I'm a very excitable person. I'm quite easily led into what appear to be (to me at least) unique and novel directions with my hobbies, for example fly fishing for European carp, or fpv, or south Asian cooking. When I first started flying with glydr, very little of his taste in RC transferred to me. If it was a good day to thermal, I'd thermal with my Bixler (which I still maintain does a pretty good job of it). If it was windy, I'd slope with my Bixler while glydr and others that joined us flew their Beevos and moths and Alulas etc. I never took that strongly to slope soaring. Until I had a session with glydr's Beevo.
Hobbyking had just started selling the Scout Bee and Bee2 under the name 'Wicked Wing'. After a very fun session, I looked at the listings for these two wings and, following some advice from glydr on why bigger isn't necessarily better, I bought the Bee2 (smaller).
The build was pretty straightforward - I used hot glue to join the two pieces, as my ca wouldn't set on the epp. Instead of breaking the long, thin spars, I set them in an arc in roughly the same spot on both sides. The actual build took very little time, but I spent a good 4-5 hours carefully taping it up with the good quality supplied fibreglass, dark purple and bright yellow tape.
The electronics include a 2300mAh 4 cell NiMH receiver pack, two Hitec HS-311 standard servos, an OrangeRX R615 and a 3 plug switch. With these electronics, the cg comes out at about 20.5cm from the tip of the nose - bang in the middle of the recommended cg range (20-21cm). The angle of the control rods is such that, at full throw the horn would twist, so I set throws at 60%. Rolls are axial and there's enough pitch command except when you get in a bad position with the wind on a gusty slope. Unlike the Beevo that glydr owns, the Bee2 came supplied with velcro for the winglets. It seems to do the job just fine.
Flight wise, this is where the plane gets exciting. If there's even the slightest bit of lift, this thing grabs it. With all three flights I've had, there's yet to be a good, steady wind from the ideal direction for the slope I'm on. However, I've run into little trouble that wasn't caused by my inexperience with this type of flying and/or the aircraft. There's very little side-to-side rocking, even at close to stall speed. Going into the lift, or at flying speed, it tracks straight and flies very predictably. Today I was getting some really good lift channels, from which I could dive in at great speed and carry it through to the same height again. There was pretty much no flutter and that wonderful whistle of a glider carving up the air (my 4 year old saying 'listen to that jet noise!').
The slopes that we fly on are littered with many sharp rocks, and if the plane gets behind you without enough speed to punch through often gets slammed into the ground. The combination of compressed EPP and the high quality fibreglass tape makes these wings pretty much unbreakable, and you have to look pretty closely to find any marks on my plane (it's had at least half a dozen less than ideal landings among the rocks).
I'll get some photos in the daylight and hopefully some on the slope to post on here. I say for those wondering why you'd pay $60 for a slab of foam that this is a bargain and a long-term member of any hanger it enters. I'm only really just starting to tap into the world of slope soaring and this is a great vehicle to do it!
Hobbyking had just started selling the Scout Bee and Bee2 under the name 'Wicked Wing'. After a very fun session, I looked at the listings for these two wings and, following some advice from glydr on why bigger isn't necessarily better, I bought the Bee2 (smaller).
The build was pretty straightforward - I used hot glue to join the two pieces, as my ca wouldn't set on the epp. Instead of breaking the long, thin spars, I set them in an arc in roughly the same spot on both sides. The actual build took very little time, but I spent a good 4-5 hours carefully taping it up with the good quality supplied fibreglass, dark purple and bright yellow tape.
The electronics include a 2300mAh 4 cell NiMH receiver pack, two Hitec HS-311 standard servos, an OrangeRX R615 and a 3 plug switch. With these electronics, the cg comes out at about 20.5cm from the tip of the nose - bang in the middle of the recommended cg range (20-21cm). The angle of the control rods is such that, at full throw the horn would twist, so I set throws at 60%. Rolls are axial and there's enough pitch command except when you get in a bad position with the wind on a gusty slope. Unlike the Beevo that glydr owns, the Bee2 came supplied with velcro for the winglets. It seems to do the job just fine.
Flight wise, this is where the plane gets exciting. If there's even the slightest bit of lift, this thing grabs it. With all three flights I've had, there's yet to be a good, steady wind from the ideal direction for the slope I'm on. However, I've run into little trouble that wasn't caused by my inexperience with this type of flying and/or the aircraft. There's very little side-to-side rocking, even at close to stall speed. Going into the lift, or at flying speed, it tracks straight and flies very predictably. Today I was getting some really good lift channels, from which I could dive in at great speed and carry it through to the same height again. There was pretty much no flutter and that wonderful whistle of a glider carving up the air (my 4 year old saying 'listen to that jet noise!').
The slopes that we fly on are littered with many sharp rocks, and if the plane gets behind you without enough speed to punch through often gets slammed into the ground. The combination of compressed EPP and the high quality fibreglass tape makes these wings pretty much unbreakable, and you have to look pretty closely to find any marks on my plane (it's had at least half a dozen less than ideal landings among the rocks).
I'll get some photos in the daylight and hopefully some on the slope to post on here. I say for those wondering why you'd pay $60 for a slab of foam that this is a bargain and a long-term member of any hanger it enters. I'm only really just starting to tap into the world of slope soaring and this is a great vehicle to do it!