NEMESIS

[thevon]

I just got me one of these:



It’s a Nemesis, by Breta Models. 60” slope racer I got it for a great price from Andrew of Falcon Gliders, and I have to say his service and support were fantastic. Andrew’s not just like a dealer, he’s a fellow glider nut who just wants to share his passion with you! He supplied all sorts of extra bits (ballast, linkages, etc) for it so the only things I had to supply or buy were the Rx, battery pack, servos and wiring. This is the last Nemesis in stock and he’s not importing more. This one is a glass wing with a carbon fuse. Apparently Andrew asked for the exact opposite (carbon wing, glass fuse). Andrew won’t deal with them again as they are too careless with orders. Having said that, the quality of this thing is excellent. Andrew told me in advance that he discounted the Nemesis due to several blemishes from the mold, and he described them. When it turned up I realized I probably wouldn’t have noticed them if he hadn’t pointed them out!

A lot of the work is done – holes drilled, V-tail horns fitted and control snakes in the fuse






The fuse is very strong and stiff, which is great for me as I hope to give this one lots of bungee launches. I was pleasantly surprised at the strength of the wing too. Much stronger than some light hollow wings e.g. Banana.






This is the first time I’ve “built” a hollow wing moldie, apart from the Minij. I didn't really have any major dramas with the build. I used HS65HB’s for the ailerons, which were a very marginal fit in the aileron wells. I butted them hard up forward against the spar to get the best clearance, but one of the covers is about 0.5mm proud at one corner.

I used HS85MG’s for the flaps – there’s heaps of room for them. The linkage geometry worked out OK after a bit of head scratching ... I modified the brass horns as per the F3X build thread, and the throws turned out pretty much spot-on. I put little blocks of 9mm square wood either side of the flap ones to give more hold. I wrapped all wing servos in masking tape and used 5min epoxy.

The wiring harness also had me scratching the head a lot but it's the first one I've done. Andrew provided some really neat small 6 pin plugs which are excellent, very small and light. The idea is to run one positive and one negative wire through the plug, plus the 4 signal wires for the wing servos. I got pretty confused trying to work out a neat way to do it, and next time it’ll be easier.

Onto the fuse and the V-tail bolts on easily. I epoxied a couple of rods made from the 9mm square wood to mount the servos Easy to put in, but a very tight fit to get the clearance for the horns. I had to grind away the fuse lip to fit.

The only big scare was that I thought I had put the servos well back but I should have gone further back! The nose lead, battery and Rx are a very tight fit. I actually poured the lead into the nose melted, or I wouldn't have had room! (I wrapped a freezing cold rag round the nose first). Plus had to grind back part of a servo mount to make room for the Rx. Not a mm to spare - all jammed in. I used a Hitec SuperSlim which is not very small so a smaller Rx would help.

Like all glider jobs it took much longer than the “few hours” people say in reviews but it was quite rewarding. The all up weight with the CG balanced at 76mm is 805gm.



Looking forward to giving it a toss.

[laanguy]

Andrew,

Good to see the model ready to go. The Nemesis was my first mouldie and can't see myself without one.

Just a comment on the Breta issue. They produce some very nice planes however the Nemesis and Mini Nyx I received in my last shipment all had faults, most of which are in their moulds. The faults on the Mini Nyx are worse. To be importing from one of the worlds better manufacturers and paying a good price for a high quality mouldie I expect better quality and also service. Unfortunately both points need alot of work but at this stage I think the demand for their larger planes in Europe and USA mean the smaller models and importers are just not important to them.

I would hope in future they can address these issues and I will import from them again, but at this stage I am not happy passing this high price, poor quality and poor service onto my customers, so for now you have the last Breta model from me.

Andrew
Falcon Gliders

[thevon]

I got the chance to fly the Nemesis today, out at Lemontree in a moderately gusty S/westerly. Ezza and Sean were there. A few nerves before the launch but I knew the CG was good and the throws set up as per AB's instructions. I set the Tx menu onto the spoiler elevator compensation screen so it could be adjusted first. Threw it out - a big waggle as it went through the bad air on the lip, then no dramas at all. The only hassle was the receiver glitching very badly, despite running the aerial outside the fuse and having heaps of aerial trailing. Really wild glitching. Otherwise it flew very sweetly, very fast and smooth. Ezza helped me play with the spoiler comp while flying till we got it just right, then put some camber on and found that it climbed really responsively. From height did a couple of big dives and it pulled up fairly strongly so CG needed to go back.

Keeping it close enough not to glitch I stumbled down to the backside and dived in, and the Nemesis shot out like a bullet. Did a few circuits and easily got over 100mph but it felt a bit light for the job, getting buffeted by the turbulence. Extremely quick however. Walked up the end of the ridge and did a nice landing into the lantana (the same spot that I later overshot with the Wizard and crashed it).

Recharged it in case lack of charge was responsible for glitching, fiddled with aerial position, took some weight out of the nose, and put a small amount of ballast in.

I then went down to “the bowl”, a different part of the ridge and had a really great time DSing it there. Perfect for the job. I had no problem doing a short circle back into the bowl, onto the plateau, bang flaps/crow on, and doing a really gentle landing, even in some turbulence.

I’m no expert but basically I can’t say anything bad about it. The Nemesis seems to do everything really well and doesn't seem to have bad habits. Really great and no complaints at all (except about my Rx).

I’m really looking forward to trimming it out a bit better in a place with smoother air, like Pedwell Rd. I’m sure there’s improvement to be made with aileron differential, V-tail mixing and CG, and it will be exciting to see how it goes with full ballast.

Next I’d like to put some fluoro strips on. I also want to fit the towhook and have a go at bungee launching it at Bracken Ridge.

[sean]

Hey Andrew,

Congrats on the successful maiden, and getting it onto the backside so quicky! It looked beautiful in the air and seemed to get to 100 very easily. As you say it did look light for the conditions, my Bird is nearly twice as heavy ballasted and it was getting knocked around quite a bit too, nice flying!

Sean.

[thevon]

Well at least with the Wiz broken I now have a decent Rx I can put in it!

EDIT: this arvo I transplanted the Rx from the Wiz into the Nemesis. Range checked and it went to 35 paces whereas the previous Rx wouldn't get to 20. Then flew it just here at Woody Pt in a light Easterly. It flew really nicely, no glitching at all. Really well behaved and exciting to have it swoosh past making typical moldie moaning sounds. Seemed to be a crowd stopper as several cars stopped and guys wanted to chat about planes. Amazing how many guys out there have dabbled in models and given up and really want to fly.

There's just no doubt, flaps make the landing so much easier. It's a crosswind landing on a sloping patch of grass at WPt. Hard to rub off speed but much easier with the Nemesis than it was with the Minij.

I'm sure theres tweaking yet to be done as the rolls are corkscrewy, even with rudder mix off, but it flies beautifully. It climbs like a thermaller with camber, then retains speed so when you dive down you can carve around and regain lots of height.