ORIGINAL: rcpattern
The Pentathalon is not a very draggy airframe to start with, and it was adequate for Advanced. I don't think it would've been a competitive setup in Masters or FAI, but was a very nice proof of concept. Had a very distinctive sound in the air as well. He did have a few deadsticks however, but the idea did work, but was certainly not a competitive setup by todays standards.
Arch
Arch, the very public deadsticks at the debut of the Gas powered OS160 on the Pentathlon were traced to a fuel tank issue, unfortunately, it happened in a very public environment and thus seems to have forever cemeted an "unreliable" label to the project...[
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The Pentathlon is draggier than you think. Just because it does have the bloated fuselage of some of it's contemporaries, does not mean it does not have a nice drag profile. The Pentathlon derives it's parasitic drag from the flying surface design. I hope to see more of the OS160 Gas model this weekend and hopefullly we can get someone to fly it through the FAI P sequence to see what kind of muscle the OS160 can really muster.
Richard