Time for an update: I now have 12 flights on the Rebel Pro. On my first few flights, I realized that I had to change my landing technique as compared to how I landed the Leonardo. The Rebel lands a lot slower and needs to be slow on the flare, or she becomes a “Hopalong a bit” if one is not careful.
We all have heard that the Rebel Pro does not need any knife edge mixing….I shrugged my head and secretly thought “Yeah, right!” Well….the reality hit me…… It doesn’t, and I was more than surprised. So, with that behind me, I proceeded to fine tune the throws that I needed for competition.
I found that for axial rolls (and point rolls, especially on vertical lines) that I needed opposite aileron differential (meaning slightly more down throw than up) and I ended with 15degrees up on the right aileron and 16 degrees down on the left aileron and a similar difference on the other sides but slightly less throws to have both right and left roll rates the same.
My balance point at this time is exactly in the center of the wing tube. For me, this works much better (for competition set up) than at the recommended back of the wing tube. This is just a preference in how I fly and I modified the down throw and also the expo so that it doesn’t feel like I’m pushing too much down when I’m inverted. We must remember, that the wings on the Rebels are not symmetrical (they are semi-symmetrical) and when inverted, the natural tendency is for the nose to go down. We can try to move the balance rearward to help compensate for the “push” feel, but for competition, it can then make the tracking different.
I moved on to the gyro, as the jet was really feeling solid and boosting my confidence. In the Leonardo, the PowerBox Mercury had an integrated gyro and I had set one of the parameters to HARD which was recommended. With the Competition SR2 in the Rebel (with the gyro separate) I had also set the parameter to HARD….and eventually found out that I needed to put it back to NORMAL (which was the default) as the algorithms for the new gyro was different, making the gyro sensitive.I now have the gyro set a 30% and will begin to individually tailor the surfaces as needed.
I have also started to practice the F3S “P” sequence and have now done 3 out of the 12 flights on the Rebel. I’m amazed at how much vertical I have with the KT235 and am lacking nothing at all. I’m also landing with approximately 1/3 tank left after a full 8 minutes of aerobatics even though I do not fill up the 6L tank to the top. I have approximately 5.5L on board on takeoff, so my fuel consumption is less with the lighter Rebel as less throttle is needed, but the “oomph” is still there, latently waiting for any vertical that needs conquering! My UAT has a very small bubble after a full aerobatic flight, so I’m extremely happy with the round tank, the Digitech clunk and the Digitech UAT.
I will continue with any info that I gather as I go along.
Wayne
