Here's info on B.J.'s bipe project. He is calling it the Competition Biside. The name relates to the double natured aspects of a bipe and pattern flying. There are two wings and strong positives along with compromises in a biplane design, hence the two sided aspect of the design. In addition, when you compete against someone they are your foe, but at the same time they are also your flying buddy. This is the two sided aspect of our sport. B.J. decided to roll all this into the name of his new design... Biside.

Here are some pics. As usual, he will conduct extensive testing and development prior to releasing it to the market, but the process has started.....

I am really sorry I didn't get a chance to visit him this past week, hopefully I can stop by on my next trip over there.

http://rcone.kr/board/index.html?id=bjair1&no=107

A couple interesting features on the Biside:

- DTFS wings, based on the wing planform utilized on the Episode and Nuance DTFS design.
- Flying stabilizer.
- Narrow fuselage.
- Contra option. All of his airframes can be ordered for a Contra Drive, meaning thrust and spinner diameter settings for the Contra Drive.

That's what I was waiting for,....it was just a matter of time,..lol.


bholsten

Very exited, was waiting for a bipe from BJ, I guess that this is gonna be my next plane.

kewl!!!!!!

Any more progress to report??

Flight testing according to BJ Park, no price released yet...

BJ has been making progress on the Biside. Here are the latest pics. I think it looks fantastic. He is hoping to put in the initial test flights this week. He is very deliberate in his testing and release process so this is just the beginning of the Biside introduction. Hopefully all goes well with the flight testing and it makes it to market soon. If it is as awesome as his last two projects then we are in for a treat.

Specs:
Weight 2038g (frame only)

Length 1998 mm

Wing span 1700 mm

wing area 96 dm2

H.Wing area 14.2 dm2

V.wing area 16.8 dm2


Paradigm & Sky!...

BJ CRAFT

It looks beautiful!

Looking forward for the flight reports!

Biside ARF retail price for USA will be $2500

<div>
</div><div>I would be interested to hear what the designers motivation is for using a flying stab. I played around with flying stabs in the eighties but never had much success. From what I remember it was difficult to get the model trimmed for level flight. I was always chasing the trim and in the end I just reverted back to a normal stab. I guess that the servos are much better these days therefore that may solve that issue. Great looking model!</div>

BJ describes the flying stab as having several advantages. Aside from weight advantages and ease of incidence changes he feels that it gives the elevator a much more linear control feeling. Keep in mind that the angle of attack of the stab does not change drastically, only small movement is required.

What about ARC :-)

BJ has test flown the Biside. Here are some pics.

Comments from BJ about the Biside in this link...
[link=http://rcone.kr/board/index.html?id=bjair1&no=110]http://rcone.kr/board/index.html?id=bjair1&no=110[/link]

Hi Steve,
Would it be possible for you to ask BJ what all up weight he got and with what batteries.
Would be much appreciated.

Brian

Hi,
BJ put up a lot of detailed comments on his blog site: http://rcone.kr/board/index.html?id=bjair1&no=110


here's some specific data

Weight

ARC weight 2038g (landing gear, wheel, pants,tail gear all included)

Accessories 1230g (neumotor, apc 20*15, esc, servo, rx battery,EX cords)

Others 272g (covers, Battery bed , rods , horns etc)

Battery 4500mah 10S 1240.3g

Flying 4780 g

Hi Steve,
Thanks.
That is a light bipe.

Brian

Hey Guys,
I was able to swing over to see B.J. Park and his father in Zhuhai China this weekend. Luckily, the weather finally cooperated for me so that I could visit and go flying. I tried several times over the past year but Typhoons and strong rains always seemed to get in the way.

Sunday I made the Trek and B.J. And his father met me at the ferry terminal. We went directly to his new factory. Since it was Sunday there was no production going on. But his new shop is much larger. He has a really nice heat curing room for his molded fuselages and also for his clear coated painted items.

He showed me the new Biside molds and also some secret projects that I can't talk about yet. Sorry...

B.J. is really spending a lot of time and energy on the biplane. He is convinced that bipes are the future. And, so are many of the top Japanese fliers and designers. But, there are a lot of design challenges with bipes. Primary amongst these is roll stability. This is why many bipes don't do well in the wind and why many feel like Kites in certain conditions.

B.J. Has been flying the Biside protoype and has been making step by step changes to the design and setup. It is very tedious work. I had the chance to check out his current status on the Biside. His prototype is a testbed for his design improvements. He has made many changes to the original prototype in order to refine the final product.

We were able to head out to his flying site and put in some flights on the latest Biside prototype. If you look at the pics you will see a few changes to the original design. Most of these changes are only to make the prototype fly the way he wants the final production version to fly. He is going to incorporate several changes. Namely, the wing will shrink, wing shape will change, tail volume will change, fuselage volume will change, and a few other fuselage changes will be incorporated. All in all, the production version will be different than the current prototype.

I am attaching some pics from our flying session. We were joined by his talented flying buddy PaPa. This kid is a great flier and very talented 3D pilot as well.

You can see the current form of the Biside. Notice the wing tips on the upper wing. Those were only added to help simulate the updated wing design. They will be gone in production.

The wing planform for production will be drastically different. In a nutshell, the wing area will be reduced. This design had too much lift. So he had to compromise on several aspects in order to get it to perform properly.

But, enough of that. We stuffed the plane into the back of his van (with half of it hanging out) and drove down the street of the industrial park to go fly it. My basic impression was that this thing is huge! Some of that will change when he updates it for production but the biplane really looks different when sitting in the ground.

His prototype used a Neu F3A-1 motor and (I think) a 21x14 prop. I thought to myself that this would be an underpowered dog. No way would that motor and prop give enough performance. I was used to the Pletty Advance powered Episode with epic power and was thinking that this huge biplane would not have the power needed.

So, he got the plane all set up and PaPa (who is the only guy in China that flies Mode II) took off then handed me the TX. I was instantly shocked by how fast and slippery this was. I thought to myself "no way is this a 10 cell Neu powered airplane". It was simply ballistic. I proceeded to flail around and looked like a person who had never flown a precision aircraft. B.J. tried to tell me that it takes less power than I thought and that the flying stabilizer was extremely effective. He was right on all of those accounts. But still, I couldn't fathom how powerful and quick this thing was.

On the next flight we moved the CG forward and tried again. This time I was more prepared for the flight envelope. I dialed back the power significantly and actually started to fly it like a pattern plane. I think I flew it at about 1/3 throttle for almost all maneuvers. The Neu motor throttle response on this airframe was like a Turbo. All of a sudden it would go ballistic. I was shaking my head because I had never flown anything that behaved that way. My Neu powered Nuance was tame in comparison. I can't even imagine what a Pletty Advance would do on that airframe. B.J. and I talked abou this. It seems that a lower power profile and smaller prop combination would be better for this airframe. Even, perhaps, an 8S setup would be more than sufficient. Or, a Himax outrunner would be plenty of power. I still couldn't comprehend how this was possible for such a large airframe.

A few flights later I started to feel comfortable. The snaps were awesome and the spins were as good as the Episode. I caught a glimpse of what B.J. was describing to me as the potential of the bipe.

We ran out of battery packs (some of which had... Get this... 1000 flights! He knows batteries since he was a pioneer with Korean cell manufacturers) and then we went to lunch.

After lunch we figured we had enough time to go flying again so he threw his IMAC Extra 260 in the back of the van and we flew that. PaPa did some cool 3D flying over the water. I got to throw it around a bit then we noticed that time had escaped us and we had to race to the ferry terminal. I got there with just a few minutes to spare.

My day was complete. I saw some cool stuff and visited my good friends. I tested the future and I think it has two wings....

I forgot to mention a couple cool things he had in his shop. First, and foremost was the totally awesome Fantasista 110. This is Akiba's model and was totally stunning. It is very large for a 110 sized model and I was really impressed by the workmanship on this. I was drooling over it. Very nice.

Second, was the very cool Nuance 120. A slightly smaller version of the Nuance but with all the same attention to detail. Not to mention the gorgeous color scheme. Very cool

I believe most of the efforts with flying stabs I've oberved have had their pivot points too far aft. The forces will tend to diverge control under this condition.The pivotshould be located just fore of the stab's AC or on the AC, and the stab should be statically balanced (will require more weight to be added than if the pivot was located aft). A set of ball bearings might help but not absolutely necessary. Lastly, I believe that the control linkage should be added as far fore as practical.

Looking carefully at BJ Park's stab shape, the guy seems aware of what he needed to do to make this practical. The guy is a thinker....my hat's off

Thanks Steve great report. I look forward to a day when Chris and I can visit Mr Park. Love the look of the Fantasista 110 too.
I think one of the things that seperates BJ Craft frommany of the other F3A Plane company's is his willingness to test so much before he releases anything new. Plus his design prowess.
Mike

Hey Mike,
Is F3AUnlimited planning to import the Fantasista 110 and/or the Nuance 120? I still fly glow and would love one or both models!
Thanks,
Will

Hey Willy were thinking it. They certainly are beautiful. Keep you posted.
Mike Mueller

The Fantasista 110 is electric only as confirmed by BJ Park. We may bring a few in but you are looking at over $1K for a 110 sized plane.