Allrighty Steve, I'll give this a shot.

The T2k was a good plane in it's prime. QQ flew it to 6th at the worlds in 99, before he became "the man". So, it was definitely a competetive plane in the top levels of FAI when it was designed. QQ is also an awesome pilot, we can't discount that.

However, as the sequences evolved, so did the designs. I don't fly FAI so I can't tell you all of the specifics, but a larger plane with a smaller wing was needed. Well, it flew the newer sequences easier, so that's the way things have gone.

The T2K had an enormous amount of wing and stab area, and was a full 2 meters square. It had a major pitch to the belly, but it flew the new sequences better than say, a prophecy. What it didn't do well was snaps and spin breaks. With that much wing, you really had to wind it up in a snap, and that means you have to work 10 times as hard to stop it on point. It always seemed to be pointed in the wrong direction after a snap, the yaw was ridiculous to get it to snap well. With that much mass away from the CG at the wingtips, it made it hard to stop on track. In short, it was hard to get it going, then hard to stop it.

Also with that much wing area, spins breaks were difficult without a large amount of positive wing incidence. It just wanted to harrier in place. If you jacked up the incidence to make it break better, then it's pitch coupling and down lines became erratic. Also there are now inverted spins in FAI, and positive incidence makes this even more difficult to get a good break. getting a good break is hard enough without fighting the plane.

That is what I identified as fixable with the same fuse. The other problem is it needs more side area with the knife edge and point heavy schedules both in FAI and masters now. That is something I couldn't fix with the Tempest, and why I moved on, but let's stay with the Tempest.

First I moved the wing up to get it closer to the thrust line. This made it roll a little more axially and require less aileron diff. next I changed the wing to a 74" wingspan, and moved teh center of pressure more to the center of the plane away from the tips. This makes the plane snap like no other I have flown. It's effortless. Also I gave it more sweep, which translates to more dihedral and better stability inverted. I also swept the tips forward some. The down side is that for it to behave as I want, it has to be flown a tad tail heavy. Otherwise it does try to pitch to the canopy in down lines. Everything else is groovy, and I could play with thrust and mix and go that route. It may be a better approach, I think. But it snaps so well and tracks fine, I mean I 10d and avalanche at my first contest with a grand total of 9 days practice on the advance sequence, it's just that easy.

Also I reshaped the tail and gave it a bit of sub fin, and movedt he stab up to try and neutralize some of that pitching effect. It did just that, but as I made the plane more tail heavy, the pitching became noticable again, so I mixed it out with about 4%. To me that's acceptable. Over 10 isn't, and 30 CERTAINLY isn't.

I also gave it more area for the elevators and ailerons to make it more responsive. In order to keep the plane tracking right, it requires super high end servos to nail centers. This is not a problem for me, I use them anyway. And I love the response I get from the plane if I want to play, so I left it that way.

Anyway that's how I got to the Tempest. I had tried a standard T2K with clipped wings, and I liekd it so that's what made me go this route. Today though, because of many things and availability of parts being primary, I decided to break and do something totally new.

I hope that doesn't sound TOO nuts, that's what I was thinking at the time. It seems to have worked well, but if I am in error I HOPE somebody will correct me, that's what this thread is for.

-Mike