Begin' Acro Glider

Sorry I should have been more specific, I don't think I'm a builder of kits But I hold judgment until I try a Hoellein kit as Mike suggests.

My repairs are coming along, I was struggling to find any 8mm aluminium tube with a 0.5mm wall thickness! However this morning I discovered 8mm aluminium tube with a 0.45mm wall thickness, so Jon being 50microns out meant my google searchers were in vain :evil:

And Jon, I can't work to 2micron accuracy alas, I settle for 0.01mm give or take :whistle:

Chris001 wrote: My repairs are coming along, I was struggling to find any 8mm aluminium tube with a 0.5mm wall thickness! However this morning I discovered 8mm aluminium tube with a 0.45mm wall thickness

You discovered what I found out a few years ago...tubes that are designed to slide into each other always have a 0.45mm wall thickness...there is no such thing as a 0.5mm wall thickness.

I forgot to say, your workshop is sickeningly tidy Mike, hopefully you'll soon put that right!
I like the way you've presented yourself a nice challenge with your servo covers
What prop are you trying first?

21mph gusting to 27mph... But a nice day for a maiden.



I'll let Mike describe the flying characteristics as for some reason he didn't offer me ago, I can't imagine why not :whistle: Anyway, needless to say I'm very keen to get mine back in the air again after seeing Mike have a little too much fun with his. I think it also amused him to have have me running across two fields to retrieve his canopy

I took two models to the slope today, the Begin'Acro and the Minus Acro. The minus has a span on 700mm and weighs just over 100g. I have flown it before and this went first. It really struggled to penetrate at first but eventually flew ok even though it was severely affected by the gusting conditions. After about 10 minutes I decided enough was enough and my fingers were frozen.
I had hoped to maiden the Begin'Acro at Cashmoor on a calmer day, but since the Minus was such a handful I decided that today was going to be the day. I used two 8mm neodymium magnets to hold the canopy on but just as Chris launched we both saw the canopy shift. It stayed on for about a minute before heading downwind. Chris followed it and found it about 200m away. I really wanted to fly again but had nothing to secure the canopy with. Then it struck me that the Minus ailerons used a tape hinge, so this was removed and used to hold the canopy on for the rest of the day.
The Begin'Acro flew better than expected in this wind. Very stable and good aerobatic capabilities both upright and inverted. At one point I decided to see how it would climb with motor on - note to self...make sure you set the brake on the ESC otherwise the prop will never fold. A quick landing and several more flights without any motor completed a very enjoyable afternoon.
And 25mph snow is painful!

It's the wrong Prop Grommit!

The investigation into possible causes of the crash of my Begin Acro have taken a step forward today, and from an unexpected direction. When Mike was trying out props for his Begin Acro he noticed a significant vibration with one set, and upon close inspection he discovered they had paired up two miss matched diameter and pitch prop blades.

Now would you believe it! When I looked at the prop blades on my spinner one was a 12x6.5 and the other was 12.5x6!

Now I should probably explain that I had four different props to try from Mike, and on the maiden I just picked the one I thought would draw the least current. After that I tested another set at home and decided it drew more current, so took them off, put the originals back on and gave Mike the three remaining sets.

When I explained what I had discovered I got a one word reply from Mike… Muppet

It would appear I mixed up the prop blades, and apparently that was not a good thing to do :oops: