Swallow - 66" by Gaintscaleplanes
06-03-2002, 12:23 AM
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Swallow - 66" by Gaintscaleplanes
I would be interested in any opinions of this company too. I am considering purchasing one of their 80" kits for a gasser.
06-03-2002, 12:36 PM
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Swallow - 66" by Gaintscaleplanes
I believe you are referring to the Swallow which is marketed in the UK under the Flair label, a pattern aerobat for 91 fourstrokes. There is a Swallow, a Swallow EX which has different cowl and color scheme, and a Lark which is a smaller EX. See www.flairproducts.co.uk to confirm this is the same plane.
I have the Swallow. It seems to be built well enough, the fancy colour scheme is all separate bits of proper iron-on film rather than a pre-printed self adhesive sheet. I did fit retracts but when it finally came to stand the finished model on them I found that the legs are too short, prop clearance was maybe 1.5 inches (14x10 prop) and the attitude to near to level to allow a flare to slow it down to land. The leg length is dictated by the cut-outs already made in the wing so you have no choice. So I fitted the fixed u/c instead. Elevator pushrod is dreadful, a short length of dowel and then long lengths of 2mm rods at each end, makes horrendous bend and slop, so I fitted my own 3mm rods instead. To use a YS 91 I replaced the fuel tank with something designed to take that pressure. With a YS91, quiet pipe in the tunnel under the wing, and 5 servos total weight is 4.1kg which is too high by modern standards for a 91. At a recent show the UK importer was demonstrating it using a 120.
Flying it is a pleasure, it is as big and smooth as you would expect. Knife edge is good, I get absolutely no roll coupling and just a touch of up pitch (unusual!) to be mixed out. The very long fuselage deceives your impression of how fast it is travelling, you can think it is at moderate speed until pulling up vertical and it bounds up in huge turnarounds. Most of my flying is done at half throttle. However for vertical it needs all that power from the YS91, I would regard a 91 fourstroke as the minimum rather than the ideal, even the YS can't take it vertical indefinitely. The elevator and rudder are very large indicating it has pretensions to be a 3d model rather than a pattern model, but the ailerons are outboard and do not get the propwash so it limits control at low speeds. Also the weight gives a relatively high wing loading and some 3d stuff needs a very low loading. So treat it as a pattern model with some 3d capability. I am very pleased with mine.
Harry
I have the Swallow. It seems to be built well enough, the fancy colour scheme is all separate bits of proper iron-on film rather than a pre-printed self adhesive sheet. I did fit retracts but when it finally came to stand the finished model on them I found that the legs are too short, prop clearance was maybe 1.5 inches (14x10 prop) and the attitude to near to level to allow a flare to slow it down to land. The leg length is dictated by the cut-outs already made in the wing so you have no choice. So I fitted the fixed u/c instead. Elevator pushrod is dreadful, a short length of dowel and then long lengths of 2mm rods at each end, makes horrendous bend and slop, so I fitted my own 3mm rods instead. To use a YS 91 I replaced the fuel tank with something designed to take that pressure. With a YS91, quiet pipe in the tunnel under the wing, and 5 servos total weight is 4.1kg which is too high by modern standards for a 91. At a recent show the UK importer was demonstrating it using a 120.
Flying it is a pleasure, it is as big and smooth as you would expect. Knife edge is good, I get absolutely no roll coupling and just a touch of up pitch (unusual!) to be mixed out. The very long fuselage deceives your impression of how fast it is travelling, you can think it is at moderate speed until pulling up vertical and it bounds up in huge turnarounds. Most of my flying is done at half throttle. However for vertical it needs all that power from the YS91, I would regard a 91 fourstroke as the minimum rather than the ideal, even the YS can't take it vertical indefinitely. The elevator and rudder are very large indicating it has pretensions to be a 3d model rather than a pattern model, but the ailerons are outboard and do not get the propwash so it limits control at low speeds. Also the weight gives a relatively high wing loading and some 3d stuff needs a very low loading. So treat it as a pattern model with some 3d capability. I am very pleased with mine.
Harry
