i replyed on a pm message....thanks

Maidened my Hawk today & it went well. I balanced it at 190mm, but it feels noseheavy & needs a lot of down elevator when inverted. I had four ounces of lead in the nose, so tonight I have removed one ounce & will go from there.
I had a total of six or seven flights & after a couple had it trimmed out & set up well, apart from the nose heavy situation. It was a bit of a handful on the first flight. The gear would not go up on the first flight, so I increased the pressure to nine bar. That got the gear up, but caused one of the nose gear door cylinders to remove the hinge it was attached to when closed. The ideal pressure that everything is happy with for me, was seven bar & get the gear up as soon as the jet lifts off. It does land very easily.
By the end of todays flights, I had got used to flying the Hawk & it got more relaxing. I was a bit worried after my experiences with the Jet Legend T45 I used to have. it was a dog to fly & land.
I am using a Merlin 140 & it accelerates vertically. Half throttle is all that is required for normal flight.
I will fly again tomorrow & hopefully finalise the settings & CG.

Nice landings today Jim and at near walking pace!!

Thanks Mario. That little bit of crow makes it easy to land.

Excellent flying today Jim, you nailed that Hawk mate

Chris

....and good handling

I've been waiting at least a month on mine as well. Ordered the airplane from Ray L. and he sent the cylinders in for me before he shipped me the gear. What gives? Very frustrating for sure.

I have been working with Ray also. He is doing what he can. Apparently there is a tiff between Comp ARF and Air-tech about the cost of replacement. As I have said previously, I bought the plane with gear from Comp ARF and feel I should incur no cost of replacement. I bought what was supposed to be a working set of gear. I guess air-tech claims they work fine and as we all know they don't.

Comp ARF should pay for the replacements and deal with Air-tech separately.

Jeff

nice to here you made good. i had the same issues also. one gear door flew off on first flight. i have 12 oz of lead in front of mine. i made the mistake of glueing mine in though..flys ok though.. anyway do you have the larger cylinders or the stock ones that come with the sport gear... anyway glad to hear about another great maiden flight....pat

Hi Pat. I have the sport gear with the large cylinders. Even then, it is essential to get the gear up at as low an airspeed as possible. The doors attached to the oleos act against the gear closing. Having to do a flight with the gear down is interesting to say the least, if you try some rolls etc.

hello dave wasnt sure ..did you get my reply .. sometimes they dont go through... sorry to be a pest... your always very helpfull...pat

Pat

Not sure...best to email me at [email protected] as I always see this.

Dave

Flew the Hawk about six times again yesterday, this time at the shorter club site. There was a bit of crosswind & a little gusty. Landed better with less flap.
Having removed an ounce from the nose, it did not require so much down elev when inverted. May still be nose heavy, but I am reluctant to remove more lead, as the CG must now be around 195mm.
Although it is the best Hawk I have flown, I think the Flash marginally easier to fly, but that may be just my set up. I am sure with some more fine tuning, it will get better.

Dave. Thanks for the help in the PM's. Everyone at the club was admiring the Hawk & the way it fly's.

Jim

No problem, it is the best flying Hawk and once you get some hours on it you will trust the Hawk design again

Dave

the flash is much easier to handle. the hawk has the big body with small swept wings. will tip stall easier if you get behind.. still nothing to bad though.. i only have 5 flights on mine. had trouble with my retracts and had to do a belly landing. not a scratch thank god.. now going to get my retracts working perfect before i fly it again.. weather is cold here so i am going to get her right.. its nice to have a great guy like dave wilshire on here to help us along...

Just received my Tam's pipe. Weighs 13.8oz vs the 21oz for the stock one. I think the 7oz off the back end should save at least that much, if not more off the front. My hope is it will combine to lighten the aircraft by a pound or so.

Mike

Mike

Probably, but it does not need to be lighter! It's way lighter than the other 1:5.5 scale Hawks around. If you fit a complete cockpit you will probably need to move the batteries back a little.

Dave

I am interested in thefact that you are using some crow on your Hawk,I have none on mine but do use it on my Flash which is very easy to land.

How much crow have you and is it mixed in only on full landing flap.

Did you try landing with and without the crow in,as I would like to know if it is worth while on the Carf Hawk.

Thanks

Phil.</p>

I have about 3/16ths of an inch of crow. I remembered reading back in the thread, that Dave said he thought that amount would make slow landings even better. In a light breeze, I have landed at near walking pace, with no sign of a wing dropping. No elevator mix was required. I did not try it without the crow, so I cannot really say if it makes a lot of difference, although I think it must help.

Thanks I will try that amount of crow and mix it so it is only active on full landing flap as I have 2 stage flap as Dave W and others here in UK.

Hope to try it out and get my retracts working with latest mods at our Abingdon Classic jet meet on the 17th Dec weather permitting.

Phil.

phil what other problems besides cylinder size issues are you having.. just curious...pat

Pat

Leaks

I have no CROW but probably have 1/32 (.75mm) raised ailerons as std. When you look along the seem line I have a very slight rise. Mine has always been like this and I can touch down at walking pace at full flap. This Hawk is so lightly loaded it does not suffer the wing break-away that some other smaller Hawks experience

Dw

Yes as Dave said I could not hold more than 80psi on my system so I have replumbed the lot andsplit the gear and dooron to two independant circuits.

I have three air tanks anyway so I do not want a leak on say one of the Robart door rams leaking and effecting the gear circuit.

I am using two 2 way Jetronics valves for the gear/door lines so this is very easy to change.

If this does not work then I am going to change the Jetronics gear valve for a BVM high flow valve which I already purchased from Dave.

Phil.

phil question.. are you loosing air when the plane is turned off or when you have the system on with the gear retracted. i am loosing air when i retract the gear. its a cylinder leak on mine. i am putting the bigger cylinders on so that should fix that problem.. air systems can be a pain..