quorneng
Master member
My Lidl RC conversion as a powered glider flies really quite nicely but it does not really look the part with rather chunky wings.
I then saw the Cheetah. A bit smaller (and cheaper at £5.49 free postage!) than the Lidl.
I certainly looks a bit more like a high performance glider but with significantly less wing area could it really be turned into a sub 250 g RC motor glider. Indeed there were comments on some other forums suggesting it would not be a practical proposition.
That immediately attracted my attention so I ordered one and waited for the inevitable slow boat from China.
Well moulded (actually better than the Lidl) with reasonable 4 mm thick trailing edge rather than the 6 mm on the Lidl.
With no reinforcing the wings are pretty flexible a situation not helped by the 'clip together' two piece wing.
Although the control surfaces are marked out in the mouldings everything is completely solid so to fit the RC gear space will have to 'excavated' from the foam.
As the wing is already flexible at its 119 g at anywhere near 250 g flexing could be a real problem and even if reinforced the wing loading would be doubled.
My proposal is to make the Cheetah look even more like a high performance glider by adding a substantial centre section with the existing foam wings as outer panels.
If the centre section added 1/3 more wing area the weight could rise to 170 g (possibly an achievable target) without increasing the wing loading or the bending on the existing foam wings.
So now its just a case of turning a proposal reality.
I might just as well as with the current Corona virus 'lock down' in the UK I can't fly anyway!
I then saw the Cheetah. A bit smaller (and cheaper at £5.49 free postage!) than the Lidl.
I certainly looks a bit more like a high performance glider but with significantly less wing area could it really be turned into a sub 250 g RC motor glider. Indeed there were comments on some other forums suggesting it would not be a practical proposition.
That immediately attracted my attention so I ordered one and waited for the inevitable slow boat from China.
Well moulded (actually better than the Lidl) with reasonable 4 mm thick trailing edge rather than the 6 mm on the Lidl.
With no reinforcing the wings are pretty flexible a situation not helped by the 'clip together' two piece wing.
Although the control surfaces are marked out in the mouldings everything is completely solid so to fit the RC gear space will have to 'excavated' from the foam.
As the wing is already flexible at its 119 g at anywhere near 250 g flexing could be a real problem and even if reinforced the wing loading would be doubled.
My proposal is to make the Cheetah look even more like a high performance glider by adding a substantial centre section with the existing foam wings as outer panels.
If the centre section added 1/3 more wing area the weight could rise to 170 g (possibly an achievable target) without increasing the wing loading or the bending on the existing foam wings.
So now its just a case of turning a proposal reality.
I might just as well as with the current Corona virus 'lock down' in the UK I can't fly anyway!
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