Lancers 2 and 3
Lancer 3 before covering - wing is glued on
One of our main designs was the Lancer, designed by Kimberly Panos, who happened to dominate our E-200 racing. We started out with about 15 pilots and were having a ball. We specified the motor and battery, and 200 sq in wing area min, and let folks choose their props and plane designs. The Lancer was very successful. I built 4 or 5 of them. When our primary motor (TowerPro 2409-12T became unavailable, we went to 3 equivalent motors (Power up Zoom 400, Turnigy D2826-6 2200 KV, and RC Timer BC2826 2200KV) and most pilots used the APC 5.25 x 6.25 props. I experimented with Graupner 6.5 x 6.5 props which gave me more thrust off the start line, keeping me ahead of the pack, until the higher amperage draw started slowing me down, and Kimberly would slip past me about lap 7 <heavy sigh>. Anyway, we had loads of fun and high adrenaline rushes for 3-4 years, racing 9 months of the year from March to early Nov. Attached are some pics, plus a plans drawing .pdf which you could print or enlarge to any size you would like. It builds pretty fast and is quite strong. I will also include some root and tip templates which you would have to play with to get the right sizes, as we used foam wings (blue foam from Home Depot) which were sheeted with 1/16' balsa to start with, although some folks added some CF strips under the balsa and went to 1/32" sheeting. Most folks used surfacing resin and weighted surfaces to apply the balsa skins, but I finally went to vacuum bagging which really worked great. Like I said in the last post, we got up to 105-110 mph and couldn't fly straight for more than 2 seconds without losing sight of the plane. I usually counted 1 1/2 seconds between pylon 3 and 1 before initiating my turn. I have gotten too old to do this anymore (turned 75 last month), but the memories get the juices going again. Fair skies to you1
Milt