rwlewis
Posts: 297
Joined: 8/27/2002
From: Tomball,
TX, USA
Status: offline
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I got to fly it....Hehe.....
It was really great to get to see all the hard work that has put into this thing take flight.
The airframe is conventional construction balsa and plywood, but the plane was fully modelled in 3d and all the parts were laser cut and it practically fell together. There are tons of neat features that are included, far too many to mention here, but there are tabs, jigs, slots, holes, etc everywhere making the build a snap. With all the tabs, you'd really have to try not build it straight. No jig required, just a flat table. Even wing LE, Aileron pocket linings, etc...are laser cut. Wings/stabs are balsa over foam. The balsa used is NOT hand picked ultra light stuff, but just average contest grade balsa straight from the laser guy and the weight came out right on par, no problem.
Anhedral stab, forward fins and dorsal tail are all borrowed from the Nat Penton Voodoo Express, along with the "Pent" in the name.
Flight Characteristics - Light weight and high taper ratio wing contribute to a very light feel, even with wing loading that is on par for the current FAI trend. Falls very straight down in downlines, and slows down great even on the two stroke due to the thick wing root section and wide-body style fuselage. Knife edge flight requires only a breath of rudder. Coupling could not be ascertained fully in a maiden, but it seemed very, very good.
This thing will be a FAI finals machine, Mark flew the rolling S with relative ease and the fins really make it carve out the radii like I've only seen the Voodoo Express do previously.
This thing is gonna be a real winner....congratulations....
Richard
(not sure this is an "unbiased" report, but it will have to do.....)
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Printable Version
All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> Pattern Flying >> Pentathlon 
Pentathlon - 
. Thank you for the kind comments...it is a nice feeling to see it fly after all the development work. With only two flights though, it's tough to be critical. As posted by Richard, the downlines were dead straight, light on the sticks, even with a 1000 sq.in. The balance is good, but will have to be flown a few more times to decide if I will adjust it. Once I am set with the balance position, I will tweak other things if necessary. The cool part is how well all the different concepts came together. As I get more flights we get to see how it does in the wind, etc. 
