Hi Guys,

I finally got to maiden my Skygate Hawk yesterday, Saturday turned out to be too windy (25 knots gusting 35, sand storm everywhere).

Anyway this is the third Skygate Hawk that I have flown (I test flew two others last year), I must say that I just love this model. Currently my G-Booster 160+ is the Turbine being used and it does need 65 – 100% power most of the time, especially here in the Middle east as the air is thin and my model turned out to weight 22 KGs DRY.

I put two extra saddle tanks (BVM MiG-15) on the top sides of the fuselage to achieve two things really; extra endurance and inertia. The flight characteristic are more realistic and scale like as sometimes this model can wallow on the approach like a butterfly when built below the 20 KG level.

I will send some more photos and hopefully a video soon.

Cheers,

Darryl Tarr
Captain Boeing 777
Emirates Airline

Great looking airplane. More pictures.... please.

Rick

Nice Darryl, very nice!

Do you know exactly where your CofG is or did it seem "about right" and fly OK? Do you have any batteries etc toward the tail?

Cheers,
Mark

Hi Darryl,

Congratulations my friend, I know how bad you wanted to get this jet done. I'm really happy for you and hope you enjoy many many flights with it.

Hi Mark,

The recommended CG as you know is 305 mm AFT of the LE of the Wing. This is exactly where the 3mm wing bolt hole is located on my model and when the reference is transferrd parallel to the Main Spar it ends up being just outside the second outer wing fence. My CG is actually about 295 mm, the model balances between the second and third outer wing fence as indicated on the photo (I hope the quality is clear).

I could move the CG back but with the extra weight it handles well and is very stable. I ended up using a PowerBox Royal with TWO Duralite Lithium-Ion HC 4,300 MAh, 2S2P and they are mounted on the floor between the 2 pilot seats.

I can take some photos of my installation and post it if any of you guys are interested.

Cheers,

Darryl

LMAO!! I don't where that picture came from but that's my wing on my stand with my empty take-away cardboard box in the background

I really need to double check mine. I have a 4cell nicad AND my ECU back under the rear elevator cover!! RX Lipos are strapped to the wing tube. Either I have pilots with lead boots or (as I suspect) my CofG is too far back!

Always good to see installation pics. I may have to end up redoing mine during its overhaul so post away [8D]

Cheers,
Mark

Congratulations Darryl,

Too bad I missed the event!
Sounds like you will need a P-200 on this one !

It is your wing, I just quickely downloaded the picture from your other Skygate Build Thread and drew the lines on it.

My ECU battery, ECU, Fuel Pump and Valves are all mounted on a platform between the intakes and the turbines forward mounting former. I have nothing mounted behind this location except for the turbine. All the other gear is basically below the rear pilots seat, nothing forward of this. My UAT is mounted on top of the Main Fuel Tank. I made a Half Panel in the rear canopy "D" Shaped area which has my re-fueling and de-fueling valve, pneumatic accessories and battery charge pionts.

I will take some photos tonight of the installation and post them tomorrow.

Cheers,

DT

Here are some photos of my installation:

Very nice and clean Darryl. Well done.
Did you sort out the Royal questions ?

You suspect your c of G is too far back hey Mark......

Hey Oliver,

A JetCat P-200 would be great in this model. I will be test flying Leon's Hawk tomorrow afternoon (weather permitting) and his one is P-180 powered, so I am looking forward to the performance comparison. Ali told me the Skygate Hawk from Kuwait (I think it's Hassan's Model) flies great with a P-180, it certainly look impressive at the Dubai Jet Rally.

I eventually used AUX 6 on BOTH Receivers for the PowerBox Fail Safe, these were spare channels. Actually I wasn’t going to set up the PowerBox Fail Safe in the beginning (this was before I had read the manual properly), but since realized that running TWO RX is pointless unless you setup the system correctly otherwise there will be NO switching between the Receivers.

Cheers,

DT

Yep! I know you suggested that too, but from flying it the first time a few things don't add up. I seem to have a load more weight in the tail than others, it is quite sensitive to pitch but flying inverted needs a boot full of down to keep the nose up - if it was tail heavy I'd expect to only need a tiny amount, if not none!? Was going to use the flights last Saturday to sort it out once and for all.

Hi Mark,

Try this: The trailing Edge of the Horizontal Stabilizer should be in-line with the rear cover seam. This approximates the correct reference for an in-trim flight at normal speeds. In other words the stabilizer is set correctly to produce the required "Tail Down Force" for normal flight conditions and of course at average flight speeds.

My Hawk required THREE clicks of UP Elevator TRIM (equivalent to 12 Units on the JR PCM 12X) for the first flight which suggests that the CG is slightly forward.

During inverted flight it is only those aircraft with fully symmetrical wings and Zero incidence that would require no down elevator.

Cheers,

DT

Darryl,

Cheers. I have the elevator neutral set correctly. I expected an amount of 'down' to keep the nose leveel but I guess I have spent too long flying big Yaks/Extras where only a little amount is needed!!!

Like I say, I am going to double triple check the current CofG position and go from there.

Strange question, what would the result be of both ailerons raised slightly? Don't ask why just yet [&:]

Rgds,
Mark

Both Ailerons raised:

This reduces the Angle of Attack of the wing tips, a bit like having washout, the center of pressure would move forward slightly and you could end up with a pitch sensitive model (dont relate this to "CROW" as a crow set-up is for landing when you have a model that has a huge flaps surface area and large deflecations).

Set the triling edge of the ailerons in-line with the trailing edge of the flaps (make sure the flaps are fully retracted, as far as they can go mechanically.

If you're considering upgrading to the P-180, then take the 200. It is only 75grs heavier than the 180, has a 3,5 sec acceleration measured at 28°c in Dubai real conditions and produces an amazing level of thrust.
I was expecting to run a "dinosaure" when I got mine ( a bit like the P-80: very slow and not very impressive thrust to weight ratio ) but in fact it is exactly the contrary. It is a fantastic engine.
Max told me that they have constantly and aggressively been improving the engine since they designed it, because they are selling a lot of them to the military industry.


Concerning the Royal, you are right: it is extremely important to setup the failsafe correctly. Have a look at this:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8038701/tm.htm
It is equally important to run the redundancy checks as I describe them in the article. I've had 1 Royal and 2 RRS unit failed while going through these tests so far.
It also helps to understand how the system works.
With your setup, I'd go through the advanced redundancy check by unplugging the Rx remote receiver leads from the units ( when they are ON and receiveing the Tx transmission ) and blanking the remaining antenna wire with a clipped aluminium tube alternatively while doing a range test.

Give me a call tomorrow if you want, I could go with you to the field.

Congratulations Darryl,this some pictuer i take it from dubai jet rally.




faisal