Here is a full house setup for my Phoenix 2000, Taranis QX7, OpenTX 2.2.4 2019-07-12
Full span and normal ailerons
Crow braking with Elevator compensation
Full span camber adjustment
Connections
Ch1 Aileron Left
Ch2 Aileron Right
Ch3 Throttle
Ch4 Elelvator
Ch5 Rudder
Ch6 Flap Left
Ch7 Flap Right
Note that I have modded my Taranis QX7 to use the S1 knob as a left side slider, and swapped the momentary switch to the left side.
Mixes
> S1 operates Flaps down to the middle indent, then Crow braking from the middle to full down.
> Elevator compensation is set at zero weight and should be adjusted as required (My P2K pitches up with Crow activated so I needed -15% weight)
> SC up gives normal ailerons, then "not up" activates full span ailerons (and increased adverse yaw)
> SB adds full span camber in two steps
> SF up is the throttle cut
The 2m Hobby King Phoenix 2000 was designed to be a motor thermal glider, but it works very well as a motor-less slope soarer.
Soren from Denmark, speedsterDEN on YouTube, has some amazing videos of sloping and dynamic soaring with this very cheap glider.
Slope soaring is fairly rough on foam gliders due to the rough and often uncontrolled landings.
The Phoenix has a tough plastic fuselage which is perfect for the job. However the wing and tail need some strengthening mods to help keep it in one piece.
My flap control horns pulled through the foam after a few flights so I added ID card plastic reinforcing to spread the load.
The wing is supplied with bolts and plastic caps to secure to the fuselage. These tore through the thin foam around the rear mounting bolt after a few rough slope landings. I decided to change to a rubber band tie-down mounting method for more durability. The wings were glued and taped together permanently.
I drilled 5mm holes in the fuselage to fit the CF tie-down rods. No reinforcing in this area is needed. The rods are held in place with hot glue.
Here is the wing securely held in place with rubber bands.
Below are videos explaining these mods and showing some flights.
The design for this lightweight aerobatic slope soarer was inspired by DLGs or discus launch gliders.
It will work in anything over 5kn on a decent slope and in 10kn it will work on any slope.
The rudder and elevator are operated by a pull line acting against a torsion spring.
This unique system means the servos can be forward in the fuselage and there are no pushrods going to the tail.
The trick is to make a torsion spring strong enough to operate the control surface against the airflow
but not so strong as to overpower the servo.
The 0.4mm SS wire provided as pushrods for the Versus DLG turns out to be perfect.
UPDATE March 2015: On really hot days the rudder and elevator servos have moved out of position as the glue softened. I have added more foam packing and glue to fix them securely. The trailing edge of the wing has also popped open twice. I removed the ailerons, re-glued then taped the join, then reattached the ailerons. In the original build, by cutting out the ailerons from the wing, I removed too much of the glue holding that join.
This twin boom pusher is similar to the 1.3m Depron Spectre, however it has a straight 1.65m (65") x 190mm depron Armin wing and twin rudders.
1.3m Depron Spectre and 1.65m Twin Boom pusher
Initially it was designed it as a 1.8m light-wind slope soarer but didn't perform as well as I wanted. The longer tail booms and larger wing span made it too flexy and delicate. I was also comparing the performance to a motorless Phoenix 2000, which is a sensational sloper.
Shortened tail booms and wingspan stiffened up the airframe nicely and the addition of a motor fuselage turned it into an excellent FPV cruiser and medium wind FPV sloper. It tracks well in a straight line and has a decent glide angle but is quite agile like the Spectre.
Instead of using packing tape to cover the depron I used document laminating film, often referred to as New Stuff in the RC world. It is ironed on with a warm iron before bending the airfoil and fuselage, and works very well. It's tougher and easier to apply than packing tape.
Additional strengthening ...
6x1mm CF strip glued along the front of the elevator.
Heat bent UPVC brackets for the rudder to elevator joins.
I used twin rudder servos rather than one servo and a long vulnerable connecting pushrod between the rudders. Full length wing spar made from 2 Skyshark P4X spars joined with an internal CF rod joiner and epoxy.
Everyone has heard about the 2m Radian. It's a very simple no-aileron motor glider with graceful curved up wings and has fantastic thermalling abilities.
For A$200 the "Plug and Play" version comes with a good quality motor and servos fitted and not a lot of assembly required. Add your own receiver, battery and transmitter.
I bought mine from RCWorld in Geelong. They have all the spares too.
Like all planes there are a few issues to be sorted out before flying. It is very light and flexy, especially in the tail area, and some of the fittings are inadequate. Most owners carry out strengthening mods and Paul Naton, well known glider tutorial DVD producer, has published a mod video which is essential viewing. Paul Naton's Radian mod video Essential mods needed before the first flight
Pathetic plastic clevis connectors
The pin on mine broke just trying to clip on to the control horn the very first time! What were Parkzone thinking? These ridiculously weak plastic clevis connectors are just wrong. May be OK for a tiny indoor foamie but not a 2m thermal glider.
I couldn't find another connector to fit the pushrod thread so decided to beef up the existing one with a piano wire pin. Just needed to carefully drill holes in the cheeks using a piece of the wire as a drill bit. Tight fitting shrink wrap (not shrunk) keeps the pin in place and connector cheeks pulled in.
Staples into foam?
What is the purpose of these staples? They were straddling the pushrods where some sort of fixing structure should have been. I pulled them out, they were already floating loose, and threw them away because they offended me!
My solution was to use tough clear gaffer tape to fix the pushrods securely to the fuselage leading into the rudder and elevator.
Missing canopy magnet
The canopy is held in place by magnets front and rear. Unfortunately one of the fuselage magnets was missing. Luckily I had a replacement in my spares box and I glued it in with gorilla glue.
Changed ESC connector
The Parkzone ESC comes with an unfamiliar (to me) blue connector, to match Parkzone batteries I guess. All my LiPos have XT60 connectors so a little soldering was required to swap the ESC to XT60.
Receiver bay surgery
The receiver bay is made for a small Spektrum Rx but all I had was a bulky 8ch Turnigy Rx. All I had to do was cut out a little mound of foam to make it fit.
After those easy repairs/mods it was airworthy and ready for the maiden flight. The day was windier than ideal but the Radian performed superbly. No thermalling on the first day but on subsequent days I climbed to frightening heights, lots to learn.
I had previously checked the range of my Turnigy 9X transmitter with a 6ch Hobby King receiver. I got more than 800m at low altitude flying along coastal dunes. The highest I have had the Radian is 300m, and I wouldn't want to go too much higher at this stage, so it would have no problems with signal strength. At 800m the glider would not be visible anyway.
Optional performance mods - (inspired by Paul Naton)
Elevator control horn placement
The control horn was relocated inwards about 12mm to give the pushrod a straighter run. The control horn base was shaved off where it now overhangs the elevator. Elevator was stiffened along it's span using 12k carbon tow and epoxy.
Elevator hinge was taped both sides with clear packing tape for durability. Moulded foam hinges will fail eventually, they are not designed to last. Fixed the horizontal stab in its slot with clear gaffer tape both sides, above and below.
Fuselage stiffening
Added 3 strands of 12k carbon tow along the bottom of the fuselage boom to reduce tail flex. I covered that with clear packing tape for smoothness.
Wing slot top strengthening
I added 3 strands of 12k carbon tow over the top of the wing slot because this area is quite thin and prone to failure.
Wing leading edge tape
After a few flights I noticed that the leading edge was becoming dented and scratched so I added clear packing tape back to 50mm from the LE top and bottom
Wing retaining velcro / magnets
There are many horror stories on the forums about wings falling out in flight. They are very weakly held in with friction and slightly keyed foam blocks that do nothing at all.
Initially I used sticky back velcro on all the meeting surfaces of the two wing halves but that pushed the wings apart by almost 1cm. My current solution is magnets glued to 40mm dowel inserts. These are quite securely glued into the wing roots with epoxy also strengthening that area nicely.
Rudder root strengthening
To stiffen the area at the base of the rudder I cut a slot and glued in a 6x1mm carbon strip pushing it right down into the foam of the fuselage.
Decalage mod
All of these stiffening mods add a little tail weight moving the CG rearward. This is actually a good thing according to the experts. The stock CG of 70mm is too far forward requiring up elevator to fly level. The Radian is designed with lots of horizontal stabiliser decalage angle as seen below and performance can be improved by moving the CG back and reducing the decalage angle. Well that's the much-debated theory anyway.
I tried the decalage mod by slicing out the foam wedge (marked below) and repositioning the horizontal stab. At this early stage of my thermal gliding journey it felt like too much and I couldn't get it to fly smoothly. So I have gone halfway back. Seems like a good compromise now with my CG at 78mm or 3".
Painted bottom surface of the wing
For visibility and orientation. This glider starts to be difficult to see higher than 300m. Solid black seems to be the most visible colour at that distance.
Radian videos
Trying different camera mounting spots
Thermal flight in Google Earth, recorded with a GPS watch
Slope Soaring
and finally Stormy loves the box so all is good.
UPDATE: I left customer feedback on the Horizon Hobby site about the broken clevis connector and missing magnet and they sent me replacement pushrods and canopy, posted in two separate parcels from US to Australia. Now that is awesome customer service.
Here's a demo video covering how I add dihedral to a depron Armin wing.
I show how to bend a 200mm length of ali tube to set the dihedral angle and hold the spars.
This video also shows my swappable motor mount for the Red Sloper and other construction tips.
Here's a slope soaring video showing how the dihedral makes the Red Sloper into a smooth and relaxing glider while slightly reducing the aerobatic capability.
I have never tried a 3 channel rudder elevator throttle plane so thought I'd give it a go using the orange slim wing and pusher fuselage.
RET planes need some wing dihedral to enable turns due to the lack of ailerons.
I fixed the ailerons in place and removed the servos. This simplifies the plane greatly, the wing is just a wing, no servos or wires, apart from rudder and elevator.
The CF spar was removed and a bent 200mm x 10mm diam ali tube inserted to set the dihedral. The wing extensions were hot glued in place at the desired polyhedral angle. The wing seems to be strong enough without a CF spar.
I increased the rudder area, but after the maiden reduced the throws for smoother control.
The 1500mm x 200mm wing and flying weight of 630g gives a wing loading of about 21 g/sq dm (7oz/sq ft) which is great for gliding and slow flying.
This plane is a delight to fly, so slow and steady. If I had started with something like this the learning process would have been much quicker. I can trim it to fly hands off in big lazy circles and it takes care of itself.
Before the Red Sloper came this 2m wingspan sloper. It actually started life as a motor glider but a dodgy ESC connector stopped that project from being fully realised. I'll revisit it soon.
I call this one the Albatross for obvious reasons.
The orange plane is the pusher trainer with a 1.5m polyhedral no-aileron wing adapted from the slim wing. I'll post about that one when we get a nice calm day to do a proper maiden.
The depron I use comes in 1000mm x 700mm sheets so I can make the 2m wing in 2 halves.
I used 3 Skyshark spars all up, 2 joined with a 10mm x 150mm ali tube for the main spar and another spanning the join closer to the leading edge. The spar layout is visible in this shot of the wing on an earlier version of the fuselage.
The wing has full span ailerons operated by TGY 9018MG metal gear micro servos. Total chord is 200mm including the 35mm ailerons. That gives a 10:1 aspect ratio.
I suspect 40 to 45mm ailerons would have been better to give a faster roll rate for some aerobatics but they are fine for smooth cruising.
Airfoil thickness is 23mm, formed by using a 3mm strip of depron over the main spar, giving an 11.5% airfoil.
The tail is just a little scaled up from the Red Sloper but basically the same shape.
Horizonal stab is 460mm wide x 90mm deep tapered to 70mm at the ends plus a 50mm elevator.
Vertical stab is 220mm high x 130mm at the base tapered to 60mm at the top plus a 50mm rudder.
Elevator servo, hidden inside the fuselage, is a TGY 9018MG and rudder servo is HXT 900.
Fuselage is a 1000mm long x 70mm square tube tapered towards both ends for looks, weight saving and aerodynamics.
Weight is 650g without battery and balance weights and 830g flying weight.
The big wing makes for an excellent light wind slope soarer which also works well in strong winds. It's smooth and languid in the air, not so aerobatic, but a delight to cruise along the ridge.
UPDATE: I made the nose removable so I could swap to a motor pod. Just have to pull off the tape around the join and re-tape the motor pod on. The motor glider version is 730g without battery and 925g flying weight.
It took some decalage adjustment to smooth out the tendency to loop up under power. I needed to tilt the wing forward by sticking about 8mm of packing under the rear mounting area. Then it tracked level and glided much better.
It's basically an Experimental Airlines Armin wing with a few tweaks for the 6mm paperless foamboard and a nicely shaped airfoil. I'll mainly cover the steps that differ from Ed's instructions so check out his superior videos for more in-depth coverage.
This wing will be 1500mm (59") wingspan made from two 750mm (29 1/2") halves, joined with a 7.6mm Skyshark P4X wrapped carbon fibre tube spar.
Airfoil section design
% thickness
I wanted a speedy slope soarer so Max thickness will be a slim 10% of total chord.
Using the information from my previous tests:
No extra former on top of the spar = 19mm thick airfoil, so a total chord of 190mm gives a 10% section.
3mm former on top of the spar = 23mm thick airfoil, so a total chord of 230mm gives a 10% section.
6mm former on top of the spar = 26mm thick airfoil, so a total chord of 260mm gives a 10% section.
For this wing I decided on the narrowest option - 19mm thick x 190mm chord section.
Max thickness location
30% back from the leading edge is what I'm aiming for and ailerons are included in the total chord measurement. 30% of 190mm = 57mm, so the spar will be positioned 57mm back from the leading edge.
Aileron size
40mm ailerons give sufficient stiffness and some aerobatic performance so now we have the overall airfoil dimensions.
Total chord = 190mm with a 150mm main airfoil and 40mm ailerons. Thats roughly a 6" main wing section with 1.5" ailerons giving 7.5" total chord.
Wing build
For this 190mm chord airfoil we need 150mm for the bottom surface, 150mm for the top surface, 40mm for the ailerons PLUS 10mm extra for the leading edge bend. That gives 150 + 150 + 40 + 10 = 350mm
Cut out the wing panels - two 350mm x 750mm rectangles
Cover one side with packing tape and use a plastic gift card edge to smooth it down. Watch Ed's tape covering video for complete instructions.
Mark the leading edge fold line 150mm in from one of the long edges.
Draw a line 25mm in from the same edge for the bottom layer bevel.
Draw a line along the edge 2mm up from the taped surface. The idea is to leave a bit of thickness here so that the sub-trailing edge ends up 8mm thick. This allows the ailerons to form part of the overall airfoil shape.
Slice and sand the bevel back to the marked lines.
The finished bevel with 2mm thickness left at the sub-trailing edge.
Make a dent along the leading edge fold line. I'm using my specially designed tool, a rounded off piece of 10mm dowell. I want a reasonably sharp leading edge so I'm making a deepish dent here, maybe 3/4 of the way through. This is the only dent I make, the slimmer airfoil section means the depron doesn't have to curve too much over the top, so kinking is not a problem.
Clamp down a stiff ruler at the fold line and, using another full length piece of something stiff, bend the depron up to 90 degrees.
Remove the ruler and bend the depron right over, squashing down hard on the leading edge.
Mark the spar position. 30% back from the leading edge is 57mm for this wing.
Position the spar and formers and mark the positions. The formers are 20mm wide and only one layer with nothing on top of the spar for this wing.
Glue the formers to the bottom layer then apply glue along the top.
Fold the top layer over and hold down to set with a long stiff ruler.
Depending on how hard you push down, more or less bottom curve will be formed. For a flat bottomed wing push down hard on the leading and trailing edges. For a more symmetrical airfoil you can let the leading edge curve up a little. As there is no paper to stiffen the bottom layer, depron naturally tends to produce some bottom curve.
Squirt glue into the sub-trailing edge join and clamp down to set. Again you can decide how much bottom curve you want by holding it down flat or letting it lift up a bit.
To finish the ailerons score down the sub-trailing edge but dont go right through to the tape.
Crack the aileron hinge free over a straight edge then slice off a 45 degree bevel and sand smooth to allow the aileron to swing down.
Slice off the aileron trailing edge bevel and sand smooth. I draw a line 20mm in and bevel back to that and all the way down to the tape on the trailing edge.
Here's it is just about done. See how the aileron forms part of the overall airfoil shape, very nice.
Add more tape to form the aileron hinge and make a sharp trailing edge. Check out Ed's Kissing tape technique for more detail.
To finish the wing completely, tape over the open outer ends, fit servos and control horns then tape the two halves together. As this wing has a curved bottom it may not sit flat on the fuselage. Some packing under the leading and trailing edges may be needed to hold it level.
Tape on two icypole sticks where the rubber bands pass over the wing edges.
I'll make another fuselage to match this wing but this one will do for the moment.
Connections
Mixes
