RE: SUPER REAPER MAIDEN FLIGHT SOON NEED ADVISES
Reaper Setup
Having done more 161 flights over two years with my Super Reaper with standard layout and fixed undercarriage and a Wren MW54, my advice is to rig it like a poor man’s Eurosport. It will then behave like a ***** cat. There is no need for crow braking, flaps or air brakes.
The problem with standard rig, when elevator is controlled solely by the front canard is the fantastic efficiency of the wing. With a MW54 you can fit camera, global positioning devices plus the self start etc. plus a half gallon of fuel plus UAT and she will still fly beautifully. The problem is the glide. Cut the engine to dead stick and she will comfortably glide 200 yards on 15ft in still air! Hence the need to set her up like a Eurosport. The CG is pretty elastic 530 to 560mm from the trailing edge seems to work fine. I prefer about 540mm.
The Eurosport requires a computer transmitter (in my case a Futaba FF9). The rear ailerons are setup as elevons (use 4.5Kg/cm servos or more). The front canard (standard 3.0Kgcm servos are OK) are controlled by a slave channel to the elevator operating through a 3 position switch and in my case variable resistors A & C. Elevator and aileron both have 25% exponential.
Position 1 – set front canard 3-5deg positive (ie down) using VRC and slave to the elevator. This is for take off and she will probably lift off of her own accord around 100 yards full throttle and climb rapidly. If still on the ground at 150yards, go for a little rotation with the elevator. Note the front wheel must lift the fuselage to give a few deg positive angle of attack. A negative angle tends to make the model stick to the ground like a limpit. Note the Eurosport has a large positive angle of attack when stationary.
Position 2 – set neutral to 2-4 deg negative using clevis adjustment. No action with elevator and rely entirely on elevon.
Position 3 – set front canard to 7-9 deg negative and slave to elevator using VRA.
On first flight let the model climb to a comfortable height. Switch to position 2 and trim with elevator trim to a steady climb at full throttle. Switch to position 3 and using VRA adjust to achieve level flight. If you get it balanced nicely, the model will maintain level flight from full to medium throttle. The reward for all this hassle is the landing. Go into a practice landing circuit and find the lowest throttle position you can maintain height. Reduce the throttle a couple clicks further and line up for the run way (allow for quite a loss of height in the turns) and then control your final rate of descent with another couple of clicks on the throttle. You will find with quite a gentle angle of attack, you can get a steep angle of descent at slow speed. Flair when a couple of feet from the ground so that the rear wheels touch first. Assuming a fixed UC with the Mick Reeves shock absorber, there will be no bounce but just a lovely greasy landing.
Hope this is helpful
My colour schem is much the same yours - see photo on Mick Reeves site.