Mefisto Blejzyk Thermal - Build and improvements Video Log

[DFRobledo]

Hi Alofters!

The Mefisto is my brand new bird from Aloft Hobbies and here's the results of the building and some improvements we've made to this beautiful, graceful, and docile bird.

Best,

DFRobledo

 

[Konrad]

Always good to see another Mefisto build! Is the finish paint or film? And what does your ballast system look like?

All the best,
Konrad

 

[DFRobledo]

Konrad! We had flown a couple of times and haven't tried the ballast yet. Let us find the pictures of the ballast system to share it. This was one of the major improvements done to this bird. The finish is film, we think the paint weights more than this film (gut feeling), but hard to find numbers to compare that guessing.

 

[Konrad]

Wow, with all the fill I saw I would have sworn it was a paint finish. Very nicely done!

My experience is that paint can weigh less than film. But if not done with an eye to weight reduction, can very easily and quickly end up weighing a lot more than film!

I too agree that the ballast tube is a major improvement. It adds a lot of strength to the wing opening.

In my Mefisto I used a tube made by the process Wayne described. It is set up in the style of a bottom loading shot gun.
My Mefisto used the slope airfoil and much to my surprise flies great in most wind conditions without ballast.

Mefisto build (BLEJZYK)

At the Aloft Hobbies sponsored Camp & Fly at Sunset Beach get together I was impressed with the performance of the Blejzyk models. In the light to mild wind conditions that we had, they gave up nothing to the high dollar composite molded ships. It was painfully obvious that I did not have many...

forum.alofthobbies.com

All the best,
Konrad

 

[DFRobledo]

Hi @Konrad ,

Sorry for the delayed response. Yes, we build the same ballast tube described by @Wayne. Here’s a couple of pictures:

 

[DFRobledo]

An here’s the maiden flight video:

First flight to detect her behavior, and begin the fine tuning for a better performance.

All the Best!

Diego Fernando Robledo

 

[Konrad]

Alright, looking good. Am I reading the flight correctly, that the ship is still rather nose heavy? I see the model climb as the speed builds up.

All the best,
Konrad

 

[DFRobledo]

Was a little tail heavy, so we added more lead in the nose. Also, we've tweaked a bit the deflections and radio settings and the mixes.

Best!

 

[Konrad]

Thank you.
I too saw the tail low flight. To me that indicates flying a bit too slow. Not flying the sticks I don't really know how the plane was responding.

A year later and I'm still tweaking my radio setting!

All the best,
Konrad

 

[DFRobledo]

With a little better setup, now it flies graceful. Still looking for improvements:

Best!

 

[Konrad]

Looking good. Don't know what more you could be looking for, other than maybe more roll rate. My Mefisto (W/Slope airfoil S6063) doesn't roll much faster than what yours shows unless I'm ballasted (more energy in the air).

All the best,
Konrad

 

[DFRobledo]

Thanks @Konrad, we're fine-tuning all the mixes and deflections. 1mm at time. It's a long way to go until find the perfect set-up. Sometimes a tip-stalling needs a little bit less deflection on the aileron, and things like that. But what a great plane is it, isn't it?

 

[Konrad]

With the S6063 mine does NOT tip stall. Empty I can't get her to do a classic stall in a turn. I'm using snap flap where the flap drops about 1mm more that the aileron. This adds washout in the turn as I pull up elevator. A stall just looks like a wide turn. Now at full ballast I can get a the classic hard straight ahead stall.

 

[Wayne]

They really are a great flying and great looking plane.