Phoenix 2000 sloper mods

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.

Sloping along the sand

Sloping from the dune