besar
Resort
The resort itself is a quiet and serene place to relax, it offers chalet like rooms and meals are catered. Most importantly it offers us a great flying site. Only thing to note is the landing can be a bit tricky, there are no proper landing strip and normally we dive into the bushes to land. This may seem scary at first but it becames easier after a few attempts
Landing area Arrestor net Landing 101
Flying
I brought 6 planes along and all of them managed to get flight time. Lift was superb, and got better in the afternoon. Planes could float and fly around faster than our usual slope at bedok.
Beevolution - test plane for wind conditions, combat bee , managed a few hits and got hit landed up on the roof.
Le fish - acro warm up, found it to be way too slow compared to the Voltij.
Miraj - great flyer, big presense in the air, managed to practice some F3F like turns. Luv the way it picks up speed when turning at the corner. With flaps on , it could come in real slow for landing.
Salto - it flew! Didnt flew well at bedok as it had a nasty tip stall habit. It flew much better at sedili, able to go fast, great looks. But during the landing i brought it in abit too slow, and it tip stalled again. Tore one of the wing skin along the spar, tips cracked. Crashed but i m happy it flew like it shld. Will try to get it repaired for the next trip.
Banana - proven sloper, fast.
Voltij - this has to be the best plane for me this trip. Superb acro, fast, knife edge, inverted stall turns, outside loops. I had set it up for 4-axis flying where the throttle stick controls the camber/reflex. Wow what great fun, its like heli flying, i push up and it floats up, go inverted i pull the stick down n it rises inverted. Super cool, i managed to hover and climb up inverted to fairly high. "Portery in motion" as one fellow flyer put it. Simply superb.
Miraj and Voltij. Damage on the salto Plane hanger Flyers enjoying themselves Full flaps diving in to land Our VIP Most of the times we land in hard to reach places in the bushes, Mimi will help us to retrieve them. She is really good at finding planes and retrieving them. Thanks mimi. Doing her stuff Seafood dinner We headed out to the town for a sumptous seafood dinner at night Another great trip, im looking forward to the next one.
