Sneek Peek - FSD Raptor 60

[drcuzo]

The Future Slope Designs Raptor 60 is progressing well. A bit of trim to tart it up still to go but getting close.

I will post more pics when complete.



Steve

[sean]

Wow that's really slick Steve, great covering job. The fuse is a really nice shape too. Looks quick!

[drcuzo]

Thanks Sean
I have made it light so we will see how it goes, have not weighed it yet.
?? maiden @ W/E
Steve

[Hamburglar]

That looks awesome Steve! Let us know how it flies.

[drcuzo]

Jordan

Thanks for that.
Where did you set your CG?

Steve

[Hamburglar]

I was going to start at about 45mm from the LE.

Paige has the CGs listed here www.futureslopedesigns.com/Build_Updates.html

[skyboyken]

Excellent!

Can't wait to hear the maiden report Steve!

Ken.

[drcuzo]

Maidened the Raptor this weekend at Brandeburg. Thanks Pete & Sean. AUW = 650g. The colours look good in the air. I need to add some contrast to the top and tips to help with orientation. The forward swept wing looks menacing.

I am both happy and disappointed with the result. It flew well. Pete and I added some lead to the nose and moved the CG forward from the initial point at 43mm from the LE to about 37mm and that helped a lot. It flew nice and smooth but was very different to the DUCK which is my only comparison. I think I probably need to fly it for a while to adapt to the different characteristics. Sean was able to fly it low and fast and it looked great. I only flew it low for landing and I was able to land it smoothly first time.

Despite being 120g lighter than the Duck it didn't float as well as I expected when the lift was lighter. Again this may be me rather than the plane.

It has a tendency to roll left when diving but flies nice and true at max LD speed.

It remains a work in progress, so stay tuned for updates.

Hopefully Sean will find time to give us a critique as his opinions will be more informed.

You may remember that I built it for my son hoping it would be a good "learner" but I don't think it will be good to learn on so i think I will give him a wing or look at Pij's Monkey's.

Steve

[sean]

The Raptor flew nicely, but with only one short flight under my belt I don't think I can say a lot about it.

The wind was strong and the Raptor is light - despite this it still penetrated well and wasn't being knocked around too much. I was surprised by how docile it felt for a plank - Steve had the CG well forward, so I'm pretty sure that had a lot to do with it.

Landing was surprisingly easy, most planks are hard to land, as soon as you put the nose down they speed up a lot and I was expecting the Raptor to be the same, but it came in slow enough that I undershot my intended landing spot by quite a lot. Conditions could have played a role here though - strong wind and low wing loading are going to make it fairly slow while flying into the wind.

I think moving the CG back would unleash more speed but it would also make it much harder to fly, and Steve's intention was for this plane to serve as a trainer for his son, so IMO the CG is probably best left where it is.

Steve's finish on the Raptor has to be seen to be believed, looking forward to seeing it with the Blue Angels colours. I was surprised by how easy the blue was to see against the blue sky.

Steve also gave me a fly of his Duck for a good half an hour. They're such nice planes to fly, I can feel another purchase coming on . Steve's Duck seems to have its CG about as far back as possible - this makes it fast but it's verging on unstable - very easy to initiate a spin even with low rates. Had a lot of fun trying to follow Pete's Duck .

[skyboyken]

It certainly looked the part in the air.

I suspect that a little more fiddling with CG, control throws and lateral balance will have you happy as a clam Steve!

Planks do take a while to tune, so my suggestion would be to view it as a learning exercise as you 'put lead in, take lead out, then fly the plane and shake it all about...' (set to the tune of 'one foot in...')

[drcuzo]

I took Tristan to Emu Mountain, Coolum for his first ever RC flight. It was too marginal for the Raptor but this is a bit of his first fly of my Duck. Not surprisingly he has a lot more talent than his Father.

au.youtube.com/watch?v=UWVDkpCffXA

Steve

[sean]

Nice video Steve! Was there much wind on the coast today? Lift doesn't look too bad at Emu Mtn.

[drcuzo]

Sean

it was about 10 knots easterly. Fun but not booming.

We are hoping for a bit more at Brandenburg tomorrow afternoon. Are you planning to go up there? We could use an instructor - more for me than Tris

Steve

[drcuzo]

Tris and I went to Brandenburg with the family today. It was blowing dogs off chains on the coast but was quite mild at Maleny - 10-15 mostly. There was some thermal activity.

Tris threw his Raptor off without any hesitation and flew it beautifully. I had tweeked the CG back a bit during the week and removed the coins fron the nose and filled the nose with lead shot and epoxy. The difference was amazing. Last week it felt unpredictably and was marginal in reasonable lift. Today it few silky smooth and was an absolute p.u.s.s.y cat. It was easily keeping up and generally outperforming the wings when the lift got marginal. I was absolutely rapped in it this week. Needless to say Tristan is hooked on sloping, the only blemish today was him parking my Duck in the highest branches of the trees to the right of the slope (Goodnight Naked Duck I hope it is not too cold up there tonight) If anyone finds it at the base of the tree would greatly appreciate it back. Unfortunately the incident gave Tris shaky thumbs and deceased his fun for the rest of the afternoon.

I now highly recommend the raptor as an alternative to learn on and strongly encourage anyone learning to spend some time on a simulator. I have the Reflex XTR and the way it accelerated Tristan's learning curve was amazing. He is flying with amazing skill and confidence on only his second day out.

A word from Tristan:

To start- I am totally hooked. I seem to have picked it up much faster with the simulator, as you can crash as much as you like without ruining the glider and your confidence. When I took out the raptor today it felt great, super smooth, which I think gave me a little too much confidence when using Dads duck and I resulted in turning the bird hard into the highest tree possible and securely parking it for the night. I am still struggling with gaining high altitude as i can't stay in the thermals for long but soaring around feels great. as the saying goes: "practice makes perfect"
Tristan