I now live quite close to Krille so I was able to visit him at the flying field, watch his Vortex fly and take a few pictures. Although I built all the major parts for my model, it was the first time I saw a finished and assembled Vortex and it was an impressive sight. The model looks so big and powerful just sitting on the runway, and the quality of Krille’s work is outstanding.
I usually spend a few weeks just for the basic trimming of a new model and then make small adjustments for more than 6 months, so it’s too early to give a verdict but so far it looks really promising. It rolls nice and straight, has very good knife edge performance, stall turns and spins looked good and moderate crosswinds didn’t seem to affect the model at all.
Krille modified the motor mount and added 2.5 degrees of right thrust, but this seems too much. The model was pulling significantly to the right on the vertical uplines, so in my opinion 0 degrees would be a much better starting point, as originally designed.
The fuselage is taller than the cylinder of turbulent air generated by the propeller, so it probably straightens the airflow before it hits the base of the fin. Also the tip of the fin is much higher than the canopy, so most of the vertical tail flies in clean air and that’s probably why it requires so little right thrust.
