Any one have any experience with the old "Coyote" by Bob Martin? I have one I'm building and want to know how it flies. I'd like to modify it if need be.

Is it very fast at 72"? Are flaps a good idea?

Hi, rimshot, I used to have a Coyote. In it's time, it was considered very fast, but today, compared to the new breed of slope racers out there, it's only moderately fast, and it needs a fair amount of wind at the slope to stay up.

The only mod I made was to install two aileron servos in the wings, instead of one central servo for the ailerons.
I tried using these as flaperons, but that didn't work very good, it tended to become very mushy and tipstall.
However, with spoilerons you can control the sink rate pretty well, which is good for the small landing fields you often have at the slope.

All in all, it was a pretty good plane for the slope, and I had a lot of fun with it. I still have mine lying around in my shop, maybe I install an electric drive and try to make a hotliner out of it !

Michael

I had one 15 years ago and it flew great. A crash meant the easiest repair was to clip 3" off each wing. The roll rate was better and with the killer winds that we have, wing loading was not a problem.

I picked up a fully built Coyote a couple months ago, and have only
had a chance to fly it once from the top of Loveland Pass, CO. As stated, it's
fast, but not fast by today's standards (I've got a Nemesis and Miraj F3F to
compare it to). It takes quite a lot of nose weight to balance. Somewhere
on the order of 6oz, bringing the AUW to 41oz which isn't horrible for a 72" glider,
but not great either. I got it basically to get my hands on
the indestructible Duralene fuselage, and I figure I'll fly it until the
wings are destroyed, and then build new wings for it which have
a faster airfoil. Looking forward to flying it this winter though.
I really wanted it to be my crunchie that I can fly in places I wouldn't normally
try to land a crunchie.

The ailerons are a very small percentage of the chord which gives it
a less than snappy roll rate, and is probably why they don't work well
as flaperons.

On the bright side, it's very distinctive in the air. Very scale jet-like
in appearance. It should be able to handle most of our big air too.

Some photos of mine.
http://www.houseofthud.com/rc/#coyote

I also found a neat trick for restoring old dirty Duralene with the dremel's
buffing wheel and a couple wooden sticks to rub it down smooth and
polished.

ian

I also have a Coyote that I flew for three years in Alaska in place they referred to as the birthplace of the winds. Most days had winds of 15 - 80+ mph but never flew when it blew more than 50 mph sustained. This airplane does need a good breeze too keep it up and fly right but also handles some pretty heavy winds. I found the Coyote to be a lot of fun. Not to fast for someone not use to high speed slope flight but fast enough to get a thrill. I also flew it a few years ago in Michigan off the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. Just dusted it off again and plan on fixing it up. It is a good solid airplane. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]