Flying the microMAX, the video

Another flying session with the MicroMax

Good session today with the MicroMax. The slope is not the most efficient one, and the wind was a bit crossed from the left, but the lift was ok and the scenery just superb !

With around 5m/s of wind, I decided to fly all the time with 90gr of ballasted. The MicroMax carries ballast easily, and demonstrated very good capabilities. What I like is despite his small size of 1.15m wingspan, it really behaves like a bigger plane. It is stable, cruises very well, keeps energy in turn. Without snapflap it can already turn very short. Overall, a very good micro glider, very capable !

I will prepare a short video, but I had a problem filming with my Osmo Pocket which kept the horizon level instead of following my head movement (the cam is on a helmet), probably a setting mistake. As a consequence I missed some sequences of the flight, too bad ...

I stopped before the sunset to walk down the slope and drive home before the curfew at 6pm.

Micro Max Maiden Flight

I finally maidened my MicroMax, in far to be ideal conditions, almost zero wind, grey sky, at my club slope. Very happy how it went. This tiny plane is flying like a bigger one, very precise, with a wide range of speed. In calm air, it is demonstrative, showing the climbing air pretty well. I had to reduce the camber in thermal position, I have about 1 .5 to 2mm now. CG at 65mm seemed good.

After few flights, I decide to drive to another slope, to try to find mode wind, which I found, but also much lower temperatures and after 5min, I couldn't feel my fingers anymore, event with thin gloves. But I could see the MicroMax is behaving in 2 to 3m/s of wind. 

The plane even empty penetrates the wind well, accelerate easily and has a very good energy retention for its size. I could chain 4 loopings in a row, and also tried the roll and 4 steps roll without any problem. I will probably work a bit on the aileron differential next time. The rudder authority is good despite the V-tail. So overall very good feelings after this maiden afternoon.

RTGModel Orden Electro Fuselage

RTGmodel is releasing this month an electro fuselage for the Orden. Milan sent me some pictures of it that I'm sharing with you. 

Once again, Milan is bringing some innovation with this smart servo tray, located in the rear boom which is simply inserted by the side. The servos tray is a 4mm epoxy plate, so very strong which, once glued in place is contributing to the stiffness of the fuselage. On the picture we can also notice that the thickness of the carbon fuselage is consequent.

A recess allow to install and tape the servo tray cover.

The pictures is also giving some indication on the motor which is a 28/29mm geared motor (Tenshock Evo 1520 3300Kv on the picture), the battery is a 4s LiPo.

This allows a large choice of power train and ESC to suit pilot needs from the sport flying to the F3G competition.

MicroMax assembly completed !

 

The build went well, but I'm not used to have such small space for radio installation !

The only small issue I encountered was the elevator control horn holes which were too large (1mm) for the 0.8mm piano wire. To fix it, I added a second thin plate of carbon (coming from the servo covers) and re-drilled at 0.8mm.

I ended with a empty flying weight of 227gr, with 8gr of balance lead for a CG at 65mm.

For the ballast, I found an aluminium profile of the right dimension, so could mold 2 ballasts: one at 85 grs, the big one at 190grs.

Maiden flight as soon as weather permits as we have bad weather and snow at the moment.

Assembly log photo album is here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sAKzQPUn57GqXof79