Mark's aircraft

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selection

My 1st proper slope soarer.
Chosen for its looks and the fact that it is a "wooden" build it yourself thing.
Really a pylon racer, but I use it as a sports model.

construction

Blue foam veneer semi symmetric wings with spruce leading and trailing edges.
Precut circular holes for the wing servos (2x hitec HS60).
Fuselage has ply sides with balsa top and bottom.
I modified various bits, especially the tail, where I used thinner balsa and stretched it a bit.
I also put the control horns for the elevators on top, so that they would be out of the way (of the ground) and I could use just 1 control cable.
I think I slimmed the fuselage a bit, so it was just wide enough for the elevator servo (hitec HS101) and a standard hitec Rx.
Fixed the hatch with a concealed screw instead of the sliding catch.
I put some 1mm ply across the wing join.
Dowel and nylon screw wing fixing.
Nothing under the wing - just space for ballast (although I've never put any in yet).
Special 700mAh pack (also from phoenix) required to go in the rather slim nose.
Still needs a bit of lead in there.
Rewired the wing servos to reach the fuselage down the drinking straw tubes drilled into the wings.
Made my own Y lead for sharing the aileron control across 2 servos.
Covered in the usual red solarfilm with a black hatch.

flight

1st time I tried to fly it (apart from test glides) was early 1999 at Ashes Hollow at the Long Mynd with the wind a bit too far round to the west.
Flew very nicely considering my time away fom the Tx.
Unfortunately, I ended up trying to land it over to the left, managing to get confused about which wing was up and smacked it into the ground nose 1st.
The dowel broke out of the front of the wing, 1 of the wing servos stripped (nylon gears - you can't trust them), the nose got a bit scarred, but otherwise OK.
Since then it has flown several times wih no more crashes.
Recently (Mar 2002) managed some sustained inverted flight off the Pole Cot slope.

A very pretty model.

Still flying now.
The V tail has broken off a couple of times from hard nose in landings, but it is easy enough to glue back on.
I took advantage of the computer Tx to separate the control to the 2 wing servos, providing the option of using the ailerons as full width flaps.
I usually just push both ailerons up a little for landing, which nicely reduces the lift from the semi symmetrical section.

statistics

more photos

1999

Mark at Long Mynd Ashes Hollow, getting ready to fly the stiletto.

The stiletto after a successful flight and soft landing at Long Mynd 1999.

The stiletto after a successful flight and soft landing at Long Mynd 1999.

2000

The zagi and stiletto at the Long Mynd Darnford slope March 2000.

The gliders in the garden 2001 zagi, stiletto, siesta

2001

The 3 gliders siesta, stiletto (upside down to stop it blowing away), zagi on Long Mynd Darnford slope Sept 2001.
Dad has a Santa Claus hat on due to misplacing the other.

2002

The "car park" at Long Mynd Pole Cot Mar 2002.
Peugeot minibus.
The stiletto and siesta ready to go.
siesta wing tips still banded to the centre section for transport to the slope (on the horizon).
zagi still in the car.

Loads of zagis - Lee's (yellow), mine (red), Graham's (blue).
I think dad's (green) is in the air somewhere.
Long Mynd Pole Cot Mar 2002.
That's Lee sitting in front of his zagi.

The stiletto and siesta on a not very windy day at Long Mynd pole cot slope Dec 2002.
The siesta carrying the remains of the camera mounting plate.

2003

The stiletto in the sunshine on pole cott May 2003.
Also my frequency control system.