RE: Latest jet-Vortex 32?
Well, "Brown" delivered my new Vortex 32 on Monday as scheduled. Initial thoughts:
I ordered the "white' version. The trim scheme is similar to that shown with an additional piece of trim on the wings. The blue is much darker than the one as advertised, and the bottom of the wings and the stabilzer are trimmed same as the "miss america" version. Build quality is quite nice. The fiberglass fuselage section is really nicely done. Weights:
Fuselage and canopy 14 oz.
Stab 3 oz.
both wings 15 oz.
both booms 8 oz.
bag of hardware 7 oz.
That works out to be 47 ounces total; according to the manufacturer ready to fly weight spec'd at 4.6 lbs. or about 74 ounces. That leaves me right at 27 ounces for power and radio gear. Won't need much glue other than the hinges. This thing pretty much just bolts together and could be built in a few hours easy.
The "rub". This model was apparently designed for electric power only. No fuel tank, no engine mounts are included. No surprise on those two items as they are not depicted in the advertisement. The firewall in the rear is pretty beefy and is laser cut for an electric motor radial mount. Given that the typical 32-40 size glow comparable brushless motor is going to weigh in the 6 ounce range, and the batteries needed to get 700 watts are going to be large and heavy-mounted near the nose of the fuselage the use of a glow 32-40 size engine is going to be a difficult task as they typically weigh 12-18 ounces. That means the nose is going to have to be LOADED with a LOT of weight. The ply former for the nose gear is pre-installed but it does have some lightening holes laser cut. I suppose one could fill forward of the nose gear with lead shot and then seal it off with silicon sealent-just in case you wanted to remove the lead to go to an electric setup.
So it comes down to either a light electric motor behind the CG with heavy batteries forward of the CG and at 700 watts a lot of $$$ in batteries and a very short flight time-I would guess 5 minutes maximum, or a much heavier glow engine and a lot of weight in the nose but much longer flight times.
I suppose at this point I'm just going to have to fit it all together and put about 2 or 3 ounces on the tail to simulate the weight of the 4 servos/extension leads that are mounted in the rear of the booms for elevator and rudder control (HS-81's should fit and are about the lightest I've found), plop a glow engine where it belongs, a flight pack battery just behind the nose gear mount area and then start hanging weight from the nose to acheive the proper CG.
Again, really nicely done model, just thought I'd pass on my initial thoughts to those thinking of purchasing this one!
Rube