Hey Everybody,
I thought i'd post up an after build thread of my recently completed Pilot (Ok models) lavender motor glider. This is my second Pilot Kit the first being my Mint 2 glider. The mint is a small 24" ws glider and the Lavender is a larger 48" glider. I bought both kits in Singapore at Singapore hobby supply when i was down there an business. I found both kits to both of high quality and of interesting design. So much so that i bought a third kit called the Cilantro, that kit is a 2M motor glider that is R/E/T/and Flaps.
Anyway, i digress. I'm posting a few pictures of the build of the model. What drew me into this kit was the motor that goes with it. The motor is mounted inside the spinner. I like that it puts the rotating parts outside of the fuselage. You pay a price in size though as it's quite a bit wider than a tradition inline folding prop/ spinner and motor combo. In fact i was on the fence about buying the kit when the guy at the shop showed me the motor, then i asked if i got servo's too could i get a discount. Such is the way of things.
The motor pulls about 7 amps (I haven't checked it since i got the motor 2 years ago, i'll do another test) on 3 cells and will pull the model up verticle. I tried it on 2 cells and the climb is good but not verticle. I've been getting about 4 minuets of run time from a 3 cell 450 battery pack. Flights are well over the 15 minute mark though depending on how many thermals i can catch. My all up weight is 285 grams about 10.2 oz.
The kit has good quality wood and the laser cutting was quality too. very little if any charing on the back side of the sheets. I only made two real changes to the model, i use a magnet to hold the hatch on instead of a rubber band, and i added those diagonal braces in the wing at Konrad's urging. They did make the wing a lot stiffer for very little weight gain. The white covering is park lite and the purple is ultra coat transparent purple.
For the test flight i decided to do a toss over the grass to see how the CG looked. Well after to the toss the glider kept going and was gonna hit some tall weeds so i fed in some power and flew off. It was a tad nose heavy so i added a few clicks of up and flew around. It was nice to have a model just fly well right from the start. It has nice penetration but indicating thermals takes a bit to notice. I'm not sure if it's the size or the model it self. I'm not that much of a glider pilot so i'll just have to keep learning how to see what the model is doing.
Now i could be biased since I built this kit but i think this little glider is easier to fly than a Radian, certianly looks cooler with the transparent covering. Enjoy the pics i'll post a YT link to the landing on the test flight.
Hank
I thought i'd post up an after build thread of my recently completed Pilot (Ok models) lavender motor glider. This is my second Pilot Kit the first being my Mint 2 glider. The mint is a small 24" ws glider and the Lavender is a larger 48" glider. I bought both kits in Singapore at Singapore hobby supply when i was down there an business. I found both kits to both of high quality and of interesting design. So much so that i bought a third kit called the Cilantro, that kit is a 2M motor glider that is R/E/T/and Flaps.
Anyway, i digress. I'm posting a few pictures of the build of the model. What drew me into this kit was the motor that goes with it. The motor is mounted inside the spinner. I like that it puts the rotating parts outside of the fuselage. You pay a price in size though as it's quite a bit wider than a tradition inline folding prop/ spinner and motor combo. In fact i was on the fence about buying the kit when the guy at the shop showed me the motor, then i asked if i got servo's too could i get a discount. Such is the way of things.
The motor pulls about 7 amps (I haven't checked it since i got the motor 2 years ago, i'll do another test) on 3 cells and will pull the model up verticle. I tried it on 2 cells and the climb is good but not verticle. I've been getting about 4 minuets of run time from a 3 cell 450 battery pack. Flights are well over the 15 minute mark though depending on how many thermals i can catch. My all up weight is 285 grams about 10.2 oz.
The kit has good quality wood and the laser cutting was quality too. very little if any charing on the back side of the sheets. I only made two real changes to the model, i use a magnet to hold the hatch on instead of a rubber band, and i added those diagonal braces in the wing at Konrad's urging. They did make the wing a lot stiffer for very little weight gain. The white covering is park lite and the purple is ultra coat transparent purple.
For the test flight i decided to do a toss over the grass to see how the CG looked. Well after to the toss the glider kept going and was gonna hit some tall weeds so i fed in some power and flew off. It was a tad nose heavy so i added a few clicks of up and flew around. It was nice to have a model just fly well right from the start. It has nice penetration but indicating thermals takes a bit to notice. I'm not sure if it's the size or the model it self. I'm not that much of a glider pilot so i'll just have to keep learning how to see what the model is doing.
Now i could be biased since I built this kit but i think this little glider is easier to fly than a Radian, certianly looks cooler with the transparent covering. Enjoy the pics i'll post a YT link to the landing on the test flight.
Hank
