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Articles of interest for soaring pilots.

Airborne To Be Wild Video Review

     Mystique Kit Review

Airborne To Be Wild Video Review
from Studio B
by George Voss

Airborne to be wild!  The name pretty much tells the story.  Combat footage, vintage aircraft, foamy construction tips, combat maneuvers, they’re all included in Airborne to be wild.  This approx. hour long video by Lex Liberato at Studio B is an excellent intro for someone wanting to see the fun and excitement that is slope soaring.  While Studio B is a manufacturer of slope sailplanes, this is NOT a commercial for their products.  It’s a video about the exciting sport of slope soaring and foamy combat.

The video uses up beat music with little talk to keep the viewer interested.  The first time I saw the video was with my dad.  He doesn’t fly RC, but we were both glued to the set!  Airborne to be wild is both entertaining and educational.  Let’s give a quick rundown of what to expect.

First, there are planes, lots of them.  Alpina’s, Hobie Hawk’s, Taube’s, Sting Wing’s, Zagi’s, Blue Maxes, A-10’s, SR 7’s, P 38’s and Mig 3’s just to name a few.  There are also several ‘own design’ models included.  Want to see a polyhedral model with 10” of wing flex?  How about inverted landings?  Combat action?  How about kick start launches?  A slope triplane?  A flying shark?  They’re all there.

The majority of the video is filmed in beautiful Hawaii.  The video work is extremely good, with the models filling a large portion of the screen most of the time.  This means no “dots on the horizon” as the view point.  Another feature I really enjoyed was the use of slow motion to capture some of the action.  Let’s face it, sometimes things happen so fast in combat that an instant replay is almost a necessity.  Getting to see some of the contact and kills in slow motion makes the video that much more enjoyable.

The first half of the video covers basic slope soaring.  Not in the sense of the ABC’s of slope soaring, just the enjoyment of seeing it done, with some of the above mentioned models.  Lex describes and shows what can happen when a ‘non foamy’ is used in combat.  Unfortunately, a lot of repair work must be done.  This brings us to the foamy revolution, starting with white EPS foamy sailplanes.  The drawbacks led to the use of blue foam.  These ships were much tougher than the white foam variants.  Since the material was stronger, thinner airfoils could be used which brought the speed of the ships up.  Which brings us to today, and the EPP slope combat ships.  Their bouncability is clearly demonstrated in some of the “landing” (if you want to call it that) sequences.

Lex ventures off into the actual assembly of an EPP sailplane.  Although he is using one of the models he manufactures, the principles apply to most any foamy.  He covers types of glues, taping, radio installation, balancing etc.  If you are new to foamy combat, this portion of the tape will give you a basic understanding of how it’s done.  If you are already involved with foamy combat, I’m sure you will still learn something new.

We take a short break from building and get into some basic maneuvers like the loop, roll, how to recover from a hit and so forth.  We then go back to another short section of construction tips.  From there we get to see the world!

Several locations in Hawaii are shown along with slopes in Australia.  Its really neat to see the different types of slopes people get to fly from.  It’s also neat to see the aerobatic capabilities of other flyers.

In closing, I have nothing negative to comment on with the video.  If you must have a complaint, that would have to be that it’s not 2 hours long!  All in all a great video to add to your personal or club library.

NOTE:  At this time, Studio B’s sailplanes are out of production.  Check back with them often to get the latest from them.  They still have the video and many accessories available.  The video is $24.95 plus shipping.

MYSTIQUE KIT REVIEW
by George Voss

The Mystique is the latest sailplane from Bob Martin and the gang at Major Hobby.  Like it’s predisessor the open class Mystery Ship, the Mystique is an all built up balsa/hardwood kit for the 2 Meter class.  The kit contains all laser cut parts, along with the appropriate stick and sheeting material.  The majority of hardware is also included.  The builder will need to supply pushrods and lead shot, along with the normal glues, radio and covering.

I was expecting another excellent kit from Major Hobbys and the Mystique didn’t dissappoint me.  The laser cut parts are impressive even before they are removed from the sheets.  Part fit over all and wood quality was excellent.  Shipment allowed the wingrod to put a large chunk in the nose block and the kit was missing the stab leading edge.  Fortunately the nose block could still be used and the missing leading edge stock was pulled from supplies I had on hand.  These two problems were brought to Major Hobby’s attention and both situations have now been corrected.

The single sheet plans contain all the necessary information needed to construct the Mystique, while the 32 page instruction book provided the required text and CAD drawings to accurately assemble the model.  Again, Bob has chosen to use a grid system to identify locations on the plans, a feature I really like.
 
 

CONSTRUCTION
The fuselage is the first item to assemble.  The laser cut fuselage sides and formers make it quite easy to assemble.  I ran into no problems assembling the basic fuselage.  There was some initial questions about the tabs that extend past the front of the canopy.  These tabs hold the front of the canopy down.  A phone call to Major Hobbies cleared my questions up.  The instructions were clarified as a result of the questions.  Speaking of the canopy, the canopy sits on a ledge that properly aligns the canopy when it’s installed.  This allows the canopy to add to the strength of the assembled sailplane.

The wing rod installation is aided by laser cut triangles to align the rod perpendicular to the fuselage.  This assures a properly aligned wingrod.  Instead of the using the supplied towhook, a Soaring Specialties Adjustable Towhook was installed.  This took a bit of modification, but was greatly appreciated when trying to optimize the launch.

Although vertical fin is simple to build, there are two features that are truely innovative.  First is the laser cut leading edge.  This is a three piece balsa/ply/balsa sandwitch.  The neat thing about it though is that it’s in the shape of an ‘S’, leaving little gluing and sanding.  The second feature is the stab joiner bearing that simply press fits between the fin sheeting.  The rudder is made up of rib and sheeting.  Simple, strong and light.

The stab construction starts with the assembly of the laser cut stab jig.  The jig makes it easy to build a warp free stab.  The stab is built like the rudder except the ribs are laser cut instead of stick stock.  Our kit was missing the 3/16” stab leading edge, and it wasn’t on the part list.  Again, this shortcoming has been fixed by the manufacturer.

Now on to the most time consuming portion of the Mystique, the wings.  The wing is a D-tube style wing with capstrips, giving an open bay look to the finished wing.  There is a tremendous amount of sheeting in the wing.  The sheeting coupled with the wide hard wood spars and sheer webs that extend almost full span, create a very strong wing.  There is nothing unusual about the wing construction and everything fit very well.  Since the trailing edge of the wing tapers to a knife edge, 1/2” of the trailing edge was removed and replaced with a piece of hard wood.  This was then shaped to a knife edge.  This assured that the trailing edge would retain its shape after covering.  If you choose to keep the trailing edge balsa, I’d recommend applying a layer of 3 oz. fiberglass between the top and bottom sheeting to give extra strength to the trailing edge.

FINISH
There is plenty of material in the fuselage so don’t be afraid to sand!  I recommend starting with a razor plane and then progressing through several grits of sandpaper.  It is most important to remove as much material behind the wing as possible.  You won’t have to worry about the strength of the fuselage, even after sanding agressivly there is still plenty of material left for strength.  The fin, rudder and stab should also be agressively sanded, again to keep additional nose weight to a minimum.

The flying surfaces were covered with Ultracote and the fuselage was painted with K&B epoxy.  A lighter choice would have been to cover the fuselage with Ultracote, but I definately like the durability of the K&B.

Radio installation consisted of Airtronics equipment.  I intended on using 94141 servos for all surfaces, but they were just a bit too thick for the ailerons.  HS 80’s from Hitec were used in that location.  There is plenty of room for the servos in the fuselage, but the Rx can be a bit of a squeeze.  Several ounces of lead shot were added to the nose to achieve a CG that was in the middle of the range shown.

FLYING

After the usual photos we were ready for the winch.  The first launch was made without any positive flap.  Even though, the plane went right up the line.  The first flight was spent making minor adjustments to the trims, along with checking the flap-elevator compensation.

The second launch on the sport winch used about 1/4” of positive flap.  This made a tremendous amount of difference in the launch height.  Like it’s larger brother, the Mystique likes to move around the sky.  If you try to fly it too slow, it can become a real dog.  This is typical of the 7037 airfoil.  Keep the speed up though and it thermals great and has excellent range for a 2 Meter ship.  Landing the Mystique is easy since the large flaps bring an abrupt halt to the flying.  This will make it easy to hit the spot for 100 point landings.  1/4” flap-elevator compensation keeps the Mystique from ballooning during flap deployment.

Those of us that have flown the Mystique all disagree about the optimum CG.  The reason for this has to do with the experience level of the pilot.  I prefered a farther aft CG while several of the other pilots liked a farther forward CG.  The great thing is that the Mystique can be set up to make first time aileron pilots and experts happy.

CONCLUSION

Throughout this review several minor shortcomings were noted.  These were brought to the manufacturers attention and have been corrected.  That has a lot to say about a manufacturer!  Bob is concerned with putting out a top quality product and he has succeeded with the Mystique.  Part fit is top notch and the flying capibilities are only limited by the pilot.  The 2 Meter Mystique would make an outstanding sailplane to add to your quiver.