Any Herr Starlite fans out there?

[hackofalltrades]

I have gotta say, I am a huge fan of them. I built mine from plans many years ago and built it as light as possible. I used a pair of 5 gram cheapo servos from China, a 500 mah 2s lipo, e-flite park 180 brushless motor, 5A esc, CC Berg 4L reciever. I don't think it broke 4 ounces in that form. It was a floaty dream to fly, and it would fly forever. Hangar rash got the best of it and rendered the tail feathers useless, and the wing not far behind. I will be working on the wing and will update y'all. Fast forward 8 or so years and I finally dug the plane out. Servos, motor, ESC, and battery were toast. Rodents had eaten them up. HS55s went in, along with a Park 250, 800 2s, and a 10A ESC. Made a temporary wing and tail feathers out of foam board. So a little beefier this time. Tips the scales at a hefty 6 ounces. Surprisingly, the plane flew better with a little extra beef and power. Cuts wind better and it a joy to fly. Pictures and a possible videos to come.

 

[hackofalltrades]

Update!

I took to repairing the wing today. Heat gun action, plus some twisting got the wing straightened out, and patched some of the covering. Too lazy to get some yellow stuff, so form over function it is for this go around.

First, a warning, closed toed shoes are a good idea around X-Acto blades, especially when one decides to jump ship! Case in point:


Here is a shot of the areas that needed attention plus the finished product.



It flies much better with the built up wing. Tracks nice and straight, and is much lighter. Flies straight up no problem!

 

[Joker 53150]

Nice work keeping it flying! I haven't built any Herr kits, but some day...

 

[hackofalltrades]

Thanks! I have been flying the heck out of it lately. It has sustained a nose dive into the street due to an elevator failure, but I have fully repaired it and it flies wonderfully again. I highly recommend building a Herr model.

 

[eric75]

I have a Herr Scout on display in my house. It is covered in green tinted Reynolds wrap (plastic kitchen film) that is glued on with brush applied super 77. I never had the nerve to wind up the rubber and send it climbing into the breeze. For a long time I have dreamed about building a double scale RC model of one.

 

[hackofalltrades]

I highly encourage you to build a Starlite. They have no bad characteristics, just relaxing, slow, easy flying!