The Sled
 

http://www.mmrca.org/lance/sledframe.html

For those who don't follow this every day anticipating the next update.

Hats off to you Lance!

RE: The Sled
 

Awesome Lance! Looks great. Got a pic to post later that we talked about a while back.

Dennis

RE: The Sled
 

NOW THAT IS A MODELER ! Not someone that orders a create with Chines Pick-Up-Sticks in a box that is already built. And has to ask where does the engine go? Good job Lance ! Show all these ARF experts how its done. [8D] Butch

RE: The Sled
 

WOW just absolutely WOW! ! ! I have been following and discussing it with Lance & Jerry for the last several years.
Congrats Guys...gotta be a hugh sense of satisfaction.........Roger



http://www.route66jets.com/

RE: The Sled
 

That is off the hook! How brilliant was the water transfer to ajust CG idea. Thats how they do it full scale, great adaptation of that method. Beyond brilliant actually! Truly a work of art!

RE: The Sled
 

I have been watching that project for a long time and its great to see it fly. With turbines, that plane will be off the hook!!!

Now if we can just get Harold Huf to fly his SU 27 we would be all good.

RE: The Sled
 

Oh, this is my favorite bird, hands down. I used to watch it fly over my house in northern CA over the Summer. Congrats on a brilliant build!

RE: The Sled
 

I've been following this project for some time. Tremendous accomplishment - congratulations!!! Should be amazing with turbine power.

RE: The Sled
 

Best of luck to you Lance with your project! I'd been impressed with that massive mold work you've been doing. [8D] Clever ideas for tweaking your CG on first flight! I'm glad you didn't really need them.

It will really be impressive when running under turbine power! I remember when the Yellow DF kits would show up at Superman every year (I think yours, and Roy from St.Louis) - they looked like a handful, especially watching the attitude during turns. For some reason, they always looked to me like flying guitars! :) I even remember when Frankie T drove over one in a golf cart! :D I'll always remember that!

RE: The Sled
 

Absolutley awesome job Lance! Can't wait to see her with turbines. Congradulations, Ron Colbert

RE: The Sled
 

Great job Lance & Jerry!!!!!!!!!!![sm=thumbs_up.gif]

RE: The Sled
 

Totally awesome! 6 years of dedication.
The next generation of modelling all American Hero!

RE: The Sled
 

I love your plud work and the laser idea is great for large complicated shape where straight edges can't go. The finish and detailing on the plug must have taken months. WONDERFUL WORK> I assume there are turbine in it's life some time?
Charlie

RE: The Sled
 

Thanks for the kind thoughts everyone. I was very much to the point of punching the throttle and seeing what the heck would happen. I was so ready for it to be difficult to fly with potential balance being way off or who knows what else would be wrong, I was completely floored, when it was so easy to fly.

Other than having to be so gentle with it, rate of climb wise, it easily went exactly where I told it. With it being so well behaved, I'm now really excited about flying it under turbine power now.

Under the heading, "pay me now or pay me later", the shortcuts that I took to fly it under props are now coming due. Now I'm making plugs for the molds for making Kevlar fuel tanks, and I've got the tail pipe installations to work out along with all the other parts to prepare for turbine installations. It seemed silly to make Kevlar tanks, bypass ductwork and inlet spikes if it was going to be unflyable, but now, itching to see it fly as it was intended, is an exercise in patience. :)

My goal is turbine flight on the fixed gear by then end of the flying season...time will tell.

RE: The Sled
 

Lance
Love you work, hope my Pilatus PC-9M comes or half as good as I have seen in your work!
Charlie

RE: The Sled
 

http://www.mmrca.org/lance/sledframe.html

turbine flight with a video at the bottom of the page.

RE: The Sled
 

awesome

RE: The Sled
 

Too cool!!
Great Job!!!

RE: The Sled
 

Well done Lance! Makes good sense going with the fixed gear to keep things simple and work out the prototype. The plane looked very stable in all axis, suprisingly in roll. Did you use a gyro on roll?

That landing was BUTTER! Best of Luck with the project.

Joe

RE: The Sled
 

What a greased landing too. WOW!!!!

RE: The Sled
 

Awesome Lance, I have been following this for some time and I am so glad to see her fly



KIT KIT KIT KIT,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, HOPE HOPE HOPE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, SOON SOON SOON



BRG,,,, Dave

RE: The Sled
 

Very nice,congrats[sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]

RE: The Sled
 

Just awesome!
Congrats!

RE: The Sled
 

Lance,
Awesome job! Can't wait to see it in person!
Jim

RE: The Sled
 

Thanks everyone. Yea, I'm quite the happy camper on how stuff is turning out. So far, I've found no bad characteristics on how it flies. As a matter of fact, it's turning out to be a big pusycat, and quite easy to fly. That's quite a welcome relief after flying the little one, years ago. The little one that I flew 12-13 years ago, did ok, but I could never relax with it.

By the end of the second flight (the one you see in the video), Jerry commented that he could see I was starting to get more comfortable with it, and he's right. The little one always had this little 'tail wiggle'. Most of the ones I saw did it. This one doesn't do that at all. It just tracks straight ahead, nice and solid. It really feels like flying a traditional, centrally mounted single engine airplane. To answer one of the above questions, nope, no gyros on anything. I had thought I might have to do that, but it's turning out that it's not needed at all.

One reason might be, is that my outboard elevators are scale, unlike the smaller ones, on my older one. These scale ones are huge, and seem to do a better job with authority on the roll control.

As I go into the winter building season, the couple of good flights have been a welcome shot in the arm. This winter I hope to get retracts in it, and the engine bypass's done, including the inlet spikes. Next year will continue the test flights to further explore if there are any problems, but so far so good....

Lance