Return to pattern
 

I'm planning a return to pattern flying after about 12 years being out of it. I'm really considering the SEBART miss wind 50. Two things that I can't seem to find on line. Where to buy the thing in the U.S. and, does it fly precise enough to be competitive in advance? I've watched countless videos of thing and it shows quite well, but, if the pilot is world class, they could make a 2X4 look smooth and precise. I also have a line on a PL prod. Flashdance. After all is said and done, I'd be into either plane for about the same money.

Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Alan

RE: Return to pattern
 

try F3A unlimited think they cary it

RE: Return to pattern
 

Chief Aircraft is an US distributor as well.

RE: Return to pattern
 

Alan,

I saw a Miss Wind compete in FAI at the 2010 Tangerine contest and it was amazing to watch.  I'm currently vlying an Angel-S 50 in intermediate, until I get my Genesis built.  I really like the Angel.  It flies like a larger airplane.  You can't go wrong with a SebArt product.  You can get them in the US from F3A Unlimited, Esprit Model, and Graves RC.

Good luck with the Miss Wind.


Rob

RE: Return to pattern
 

F3A Unlimited handles Sebart planes and the customer service is great! I highly recommend them.

RE: Return to pattern
 

While you're on the F3AUnlimited site, also take a look at Andrew Jesky's Osiris. Same size. Flies EXTREMELY well on a 5s pack and I've flown it through every sequence including F3A. My son is currently flying it in intermediate, but it flies the advanced schedule very well also. I have not seen the WindS 50 fly, but there are many that have endorsed it. I don't think you could go wrong with either.

RE: Return to pattern
 

I have 25 flights on my wind 50 and on the low horizontal line when the plane passes me the wingtip disappears. I'm considering putting some yellow covering under the wing to see if that helps. If I could do it all over again, I would probably buy the Osiris. I bought the Wind because of the removable tail, but that hasn't been an issue. Well, that's not true, I had to do some extra work to get the stab to stay tight against the fuse and not wobble around.
With the Wind you have to buy 6 cell batteries and the Osiris runs on 5 cell, so if you move up to a plane that runs on 10 cell you already have some batteries to use.

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Thanks for all the feed back. I appreciate it. I'm really leaning towards the Miss wind, which is the biplane. If the Osiris came with two wings it would definately be intriguing.

Turns out that Chief aircraft is only a couple of hours down the freeway from me. I may have to pay them a visit.

Alan

RE: Return to pattern
 

Maybe your experience with Chief in person will be a good one.

Mine was on-line and it wasn't very good. I don't know why they even bother with toy airplane stuff if their attitude towards them is so poor

I'd stick with F3A Unlimited. The owner is a modeler like us

RE: Return to pattern
 

I did the same after 15 years... Careful if you jump to the 2m platform in electric.....you will have to spend quite a bit to get to the sub 11 pound limit. A 2m Electric pattern power setup....battery , engine, engine mount, and speed control outweigh a YS 170 by about 2 lbs... I found a really good 2m pattern ARF kit for the price of a 110....Try Texas RC plane called Fortuna. Also sold around the world under the name Sword II or Swordfish. Look at hobby king for low priced batteries and motors... they are not star quality but pretty good...

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With the new, small gasoline engines available today, you can have good power and reliability, extreme low cost of operation and light weight. It makes no sense to me to use electric power in the lower classes. You should fly a lot in Sportsman and Intermediate to learn the craft of Pattern flying, and gasoline operation will save you a ton of money in the long run

Electrics make much better sense in the higher classes..... the flexibility of electric allows better tuning of the airplane and power curve. MHO

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Alan,

Check your email. Sorry it took a while to respond.

Jeff

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Well, I bought the Miss wind. I found that F3A unlimited had a special going which saved me about the cost of shipping, so I ordered it from them on Monday. It arrived today, Thursday. Pretty darn fast shipping. I opened the box and it's pretty much built and ready for radio and motor intalation, need to join the stab to the fuse and a couple other small projects and it will be flying. Pics are in my gallery, nothing special. I just shot pics of how it fell out of the box.

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Is it as pretty as you expected? I'm in love with the way it looks.
Chris...

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I haven't taken everything out of the box yet. First impressions? The thing looks awesome. What I've seen of it so far, there are a couple of bubles in the covering, not a big deal at all. The colors look great together, I opted for the blue version. The wings are dead straight and all the surfaces are hinged and ready for glue.

I guess the short answer, yes it's as pretty as expected. I agree with you "stuntflyer", I love the way the thing looks. I'll try to get some pics posted as the build goes along. It should go pretty quick.

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Well, I have the first 10 or 12 flights on the miss wind now. Very nice flying plane. The assembly was a piece of cake, nothing worth even noting. The suggested motor and ESC work very well, plenty of power, can always use more, but this is a good combination. The airplane tracks very nicely, Ailerons are very responsive with no over roll, when I let go of the input the plane stops right where it is. The rudder has more autority than anything I've ever flown, (other than helicopters). Knife ede loops are easy and I'm not anywhere close to *****g the rudder travel, in fact, I backed way out of the rudder travel, I kept over controling the rudder on point rolls and slow rolls.
The only problem I encountered has nothing to do with the airplane. I'm using a 9303 and the stock flaperon set-up, when I try to trim the ailerons, I end up with all four moving in the same dirction. IE: When I trim left aileron into it, all four ailerons droop down like flaps. This realy made the plane fly like crap. I sorted this out by just using the sub trims. I'm sure it's just a programing thing but I can't find anything wrong.

I guess the bottom line, this is an excellent flying plane that I would recommend to anyone.

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Alan,

Glad to hear you are liking the Miss Wind. I felt the snaps and rolling maneuvers were really strong point for this airplane. It was also pretty easy to maintain a constant speed.

By the way, Dad is a little nervous you might be flying Advanced. I think he is going to burn some more fuel so he can keep up! Glad to see you getting back into the swing of pattern.

Jeff

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Not sure your dad has much to worry about. I'm using up some electrons but I'm just trying to get the feel of the thing. I did find the programming issue. There were two active mixes that I didn't turn on, I'm guessing they're a default that comes on when the flaperons are activated. Anyway, once I inhibited those, everything started behaving like I expected it to originaly. Now the aileron rates are all messed up. The field got a bit too crowded to do any serious set up stuff.......Look at that, I fell right back into the pattern dialog, "I haven't flown at all" "the airplane isn't flying quite right" "I don't practice right to left" :D

I agree whole heartedly with you Jeff. The rolling and snaps are pretty strong with this model. Looking forward to the season getting started..

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Allen,
I didn't think it was THAT busy??
Besides, it looked like you were doing pretty darn good for a couple first flights.
Mel

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Hey Mel,
It was actually Sunday that got a little busy at the field. It'll only take a little more tweaking to get it back to where it was, probably better. I noticed that the left two ailerons didn't travel as far as the two on the right, strange. Now that the mixing is sorted out, I should be able to finish the trimming/getting aquainted with flights.

See ya,
Alan

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Thought a bit of an update was in order. I've had the Miss wind to three contests now, i've come away with two firsts and 2nd, the plane is pretty darn awesome. I changed props on it today, I replaced the 16x10 with a 17x10, I have never seen a prop make such a differnce. The verticals are full on ballistic now, I can go from hanging on the prop to full speed up in about 4 plane lengths. Unfortunately, along with the increased vertical also comes increased horizontal speed and about 600 more miliamps of battery used for the same amount of flight time. The motor and ESC are quite warm after a flight, I don't have a way to measure that but it is warmer than after a flight with the smaller prop.
Anyway, the plane is flying awesome, and I'd like to thank everyone that offered input back in the beginning.