Does anyone know anything abut this ship from china?

Interesting.
I found this link: http://www.lindinger.at/shopexpand.php?artikelnr=69621
and I think this is the manufacturer: http://www.dx-model.net/html/APE-G-8017.htm

Hi Troops,
Just recently aquired one of these birds to evaluate and it is nearly ready to maiden. So far it looks to be a good piece of kit although I believe this one is a production sample and some changes will be made depending on what I find during the build and test flights.

Cheers BJ

I built what we believe is a prototype of the Sickle for a fellow flyer. It is well constructed, wing, stab and fuse were aligned well, but incidence of the wing was off so I had to add adjusters to it to get some positive incidence in the wing, as received the wing had slight negative incidence. The nose was very strong and I actually had to remove some of the exterior nose ring material to get the C50 to fit. Nose ring mounting an outrunner would be no issue as far as strength is concerned.

The only other thing I noticed (and this was forwarded to the manufacturer) was the location of the rudder horn forced the exit holes for the rudder pull-pull to be very close to the top of the elevator servos. I suggested they raise the rudder horn location to above the stab, as received it was below the stab.

With the C50, we had to shift everything forward to get close to recommended CG. With heavier outrunners, it should be less of an issue.

Basically, I felt the plane was overbuilt and resulted in addln weight. While we would have been able to make the 5K gram limit, I felt there were areas that could have been reduced in weight to make it easy to make 5K with the C50. With some outrunners, you would have to work harder to make 5K with the prototype we built.

All in all, I felt it was built well and hopefully the manufacturer has taken our suggestions to improve the built quality.

In the first test flights I observed, the plane appeared to fly well, it presented well in the air and seemed to have potential. Unfortunately, the plane crashed shortly after the test flights I observed and trimming was not completed prior to the crash.

Woodie

Woodie . . that would be the plane of Derek Koopowitz ?? . . I read interference was the cause of it's early demise ?

I am interested in the flight reports, BJ. WEIGHT is the critical factor here . . it MUST be under 5kg. So the bare airframe must be around 2.2kg (preferably LESS ). Do you have a bare airframe weight, BJ?

Obviously, the flight characteristics are next . . i.e. rolling, coupling, up and down line tracking, snap and spin performance, effects of wind, etc. etc.

Look forward to the report and factory feedback suggestions . .

Cheers, JB

JB, yes, it was Derek's plane.......

Woodie

Hi Troops,
The bird is all but ready to fly, just tidying up the servo cables and hope to fly this weekend if the weather permits. AUW came in at 5.6kg[&o] but I am using an Eflite Power 160 motor and a Kontronik Power Jazz 63 ESC (only because I had them on the shelf) which are not the lightest choice, plus this model is not a full production unit, so some weight could still be cleaned from the build.
Still very happy with the product so far.

Cheers BJ

1.3 pounds is a lot of weight to lose...

I have seen this model on Model Flight's web site. Looks good for the price..

Good luck.

Cheers
Jason.

Shame about the weight . .

I don't think changing out anything would shave over 600gms off easily . . the factory may have a bit of work to do there, I reckon.

Look forward to hearing how it flys though . .

Cheers, JB

Mine came out to about 5.1kg - that is without changing the stock wing tube and doing some other modifications. I'm sure I could've gotten it down to just over 5kg. BTW, I used 9650's on ailerons and elevators.

Hi Derek,
I used JR DS3401 servos for the elevators (4g heavier than S9650) and JR DS9401 servos on the ailerons (16g heavier). What motor, cells, ESC did you use?
Carried out the maiden on Friday morning and it flies a treat, maybe just a little bit of mixing required for knife edge, but the conditions may have had an effect on the flight performance just a little. More flights will tell more.

Cheers BJ

PS any Australian flyers going to the all electric fun fly at Swan Hill on the 4th & 5th of Oct. ?

I had a Hacker C50 X14 in mine and used FP 5350's. The ESC was a Jeti 77.

BJ . .

Any pics of the finished article ??? If the weekends pattern comp was anything to go by . . Friday must have been WINDY ! ! We flew verticals at near 45deg on occasions ! !

The SH electric event sounds great. Not sure I can make it this year (I will have a look at it), but will get there one day. Only have some park flyers and a Sebart Angel 50E to fly anyway . . so nothing too inspiring to show off []

Cheers, JB

Any more news on this plane?

pictures, opinions, etc

enjoy

Any price on what in would be in US$?

Robert I looked into it. I think it would be about $1400 shipped best I can tell. Problem seems to be weight for E. Mike

I can ship you one to the US for £780 GBP which is below 1200 USD right now


Sickle weights in grams

Fuselage including hinged rudder 1065
Left wing panel plus hinged aileron 421
Right wing panel plus hinged aileron 415
Left tail plus elevator 117
Right tail plus elevator 123
Canopy 134

Do you have the weights for the landing struts and the wheel pants? Thanks.
$1205 US$. Not bad! Thanks, Mike

wheel pants 20g each
Legs 76g each
wing tube 92g

Thanks. I love the looks of this plane. I wish we had more flight reports. Mike

Just to give you a comparison of my prototype weights:

Fuse - 1280g
LW - 445g
RW - 435g
LS (tubes included) - 130g
RS - 116g
Wing tube (carbon replacement) - 42g

My fuse weight included canopy - so yours comes to 1199. Overall difference in weight is 173g lighter. I was at 5.1kg - and I know I could have gotten it close to 5kg. So it looks like yours will be close to being underweight.

Prop Spinner and Lipos to fit only now

Got mine 2 days ago. Here's some pics on F3A
http://electric-f3a.com/smf/index.php?topic=43.0
Mike

Gas or Electric are 2 differents version Or the same plane can do both ?
what are the difference ?
what weight ready to fly in gas version with YS ?

thx
best regards