SM Hawk Maiden
 

Hi guys, this past Friday we maidened the new ARF PLUS Hawk from Skymaster. All I can say is wow, this jet fly's incredible, very smooth and can do all manouvers on the book. Knife edge flying is a piece of cake...:D

So it took our builder about 3 weeks to asemble the Hawk, the customer went with a full light system from Flugmodellbau and for power the JF-100 Falcon. No surprises on the building stages, everything went in well and minor modifications where required. I am sure our friend Acrored (Builder) will provide some coments. He did do some modifications to the fel tanks though. We used an old F-18 main tank and modified the intake of the smaller tank. Check the pics...

First flight was by the book, after we tested range checks and other systems it was time to fly.
Apply full power and let the Hawk go, I pulled a bit of elevator and off the ground it went in about 60 meters, very impresive. Just a few trim adjustments and we where ahveing a lot of fun. Tested some aerobatics, great... Tested knife flying with low rate, PERFECT... This jet is so stable. Most flying was done with a bit more than half the power. The Falcon gives more than enough power for this jet.

Ok it was time to test slow flight capabilities so I went up, cut to idle and let the hawk slow down until stall. I was almoust stopped on the air, impressive how slow this jet can go. The right wing droped and I applyed power which came instantly and I was flying straight and level in no time.

Next tested the air brake, we opened it and it was very obious how the Hawk started to loose speed fast. No pitch changes with this manouver.

Next test, the infamous let's lower the flaps test.... So I cut the power to 1/3 and lower the gear, then lower the flaps slowly all the way down. The Hawk pitched down a bit but not much, but it was loosing speed very fast. I applyed power again and I was flying straight and level with a bit of up elevator. (We added a mix for later flight to fix this)
I took a couple of turns to see how it handled and then the landing aproach. No problem here, a slight high AOA on finals and the hawk landed smoothly on the runway. It was completelly stopped after about 40 meters.

So in general the jet fly's great, very fun and easy to fly. The customer is very happy with it.

On Sunday we went flying again, this time the customer flew the jet, on landing he came very high and pitch the jet down about 30 degrees. With full flaps the jet was slowing down quite fast but from his angle it was not really noticeable. When he was about to reach the runway he wanted to pull up but the Hawk was going so slow that he was unable to do it completelly. He was very lucky that he only got some gear damage and a few scratches, the Hawk will be flying again next weekend.

Unfortunatelly our tipycal camera man was not there so we got no video but I promise to get some new video next weekend. I do have some pics though.

Michel

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Some intallation pics. Check the tanks. The first picture shows where the hole was on the top tank.

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

You guys spelled "retracts and brakes" wrong, but did fine for "on and off" ;)

Looks awesome! Glad all turned out well, thanks for sharing!

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Hola Michel,
como andas ??

I send a mail from LAKE WALES for you, we bought a BAE HAWK ( SKYMASTER ), absolutely fantastic!!!!!, I go to ask for you some accessories that had not come with the kit.

Abrazos
Jose

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Michel, that's beautiful! I really like that plane, looking forward to seeing a video on your website!
It's winter here with only 4-5 hours of daylight (and even then some fog or snow), but hopefully I
will fly the F-16 next weekend!

:D
Tor

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Michel,

Very nice jet! As always...your machines are perfect!

Well done Lad...

Beave

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Thanks guys, we are very happy with how this jet is performing. Acrored should start reparing today....:D

Jose got your email, let me know what you need.

Tor, we just got a new F-16 1/6 here we should start building next week, after the repairs on the Hawk and after installing the Chute to my F-4[X(]

Michel

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

I NEEED to see a video with the chute!!
Which color on the F-16 - not the Dutch-striped one??

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

I hope to get the chute installed next week, as soon as it is in I will post a video. I must say the chute system is awesome. I got it from Details for Scale. It is completely automatic so it releases by itself when certaion conditions are meet.

The F-16 is painted in a special color scheme the customer requested, I will post some pic later...:D

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

A Ha ! I beat you to it. I already installed mine and it works perfectly. It took more than an hour though as I had to modify the cone to accomodate the two tail lights :D:D

Adil

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

AHHHHHHH..... You beat me Adil.... No problem I am sure you will let me test it at FJ08...[X(];)

The race for the video is still on....:D

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Michel. Where was neutral piont on the stabs?
Thanks, Billy

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Not sure as we balanced the stabs at 0 degrees, but I did have to apply some up trim in the first flight. I may ask the builder (Acrored) to meassure that and let you know.

Michel

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Hello Michel,

congrats to your succesful maiden. I'm also flying a SM Hawk but the old version. Can you tell us the weight of the bird and the CG. I'm also interested to know if you raise the ailerons on the landing pattern to allow a slower approach. I will try this during the next flight. It would be fine to see a video, especially landing. ;) I'm flying on a grass lane and take off with flaps is uneventful and looks very scale.
My bird seems not to slow down as fast as yours does. I need to fly a very wide landing pattern to slow it down. Full flaps is applied on the final. Also my bird doesn't like any AOA when flying slow, may be it's a matter of CG?
But, as you say, flying the bird is just fun!

Looking forward to your answeres and regards from Germany

Andreas

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Hi Andreas, we didn't weight the jet but it feels really light and fly's with the Falcon (23lbs of thrust) just a bit above half throttle.
The Cg is per instructions at 180mm.
What do you mean about raising the ailerons, we do not have that kind of setup on the Hawk. I do apply some up elevator when flaps are lowered to compensate for the pitch down tendency.
In this Hawk the flaps are very efective at 100% they slow the plane very nicelly letting you use throttle to bring it down. If you apply only half flaps the Hawk will float forever as it will loose speed very slowly.
You have to be carefull with high AOA and low speeds as the Hawk will drop a wing if it gets too slow. You need just a but positive to help it reduce speed and flare on final. We still need to install the fences on the wings and see how they perform.

Michel

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Congratulations for tha maiden Michel!

I think Andreas is refering to crow mixing.

Alex

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Will there be a video:)

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Just hold your smoke there Junhoudini

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Hopefully we will get some video this weekend. I will post here if we do.

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Hello Michel,

thanks for your answeres. And yes, I'm referring to crow mixing. I will try this to reduce the stall tendency of the outer wing panel. One question is left for me: How far do you deploy the flaps? On my Hawk maximum flap is about 30mm with an elevator mix of 15mm up.
These are the values SM mentioned for the old version and they work pretty fine.
Regards

Andreas

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

No crow mixing on this one. Actually the Hawk gets VERY slow before dropping a wing under normal conditions you shouldn't find this problem. I do want to test the small wing fences first and see what they do.
The flaps are set per instructions at 30mm, but I will double check since I found the Hawk to slow down quite fast with full flaps.

Michel

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Hi , any video of this week end Michel ??
Best Regards
Nicolas

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

No Nicolas, my small kid has been sick so I wasn't able to go flying this weekend. Next one for sure... :)

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Michel ,congratulations! What were your steering and rudder servos ? I was curious how that 161/168 JR.US. rudder servo mounted in the fin. Also did the front Ply floor need to be remove to get the cockpit bucket in?

RE: SM Hawk Maiden
 

Hi Andreas, I used to have the old SM Hawk and the model was as steady as a rock around the circuit. In fact The model worked out slightly nose heavy without adding any tail weight, and I just left it that way. I also had the wing fences correctly set at 15 degrees. In this configuration and with a Wren Supersport for power, the model was a pure delight. It would do the book but You could haul it around the final turn with no suggestion of departure. I would suggest moving your CG forward just a little and try again.
BTW, I loved this model so much that when I lost it I tried to get another, but the old model was finished, and the new one would probably be underpowered with my SS engine becuase its quite a bit bigger. So I now have a FB Hawk, which appears to be exactly the same model.
Regards,

John