Cees,

You are assuming a lot about Evan when you say - "Constant speed was important, of course, but you always will be wondered about a lot things in live because you did stop learning too early.
You never did read any article about Ed, that is clear to me. "

As near as I can tell Evan has been accurate about everything he has said in his responses to this thread. I say this having a background as a practicing aero engineer for 43 years at McDonnell Douglas and in retirement, and as a modeler for over 58 years. I'll attach a photo of me as a young modeler. I practically memorized everything that Ed wrote in the magazines as they were my only way of getting any information about models when I was young.

Even then I wondered why Ed used a semi-symmetrical airfoil for a pattern airplane when the CL folks were using a fully symmetrical airfoil. Now I realize the answer was he needed a stable flying platform - one that could fly without a lot of toggle motion on the transmitter.

Yes everyone thought the Taurus was a hot airplane at the time - but it isn't by today's standards. It flies OK but has things that prevent it from being a perfect pattern airplane - it's evolution at work.

One of the things that happens with really good pattern fliers is that they never want to fly some one else's designs. So we find a host of airplanes with different fuselage shapes, wings, vertical tails, etc., all in the attempt to look different. We also find that most of those airplanes fly good but don't win contests. As Ed said 60% was pilot. He could have taken Tom's airplane or any number of airplanes and have flown just as well - but it wouldn't have been his design. Flying his own design was very important to him. We all know that feeling.

Cees, whether or not the Orion (or any other airplane) on bounces or doesn't bounce on grass verses a hard surface, regardless of speed, is simply the effect of the grass and ground absorbing the bounce. Nothing more. It helps if the pilot is good also.

Ben

The photo is of me when I was 8. I had already been building a year or so. Imagine me with a double edge razor blade and pointy pins.