F3RES balsa/carbon glider

[danskis]

Yellow Jacket 2M Competition-F3RES – Sonoran Laser Art

I'm slowly working my way through this kit. It's an F3RudderElevatorSpoiler glider with a 2 meter wingspan that's launched with a high start. It's not an official FAI build yet but it's very popular in the Southwest US and in Europe. Contests are common. The wings come apart and the tails are designed to come off which makes it easy to transport. You can use carbon fiber anywhere in the design except for the front part of the fuselage that houses the "gear". This one has a carbon fibre main spar and a 2mm CF tube for a leading edge. Of course its lazer cut and goes together fairly easily. No jigs or pins required - just weights and clamps to hold down the parts. One of the big proponents of this class of plane is the president of the glider club I'm in so these are common at the field and we've just started "high start Tuesday" where everyone brings out their high start. We usually have 3 going at the same time. These planes are similiar to DLGs in that they will go up on a bunnies fart if you're flying it right. My build below and the build thread on RCGoups.com after that.



RCGroups Build log below

Yellow Jacket GS Build Log - RC Groups

 

[TooJung2Die]

What is the object of the competition? Duration, time goal?

 

[danskis]

@TooJung2Die Good question....I'm a newbie and as you can see my plane isn't quite ready but I'll tell you what I know. The purpose of the spoiler is for spot landings. Since these thing float forever the spoiler really helps. You can gain points by landing close to the center of the circle. There is also a duration requirement. Since its not an official FAI event here are the German rules (its big there) and I believe our club follows these or very similiar.

a)The competitor is entitled to at least four (4) official flights.
b)The competitor is entitled to an unlimited number of attempts during a Flight Window.
c)An official attempt begins when the model leaves the hand of the competitor or his helper under the tension
of the hi-start.
d)The Flight Window is nine (9) minutes long.
e)A normal Flight Task is six (6) minutes long

 

[GliderFlyer]

F3RES is not that popular were I am, but I do love the idea. I also like how relatively inexpensive the models are compared to F5J and all that. Definitely watching this build.

 

[danskis]

Yep...very portable as the wings come apart (scotch taped together at the field), relatively easy to build, 3 servos with a 4 channel receiver, no motor and only a one or two cell battery and a rubber band to get it in the air. Simple.

 

[rockyboy]

Hooray!! A new to me balsa kit maker!! And nice looking gliders too - I've got that 1.5m kit on my "going to buy that next paycheck" list

Taking a while to crawl through that RC groups build thread - thanks for sharing!

 

[danskis]

@GliderFlyer - I probably won't post a lot more here as the build thread is so comprehensive. I will tell you about some of the things that were new to me as I haven't built a balsa, lazer cut kit before. First no pins to hold down the parts. Its recommended you buy a 12"X48" melamine shelf to build the wing on. These shelves are cheap and as flat as you can get - they make a great foundation for building a wing. You start with the trailing edge and use plastic spring loaded clamps to hold the TE down to the shelf - you get them at Harbor Freight. Then you just slide the the ribs on the CF spar and glue the ribs to the TE. All the dihedral angles are pre-built into the wing which makes the wing sections easy to line up. The fuselage is a little tricky and hard to get straight as well as line up at he CF fuselage boom. I had to re-glue the boom to get the angle right and in the process I cracked it. Lots of stress. But a little CA on the boom and its good to go. It turns out that if you choose the optional forward position for the servo tray the included pushrods are too short. I'm going to use a pull string system for the tail. There are no curves so everything glues together pretty much at a 90 degree angle so no balsa bending. The directions leave a little bit to be desired but they are complete. Everything looked pretty simple so I didn't read the directions as well as I should have so I didn't put everything together in the right order. As Greg says over on RCGroups - "Its wood, you can always fix it". So I recommend reading the directions through thoroughly and slowly. The drawings are exact and are great for building on.

 

[danskis]

Not exactly a fast build. Just getting around to covering the Yellow Jacket. In the uncovered wing you can see the various aluminum and carbon rods and tubes used to join the removable end panel from the center panel as well as the carbon fiber leading edge.

 

[danskis]

Well almost there. I think next time it will be easier.

 

[GliderFlyer]

Just purchased the 1.5M electric kit
Can't wait for it to arrive!