Hyper AVA EL Pro

Managed to clock away my AVA for the first time at GEMS on Sunday. Half hour flight was easy.

Altis V3

The Altis V3 is a data logger used for recording the launch altitude in F5J competition. The on-board device is barely larger than a servo extension lead plug so takes up very little space inside the fuselage.

The Altis V3 comes with a Serial-USB converter that plugs directly into the on-board device and into your PC USB port. This enables you to read flight data and to upgrade the firmware.

 Using the flight manager you can view your flight data, and configure all the device settings. Different firmware versions will allow different settings to be enabled or set. Below is a screen shot of the welcome screen.

Once connected to your device you can download and view the data. A list of flights saved on the device will appear in the pane on the left.

The device configuration screen is shown below. Note the various parameters that can be set.

 The Altis V3 device and external hand held viewer is available from me. You are welcome to email me for prices and availability.

Culex 2E

 We recently ordered 2 Culex gliders from Esprit Models in Palm Bay Florida. The service was good and the package arrived about 10 days after ordering at our shop in Jet Park, South Africa. The parcel was the size of a small refrigerator, including plenty of foam chips and bubble wrap, so no chance of damage.
Assembly
At a glance the overall finish and fit seemed good and the wing covering fairly tight. It appears to be standard thickness Oracover and quite strong.
Building instructions seemed fairly straightforward, but took much longer than anticipated. The wing servo leads need to be extended by soldering on the extension cable as the tube that runs the lead to the root rib is too small to feed through the cable plug. The wings split in the centre and are joined by a steel rod. The wing assembly is joined to the fuse by means of only 2 M4 nylon bolts. This arrangement was so sloppy that we added 2 more M3 bolts as far back as possible to provide some stability. The horizontal stab sits on a balsa pedestal that also houses the elevator servo. It seems flimsy but is in fact adequate. The fin sits behind the stab and has a very small join area to the carbon tail boom, it comes off easily.
Flying
After setting up the control throws and balancing we took to the air. You need about 200w to get it altitude in under 30 seconds. My plane took quite a bit of aileron trim to fly level (I think the wings are slightly warped) My partner's plane was fitted with quite a powerful motor and he experienced wing flutter during launch!
The MH32 wing section is quite slippery on this plane and it handles a fair breeze with ease. It has very little in the way of dihedral and it takes a lot of stick work to circle nice and flat in a thermal. After a while I got it to hang around nicely and I would say it has potential as a F5J competitor.
Warning!
Although this glider wants to go fast, don't be tempted. The slight wing flutter on launch should have been fair warning. On the fourth or fifth flight my partner brought the plane round in a steep bank and before he could keep the speed in check the wings started fluttering uncontrollably. Slow oscillations, rendered all the control surfaces useless and it came down nose first. Broke one wing and the fuselage, but it is repairable.