ANYONE FLYING MYSTIQUE AS A PURE GLIDER LAUNCHED FROM A WINCH?
E-flite has been shipping the Mystique for a while now.
http://www.horizonhobby.com/products...9m-arf-EFL4905
And most pilots are building this as an electric glider. There is a very large thread about it in the electric sailplane section, and the reports are generally good, as an electric glider.
But the Mystique can also be built and flown as a pure glider. I am looking for pilot reports from people launching it with a winch. I am interested in comments about how it launches and your opinion about the strength of the wings, especially on the winch.
I am not personally interested in buying one. My hanger is full. But we have many pilots in our club looking for that first winched glider and I am wondering how confidentially I can recommend the Mystique for this use.
Yes, I know you can launch almost anything from a winch if you are really careful. We have people launching Radians from the winch, but you have to be VERY careful. Gentle Ladies can be winched, but you have to be very careful.
I learned to use the winch with a Spirit and a Sagitta 600. I spent more time fixing broken wings than flying. It was not till I got a used Legend that I started to gain confidence on the winch. But the Legend could take full pedal. So I could practice tapping without fear of breaking it. Eventually I got the technique down.
So, I am looking for a 3M ARF glider of any construction, in the sub $500 range, that can take a firm winch launch, based on less than experienced taps. Something that can handle a few mistakes without turning to splinters on the way up.
The Mystique looks like a good possibility but I want to confirm this based on actual pilot reports.
I am open to others.
As an aside, one of the best winch trainer pure gliders I have launched is the Multiplex Easy Glider. The wings are quite resilient and the flex of the wings quite manageable. They show you how hard you are pushing, but they can take quite a bit before risk of breaking them. They are more resilient, in my experience than the Spirit, GL or the Sagitta 600, just for reference. And no were near the flex of something like the Radian which was never intended for string launch.