Speed. Right from the earliest of my modelling days I have always been interested and excited by speed. In my earlier power days (yes I am ashamed to admit that I used to fly power models - I have now seen the light!!) I flew control line combat and team racers and have dabbled in many forms of radio control power including Club 20. So the chance to review the Rickochet, Purbeck Sailplanes latest racer was seized upon.
Before I go any further I must say that I have for a long time now been a keen fan of anything with a Purbeck Sailplanes sticker on it. In a short space of time they have forged a reputation for producing good quality, well designed aircraft - I know because I have bought everything they have produced and fly them all regularly.
For this review the lads at Purbeck had supplied two kits to be built as a mirrored pair by myself and Peter Webb (professional photographer/trainee builder) with the intention of taking some studio shots for Purbecks own publicity. Both models were also supplied with the optional professional wing. This wing has extra reinforcement fitted and has extra servo wells cut to allow the fitting of four wing servos to provide full camber and crow capability to the model
That is not to say that I am a soft touch - to get my seal of approval the Rickochet will have to be good. Also having Peter building one of the kits would provide a useful insight into the ease of construction of the kit. Peter is famous for his ability to take a pile of bits from his scrap box and produce an amazing flying machine. Unfortunately he also has the reputation for being able to take a fantastic kit and reduce it to a pile of bits suitable only for the scrap box - and all this before he even gets the model to the flying field!
First Impressions
Opening the strong plain cardboard box and my first thoughts were where's the model!! It is jammed full of polystyrene beads - Digging deep reveals that there is indeed a model in there. The wing is the largest item in the box being of one piece construction with ailerons and servo boxes already routed out. The fuselage is the next item to come out of the box - a three piece affair with separate front section, rear section and slip-on nose cone. What remains is a bag of assorted balsa parts for the wing tips and tail parts, two snakes, and a bag of accessories. Even my postman couldn't damage this kit.
Stick The big bit to the little bit
The instructions as in other Purbeck kits are superb. Full of informative text and excellent CAD drawings they leave little to chance - even going so far as to remind you to glue the ballast tubes into the fuselage with the open end forwards! A simple point you might think and one Peter was grateful for as he glued his ballast tubes in the right way round. Unfortunately he glued his wing tips on backwards. Perhaps Purbecks should put a reminder about the wing tips in the instructions!!
Lets start glue wing
The first job is to glue the leading edges and tips onto the wing. When these are dry they can be sanded to section. Thoughtfully Purbeck supply a couple of templates in the instructions that can be stuck to a piece of cardboard and used to ensure that the leading edge is finished to the correct profile. This is vitally important if the RG15 wing section is to perform at its optimum and is something that is often overlooked. Well done Purbeck. A brass tube is let into the wing around the front wing bolt, the rear using a rather neat fairing that I have not seen before.
The ailerons are already routed out and just require horns to be fitted. Here, as with my Adrenaline I did not use the supplied plastic horns as I personally do not feel they are secure enough. Instead I made a set of horns from some glass fibre board and epoxied these in place.
Anyone want a cone
The fuselage comes in three parts - tail, nose inner and nose outer. It is the same basic design as the standard Adrenaline unit and can be fitted with optional ballast tubes. These are not part of the standard kit because as the Purbeck lads say some people might opt to leave them out to save weight although they are certainly easier to fit at this stage. The rear fuselage requires the fitting of reinforcing plates to take the wing and tail bolts and the radio hatch area needs to be cut out of the nose inner.
The ballast tubes and nose inner can then be epoxied in place in the rear fuselage using the nose outer cone to align everything. A point to note here is that it is possible to glue the ballast tubes into the fuselage at an angle that makes it impossible to load the ballast bars - I know, I did it. Packing the rear of the ballast tubes up of the bottom of the fuselage by 1/8 inch cures this problem. To stop the nose cone sticking I smeared it with some Vaseline. This is taped up and left to dry when hopefully the nose cone will separate leaving access to the ballast tubes and radio area.
Tail Enders
The tail is made of two pieces of balsa/ply/balsa laminate with separate tips. Once these have been glued on they can be sanded to an airfoil section. The ply allows a sharp, thin trailing edge to be achieved. The elevator is then cut from the tail plane ready to be hinged after covering. The join is clever being an interlocking finger arrangement which when joined to the correct angle and reinforced with the supplied filler powder and resin is very strong. A pair of torque rods need to be fabricated using the supplied threaded rods and ball joints - ingeniously simple and easily removable. The tail assembly is attached using a single bolt and can be removed for transportation if required or replaced with a spare in the event of an accident
Its a Cover- Up
Both models were finished in my usual way using glass cloth and epoxy resin. The artwork was done using the method described in the Vol. 6 No. 4 edition of Silent Flight and avoids having to answer the inevitable question on the slope, 'How much does it cost mister?'
The fuselages were sprayed using cellulose car paint after having rubbed down the join line and filled any pinholes with cellulose putty.
Its a Fit-Up
Peter reckoned that it was impossible to fit two standard servos in the fuselage so he purchased minis and used those. To prove him wrong I fitted two standard sized servos - tight but possible. The supplied snakes were used to connect to the V-tail and a straw threaded down the fuselage to take the receiver aerial. Four micro servos were fitted to the wing and the servo leads extended. Receiver and yet another Strikalite battery fitted saw the radio installation complete. Just the wait for the weather to go.
Those Magnificent Men And Their Flying Machine
They go up diddley up up, they go................... like stink - but not on the day of the test flight!
My Adrenaline V was test flown in less than ideal conditions on Butser Hill (near Portsmouth) after the MVSA Scale Competition. The slope lift all day had been light, most competitors relying on thermal lift during their competition flight. If it hadn't been for the air of expectation from those present expecting to see it fly, I might have taken it home and waited for a more suitable day. To make matters worse Ricky White (of Purbeck Sailplanes) had just thrown his V-tail demonstrator and hit the slope three feet in front of him, returning muttering something about having no lead - in his pencil - I think not! He had been showing the model to a prospective customer earlier in the day and had forgotten to put the lead back in the nose.
A positive shove had mine sailing out perfectly straight and level into the light breeze. Turning to the left and pushing out from the slope soon saw the aircraft contacting some lift and climbing easily to a good height allowing the flight envelope to be explored.
At speed or just cruising the Adrenaline V feels perfectly at ease. Speed build-up in the dives is impressive and it retains its speed allowing whatever manoeuvre you care to perform.
Comparing the V-tail to my other two Adrenalines, the V-tail does feel lighter and more responsive - probably due to it being a good 6 oz lighter - it also seems to turn much more quickly, due no doubt to the much lighter rear end that the V -tail has. I'm going racing with mine shortly - Kevin Newton has shamed me into it - so we shall see.
Landings using raised ailerons are fine, the model being controllable right to touchdown, although I prefer to use the crow braking that the extra wing servos allow.
Peter flew his a couple of weekends later on the Reservoir slope at the Long Mynd. Again the conditions were light. After photos of both models were taken Peters was launched into the uncertain lift. A few low passes for photos and Peters model was landed. His verdict was that he felt immediately at home with the model. He was surprised at how slow the model could be flown without anything untoward happening.
Conclusion
Well done Purbeck Sailplanes - a logical evolution of an already excellent aircraft. Buy one and I am sure you will find that you, the pilot, are the limiting factor, not the airframe!
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