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Old 09-04-2005 | 11:39 AM
  #48  
bdavison
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From: Warner Robins, GA
Default RE: Official GP Reflection Build Thread!

Well, I finally got rid of that annoying (no aileron/elevator) turn thing.

Hang on to your plane, point the nose up, and rev it up to hovering rpms. Now trim it out to where it will stay put in one place. Then go fly it. Its a much better airplane. Move the CG to about 3 1/4" and start working back from there.

Rudder on this thing is SUPER sensitive. Just a little touch will do it. Use LOTS of expo on rudder.

Waterfalls are very impressive, and noisy. Blenders are interesting mainly due to the over sensitive rudder, it takes a little work to figure out how much and when to put in the controls. Rolling circles are pretty good, Im still trimming it out for the rolling circles. Ive got it now where it will go about 3/4 of the way around before it starts dropping out of altitude. The plane is really fun to fly. Hovers fairly well. Just that touchy rudder, will KE loop it if your not careful.

You can actually do KE waterfalls with the Reflection. Get some altitude, Pull the nose up into a hover, then JAM full rudder, and about 3/4 to full throttle. It will tumble KE. Really insane looking. Makes some gosh aweful racket though. You'll sware its going to come apart, but it doesnt. Sounds like a chainsaw cutting foam or something.

The reflection is a very durable plane. During all my trimming and test flights, Ive smacked mine in about 3 times. So far no structural damage. It hasnt even broken any of the foam yet. Couple slight stress wrinkles in the fuselage, but no failures. The only problem Ive had is that sometimes the rudder gets yanked off, and that pulls the control horn out of the rudder. Ive had to cut and replace a section of foam where the control horn glues into the rudder twice due to this. Bill Altman has also experienced this with his Reflection. Its kinda annoying, but not really that big a deal.
Ive had some success in correcting the problem. Once you CA the control horn and hinge clips into the rudder, take some 5min epoxy, and smear a little over both sides of the rudder on each one. Since I did this I havent had them pop out yet. The plane is already heavy, so the slightly added weight isnt going to make that much difference. Im guessing this thing is somewhere between 8.5-10oz loaded.

The hinging system is fantastic. Really smooth, and it takes alot of slop out of it.
I dont care much for the control horns and z-bend linkages. There's no way to adjust them once they are CA'd in place. Instead of CA'ing everything in place, they should put some screws into the z-bend pieces so you can just lock the carbon rod in place with a set screw instead of CA'ing it.