Conference vmszoo::rc

    I saw a Solo 1 last summer at a field while visiting my in-laws
    in Mich. Unfortunately I don't remember what the fellow had for
    a power plant. What I do remember very clearly is watching this
    fellow's instructor guide the plane at full throttle the entire
    length of the field. At the end of the field was a ditch with a
    slight lip. The plane hit the lip and staggered into the air. Once
    airborne it seemed to fly well. Never forget how when the plane
    was half way across the field the owner started saying "Its not
    going to make it" each time with a little more worry in his voice.
    All the time his instructor is saying "Don't worry. No problem".
                     
    They ended up taking the landing gear off to save some weight and
    hand launching for the rest of the day. The plane did handle the
    abuse and flew ok. If this is your pick then I'd suggest keeping
    a real close eye on the weight or else make sure you have a ditch
    lip to launch from. 8^)
    
    Dan Eaton

    Joel,
    
    Being somewhat of a novice myself, I was recently looking around
    for a good durable trainer to get me through the "hard times"! 
    After destroying a beautiful Eagle 63 with my instructor by my side
    (poor guy took it harder than I did, almost cried) I bought a
    Duraplane.              
    
    My Duraplane flys well with an O.S. FP but with a 30 You could probably
    fly through brick walls!  If you're tired of demolishing hard work
    try the Duraplane, they aren't kidding!
    
    Good luck!
    
    Scott
    

    RE: NOTE .2
    
    SCOTT,
    
      HOW DID YOU DEMOLISH YOUR EAGLE?? I'M GETTING
    READY TO LEARN ON MY EAGLE 63. IT'S A REAL NICE
    PLANE. HOPE IT FLYS AS WELL AS IT WAS EASY TO BUILD!
    
                               		TOM

    Scott,
    
    My condolances on the early demise of the Eagle. I went down to
    the local kit pusher last night and opened the box for the duraplane.
    A member of my club told me to avoid it because of poor flight 
    characteristics. "Boy -- What a piece of junk!!!!" The foam wing
    was misshapen, small and real flimsey. The other plane they showed
    me was a EZ box 20. That looked nice but for the $110 they wanted
    for it it did seem a little small. The larger EZ BOX was also
    ovewrpriced at 160. I got home and called Tower and ordered my
    Solo I with the extra aileron wing and a new conquest to go with
    it. I'll report back in a few weeks and let y ou know if I still
    feel good about my decision.

    Tom,
    
    I think I'm one of the few people alive that has destroyed an Eagle
    but the circumstances were unusual:  At Goddard we fly from a field
    on the Antenna Test Range.  About 15 degrees and 500 ft. from the
    end of runway 27 there is an 80 ft. antenna test tower built of
    aluminum pipe and big enough to support a 20 x 20 ft. control tower
    about 60 ft. from the ground.  This sucker is BIG!  Well, being
     a little squirrelly with  the Eagle (it was to have been my first
    solo landing after a few successful approaches), everything was
    fine until the tower decided to jump out in front of me and eat
    my airplane!  The best way to describe it was to imagine what an
    Eagle would look like if it were crammed through a 4 in. pipe! 
    Luckily all of the expensive bits, engine, receiver, etc. were salvaged
    but the airframe was beyond repair.
    
    Good news though!  Last week I won 1st place in iron-on film with
    my new Eagle covered with Black Baron film.  This Saturday is it's
    maiden flight.  Wish me luck!
    
    One to beam up!
    
    Scott

    Tower delivered my new Solo I yesterday alon with a new conquest.
    Seems like Christmas all over again. Upon opening the boxes (I ordered
    the additional aileron wing) I was taken aback at how few pieces
    there were always having built kits before. The fuse is made from
    a moulded plastic that seems light enough but very strong.
    
    I spent 3 hours last night and completed the engine mounting, cowl
    mounting, pushrod placement, and servo tray and servo installation.
    The instructions are clear enough, especially if you have built
    at least one plane before. Everything fits like a glove and they
    have some parts developed to make things easy.
    
    About the only thing I do not like at the moment is the small radio
    compartment. Between the 8 oz. round tank and the servo tray holding
    3 standards in a 2 + 1 configuration, I barely have room for the
    reciever and battery pack. I guess I could have mounted the tray
    back further but I followed the instructions and mounted it over
    the landing gear bolts. As it is the cable pushrod they supplied
    was too short to go from the throttle to the servo arm. Just having
    completed a SIG Kadet Mark II which has all the room in the world,
    I guess I am in culture shock.
    
    Next steps are to finish the radio, add decals to the fuse, mount
    the stab and fin, connect the pushrods to the tail surfaces, join
    the wing halves, and balance and then I'm off. The box says that
    an experienced builder can complete it in 3-4 hours. More
    realistically, I'd say 8-10 .
    
    Hope to have a report on the rest of the assembly and some words
    about a sucessful maiden flight by monday. 

    This reply covers completion of the Solo I and a report on its maiden
    voyage.
    
    The rest of the Solo went together as easily as the first session
    and was completed on the 2nd evening of work. There are some hitches
    that should be mentioned in the assembly.
    
    1- The power plant should be mounted farther foward on the mount
    as I had to do some minor surgery to the cowl to accomodate the
    spinner and to balance the plane required 6 oz. of lead in the nose
    which could have been cut down by a more forward engine.
    
    2- The directions call for a side mounted servo in the wing. They
    provide two posts and direct to angle the servo towrds the aileron
    horns. They say that this provides a lower profile and a stronger
    wing because there is less cut out (only 2 1/4 " holes required
    for the posts). The problem is that the side mount style interfered
    with the side of the fuse. This also was corrected with minor surgery.
    
    3- For those that like a little foreshadowing- The wing is joined
    with one spar. It is made from plastic and shaped in a U. It contains
    the dihedral and is insered using epoxy about 9" in each sid of
    the wing. Epoxy is also put on the foam at the joint. The joint
    is then wrapped with a black adhesive backed paper tape (provided).
    There is no hint of reinforcing anything or a need to do so.
    
    
    The final adjustments were made on Saturday, day 3. The plane looked
    great and checked out ready to fly.
    
    MAIDEN VOYAGE
    
    Sunday was clear and crisp with a stiff wind saying "novice I dare
    you". After waiting most of the afternoon for it to calm down, my
    instructor (who had been flying all afternoon) said he would take
    it up to trim it out and pass judgement on flight quality. The Enya
    30 seemed more than sufficient to pull it off the grass and shortly
    thereafter, my instructor had it trimmed and flying straight and
    level. He made several passes and everything was going fine. The
    box was passed to me and still eveyting was great. I did find it
    more tippy than the Mark II having less dihedral but I was doing
    fine UNTIL a sharp gust and a little too much aileron pushed me
    over. NOT TO WORRY -  my instructor had me up high and I passed
    the box back quicksy to his experience thumbs. Without a concern,
    he started to gain control and then SNAP - the wing folded and the
    right side drifted on way while the rest of the plane headed straight
    down.
    
    The post mortem was both good and bad. Not a scratch or dent in
    the fuse - the motor was still solidly mounted and although it went
    in nose first, the only damage to the front was the spinner. The
    servo tray was just slightly off due to the servo tray breaking
    on one corner. Pushrods remained connected to broken horn and servo
    connectors. I did lose the tail feathers but they are easily repaired.
    
    The bad news is that the wing snapped right down the center joint.
    The spar was cleanly cracked and the foam joint separated jagged
    indicating that the epoxy held but the stress on the spar caused
    the fall. I have a second wing for it and I am going to join this
    one using several 1/4" dowels and brace the kit supplied spar with
    a dowel inside the U.
    
    All-in-all I have mixed emotions. I am going to give a call to Aristo
   Flight and see what they say. Perhaps the thing to do is use the
    indestructable fuse with balsa built up wing form another source
    and do the same for the tailfeathers.
    
    Comments and suggestions PLEASE
    
    Joel

>    Comments and suggestions PLEASE
>    
>    Joel

1.  I was wondering how long it would be before somebody reported 
    damage while flying this last (Very windy) weekend.  I've lost
    and damaged more planes because I flew in windy conditions than
    any other reason (and I'm terrible at landings).

2.  I haven't seen an ARF yet that seems to make a good trainer.
    There are several "Laser" style ARFs that cost approx $300 that
    experts have been having good luck with.  

3.  You did the right thing having an instructor flying.

4.  You're lucky that the crash didn't take out your engine and radio.
    Consider that God's way of warning you to put your Enya and radio
    in something more deserving.

5.  Ever notice how slowly the ARF actually go together?  I think it
    means "Almost Ridiculous Frustration".

I'm not an expert Joel - but when you go to the field and see planes
that have had 100 plus flights on them - they are not ARFs.

I think you can go to your local hobby shop and get a PT40, Falcon 56,
or any other common all balsa trainer and get it together nearly as fast
as repairing the plastic plane and get a lot more return on your invested
hours.

              _!_      
Bye        ----O----   
Kay R. Fisher / \     

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    Joel, Did the center section tape rip or did it seperate from the
    wing covering. I would opt to use fiberglass and resin or epoxy
    to reenforce the center section of the new wing. You can the paint
    the epoxied area with Poly U and it should be a lot stronger and
    look ok.
    
    I would't use the stock tail feathers. I would make sheet balsa
    replacements and the cover them with some shrink covering.
    
    
    						Tom

    I had a flightcraft Arrow II for a couple of years (still have it)
    and I beat the **it out of it without ever folding the wing.  I
    did induce some creases in the covering due to overstress in a crash.
    You MUST glass the center section of this kind of wing to prevent
    failure.  I am surprised that the kit did not recommend this.  The
    Arrow kit suggested it, but did not say it was required.  The wing
    construction was identical to yours with a single plastic spar in
    foam.  I glassed a six inch section in the center before applying
    the plastic protective covering.  DO THIS WITH YOUR SECOND WING.
    If you do this, the wing will not fold up.  You must use epoxy to
    attach the glass as polyester will eat the foam for lunch.  I got
    hundreds of flights on my Arrow before retiring it.  I destroyed
    the fuse in a mid-air last year, but the wing survived after patching
    it.  A new fuse was cheap, so I did fix it and fly it some more.
    It really did not fly that well because of excess weight, but it
    was a good plane in the wind.  I would recommend that you build
    a better plane while you are flying the Solo.
    
    Charlie