Are Hotspots available in fully composite kits? I have found them with composite fuselage and obechi covered wood wings but nobody seems to know if they are available with all composite wings also. Don"t want to glass wings if it is not neccessary.

Also wondering about the landing characteristics of the Hotspot. I fly a Rookie now and I am wondering if the Hotspot has different landing characteristics. I would like to be able to have greater control over speed on landings which is difficult with the Rookie and Kangaroo variety of planes. Powering back up is always a little risky with the Rookie on landing approach which makes going around for a second try tough sometimes. I would also like to have a plane that has greater rudder control for cross wind landings as well. The rudders on my Rookie are not very effective, I think because they are so small.

Input from you guys would be greatly appreciated since I am ready to buy something soon...Thanks, Gary

Hi Gary:

I am flying one of the composite kits, although due to a prior wreck, I have converted to a pair of obechi wings I bought damaged and repaired and glassed.....I still am using the fuse and composite fins.....

Check with Tad at http://www.goldenwestmodels.net

I think he may have a couple of them left.....that's where mine came from...

I think you can still get them completely ARF'd, for a few more bucks....come hinged with all the servo trays in place in the wings, and all the bulkheads and formers in the fuse....speed brake installed, and fuel tank mounts in place....then it just a matter of gearing up and painting.....

I highly recommend the Robart 630 retracts with Robart struts.....and Glennis, BVM, Intairco, or Trim W/B.....over the imported stuff like from Eurokit....

Tom

P.S.---wish I had known that at SM---could have put you on the buddy box and have you try my ancient HotSpot(pushing 200 flights now)....once you get the C.G right, along with proper throws, it lands very nice....very little tendency to Kangaroo hop...easy, nose high landings, most of the time Most guys get in trouble with the C.G. too far back...it then likes to do the HotSpot Cobra about 3 feet off the ground, following the first bounce....

As far as x-winds, once you mix out the roll coupling on the rudder, they are very effective in keeping the nose straight with a x-wind...go arounds are no problem, as long as you give my P-120 a few minutes notice to spool up

Scott Harris in another fellow that burns lots of gallons with his Mercury powered HS and might chime in....

Gary,
I got my first seven HOTSPOT flights at Superman last week. These are also my first turbine flights period. I got a bit nervous on the first flight and had to do a go around, the Mercury spooled right back up and after I got the airbrake down and caught my breath, I went back to the other end and forgot to put the airbrake out again, the landing was kinda hot and I bounced it and ended up out in the grass which hurt the gear struts. but after spending the rest of Friday accumulating enough strut parts to get it repaired I flew six more times on Saturday and Sunday. Every landing was nearly perfect and I was able to throttle up it they apppeared too slow and reduce the sink rate. I was coming to idle on the Mercury, as I finished turn three into the "baseleg" of the approach and then adjust the sink rate as needed to get a nice touchdown. The airbrake makes this thing a *****cat. Note the attached pic show it with P-120 which was on it before I bought it.
Regards, Roger

I have been flying a hotspot now for about a year and it took some getting used too, about 2 flights. The plane flys beautifully and will land very nicely as long as you have the CG right. The speed brake really helps this plane really slow down nicely for landings and as JETJOCK said get the nose up and control the descent with the throttle. I always keep some extra struts and a couple of trunion blocks on hand just in case I have a really bad landing and need to do a quick field repair. Depending on your motor and the power output of it, go arounds can be very easy.

As far as glassing the wing you really don't have to do that, I fly with someone who has his wings and fins monokoted and it looks good. I prefer to fiberglass because the fiberglass adds some strength to the fins along with some carbon strips.

Hope this helps.

Patrick.

Gary,
Having flown the Hotspot, Rookie and Kangaroo I can honestly say if your having problems landing a rookie you will have even more difficulty with the spot. They all fly very much the same although I found the spot was harder to transition into slow flight (probably due to less drag on the airframe). The key to landing all the delta type airframes is the slow flight transition and holding them off the deck till they settle themselves in.
You mention "Powering back up is always a little risky with the Rookie on landing approach" I am curious what you mean by that? What kind of problems are you having?

Todd

I have also just recently maiden flew my spot.

I have some videos of the takeoff and landing on a grass strip.
(Icant take credit for this perfect landing, as it was my instructer who flew and trimmed the plane in. )

Ofcourse, the first time I tried to land her I broke the gear

Takeoff: http://bornholm.adsl.dk/modelfly/fil.../Keldstart.WMV

Landing: http://bornholm.adsl.dk/modelfly/fil...keldlander.WMV



My Hotspot with a Simjet 2300

Todd, I usually don't have any problems with the landings on the Rookie except when I fly at fields with shorter runways. I have around 100 flights now with the Rookie and only a couple of minor retract problems on landing resulting from misjudging the distance on approach.
As soon as you throttle up to go around with the Rookie it will start porpoising, not nearly as bad as the Kangaroo but it still does a little so you have to add throttle very slowly to prevent the propoising and meanwhile you are running out of flying field which is a real problem at one field I fly at in particular. (BTW, it is balanced right on factory recommended C.G.)
I was just wondering if the Hotspot would be more like a conventional aircraft where you can add full power for instantaneous response w/o worrying about the porpoising effect or some other bad result associated with the delta wing plane.
I am also giving some thought to just purchasing a BVM Bandit so that it has flaps because I would like to be able to use throttle for landings as opposed to just waiting until the airplane slows enough to settle w/o bouncing like on the delta wing planes. It is just sometimes difficult to put the delta plane where you want it on the runway because you are really just waiting for it to slow up enough to settle on the runway, wherever that may be, and with a plane like the Bandit with flaps it lands where you want because you can control descent and point of touchdown with throttle. This is kind of difficult to explain on the internet but maybe you get the idea.
My real question I guess is does the Hotspot have more of the characteristics of the delta on landing or are you able to control descent with throttle more like a conventional plane with flaps? Cross wind landings with the Hotspot is the other area I an interested in because with the Rookie the rudders are so small that they do not seem very effective for landing in a cross wind. What about the Hotspot?
Thanks, Gary

Gary,
The hotspot will slow down when you put the nose up. I control my descent on final with my throttle. As I turn on final I get lined up, pull the nose up a little and watch the descent rate. If I start to descend to fast I add throttle and if I am not descending fast enough I just come out of the throttle. The only trick as with any delta is not getting the nose to high. On a full power application for a go around my hotspot has no bad tendencies. When it has the speed it just starts to fly again and no porpoising. I had some problems when I first started flying it worrying about the airplane stalling on approach so I was coming in way to flat which led to coming in really hot which leads to bouncing. After someone pointed out to me what I was doing wrong I was able to correct and now my landings are smooth. Every once in awhile I still bounce it a little but not to bad.


Patrick.

Gary,
Still a bit confused on the "porpoising"? Are you saying when you apply power for a go-around while still airborne the plane will porpoise? This is by no means normal for a rookie and would indicate a possible thrust incidence issue. Few questions:
1) do you have any reflex in the elevons?
2) when the plane is trimmed for say half throttle and you apply full power, does the plane tend to climb or descend?

Full power application during a go-around should not have any affect on the airplanes attitude, if it does you have an thrust incidence problem (vectored thrust needs to be adjusted) As with all the Deltas (as Patrick indicated) you must transition in "Slow Flight" before your ready to land, if you can achieve this slow flight configuration you will now be using throttle to control your decent (not elevator) and with practice you can learn to plant the plane anywhere on the runway you wish. Dont rush the landing phase, drop the gear and speed brake, pull back the power till your close to stall speed then come back in with enough power that the plane is flying stable but no more. You will notice a considerable drop in speed and a slight nose up attitude. Take two or three laps in the pattern to get comfortable before committing to the approach (practice this a few mistakes high at first) Once on final, use throttle to control the decent, holding a bit of elevator to keep a slight nose up attitude. Dont use elevator to control the decent, once you drop the nose the speed builds up fast! THROTTLE MANAGEMENT is the key....! As I stated earlier, having flown all three, they all fly and land very similar so your not going to benefit much by changing airframes (at least from one delta to another). It took me roughly 60 to 70 flights before I really learned how to land these Deltas, once you learn the correct way to transition to slow flight your landings will improve greatly Practice, practice, practice BTW, if your coming to FIJR meet next month I would be happy to help .....
Regards,
Todd

Todd,
Speaking of FIJR, are you going to be there friday? If so we have to hook up and just say howdy. I won't be there to fly as I have to go to work the next day early so I am just going to come on up to take some pictures and have a good time with some friends.


Gary,
To re-emphasize what Todd said, practice practice practice. I still do a low slow pass every once in awhile with gear down and nose up holding the plane at a certain altitude with throttle just to keep myself used to doing it, plus it looks really cool coming across the runway low and slow with speed brake up.

Patrick.

Yea, we should be there some time friday morning and staying through sunday. Look forward to seeing you again patrick!

Todd

Like Todd I, too, have flown the HotSpot, Kangaroo, and now the Rookie. Todd has hit the nail on the head with his suggestions. If you have a porpoising problem then you have a problem with either the reflex, thrust vector incidence, or both. My up reflex is only about the thickness of the trailing edge of the wing. Make sure that the thrust vectoring (T/V) exhaust nozzle is EXACTLY parallel with the engine and that the engine and T/V exhaust nozzle is dead center with each other. It seems that the Rookie was set up for a JetCat type engine. With a JetCat engine the engine mount is NOT symetrical (on the center line of the engine). I'm flying an AMT Mercury HP in my Rookie and found that I needed to mount the T/V exhaust tube a little lower than on the center of the ehaust opening on the fuselage. Since it would be a big pain to re-install the T/V bearings and rotating axles----Shim your engine to the center of the T/V exhaust tube.

I like to take my Rookie up high and cut the throttle back to idle, then let her dive down toward the center of the runway. The whistling sound on the way down reminds me of an airliner... After leveling out and gliding by, I then slam the throttle fully forward and climb back up for the next manuever. No pitch changes what so ever on the throttle up!!!! If you are having trouble slowing the Rookie down then you must be do something wrong...You can't just cut the engine and glide it in.....You must get the nose slighty up and fly the plane with the throttle. Also, make sure your speed brake is 90 degrees to the model. I've had no problems slowing my Rookie down...Even on a calm day that flew earlier this week. I start to slow the model down and then deploy the gear for a gear check pass. When I see "three greens" I pitch the model out and at the same time deploy the speed brake. As the model slows I add power to maintain whatever altitude I desire...Using the throttle to control altitude. Once you know you have made the runway I cut the engine to idle. the nose is slightly up. As speed bleeds off I add more elevator for the flare. Let this model settle in by itself!!!! When the mains touch you can add more elevator and ride the mains nose high for about as long as you care to!!!!

So far I have never bounced the plane and the plane flies better that my HotSpots I used to have. I hope this helps....

Kevin

Hey Kevin i think you also need to take advice from Tod. Because you do the same thing like gary on landing. .









Unknown

Unknown...What are you talking about???? I land as I described.....The last time was in front of about 300 people at the Memphis Belle Classic this past weekend. Even got a round of applause after slicking it on in the middle of the runway....

Kevin

Unknown,

If you are referring to Saturday at Superman....There was a very stiff cross wind (Check out the flags in the Superman pics) so I carried a little more speed than usual. I landed a little longer than I liked but so what...That was only my fourth flight on a new plane in front of bazzilions of people...I thought I did pretty well considering the windy circumstances.


Why don't you reveal yourself you little troll so that at the next jet rally several of us can tell you what we really think of you.....Face to face in person.[>:]

Kevin

Only that one time . But the problem gary describe still plague me. THROTTLE MANAGEMENT not 100 % but i'm getting there.