| Type: |
Foam trainer |
| Wingspan:
| 50" |
| Wing Area: |
|
| Airfoil: | Semi symmetrical
|
| Weight: | |
| Construction: |
Blow molded styrofoam |
| Controls: | Aileron, elevator, rudder, throttle |
| Power: | Magnum .25 or O.S. 28 |
|
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Well, it was very cheap (around $20). Kit consists of about 6 large foam parts.
The wing is one giant piece of foam. There's no spar, so you reinforce the wing with fiberglass
strapping tape. Built stock, the plane has no ailerons. I can't figure this out, since it doesn't
seem to have enough dihedral to be flown with just rudder and elevator. It would probably be a disaster
as a trainer in this configuration.
I added ailerons to mine and flew it with a Magnum .25 plain bearing.
Covered with Flite Kote low temp covering, it actually looks pretty nice.
It looks sleeker then any real Cessna. I'd say it bears more resemblance to a Glass Star.
The main modification I made was to add Christmas lights for night flying.
This included two white ones in the leading edge, red and green ones on the left and right wing tips,
amber on top of the tail, and violet on the belly. I also added a glow sticks to the bottom of each
wing (the blue ones seem to show up the best). You definitely want to have lots of lights, since you
will very rarely be able to see more then 3 or 4 at once.
The thing actually flies pretty well. Rolls are decent, and it doesn't seem to have any bad handling
qualities.
I think mine is nose-heavy, since it never seems to break into a true stall, even when I apply full up
elevator at zero throttle. At night, it's very fun to fly. I even managed to do some night time
aerobatics, like loops, rolls, wing-overs and touch-and-goes
It's last mission was to haul a video camera and transmitter in the air. The camera system wasn't ready, so I tested it out by strapping 16 oz of dead weight to the top of the wing. Despite the fact that I had changed the .25 out for my OS .28
the plane could not muster enough speed to rotate and get airborne. After 3 abortive take offs, I gave up. It is now in semi-retirement.
A fun "disposable" airplane.
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