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Last updated 15/11/98 19:39:45
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All moulded 60inch V-tail pylon racer from Pyrenees Modeles
Span 1.5m Length 0.82m Wing Area 23 sq dm Weight 450 to 550 g Wing Loading 17 to 24 g/sq dm Maximum Ballast 200 g Section SD4083 or SD7003 or MH22 In the summer - did we have one - my family and I went to France for our holidays. The wife and children thought it was to visit Euro-Disney - really it was to visit the French model shops and see what was available across the pond. Whilst in France I bought several French modelling magazines. In one of them, Modele Magazine, there was a review of a 60 inch pylon racer from Pyrenees Modeles that immediately caught my eye with its sleek and purposeful looks. Reading the review I managed to work out that the model had a glass fuselage, a moulded wing and balsa tail parts. At the price - F1050 (or about £100.00) - it seemed to be quite a bargain.
On my return to England I contacted Alexis Marechal of Pyrenees Modeles and he agreed to send me a kit. Delivery was straight away, the model being dispatched within days. A choice of colours and schemes is available as is a choice of wing sections, although I placed myself in Alexis hands an let him send me the 'fastest and brightest'. In less than a week I had my MiniJ
The MiniJ comes in a remarkably small strong plain brown box that resisted the attentions of both French and English postmen. Opening the box reveals that it is a very basic kit. Inside the box there is just a set of pre-painted wings, a wing joiner, a pre-painted fuselage, a balsa tail plane and a set of instructions in French - out with the dictionary!
On my example the wings are two piece with a carbon joiner as Pyrenees thought it would keep the transportation cost down to a minimum. The wings appear to have a foam core skinned with glass and have the joiner tubes moulded in already. The outline of the ailerons is lightly scribed into the top surface and they require cutting free from the main panel. The fuselage is two piece with a seperate slide on sheath nose. The wing section is MH22 and is the thinnest section, short of a chuck glider that I have ever seen. The lads at Pyrenees reckon that this wing is 'tres vite!' It ought to be. Despite this they do appear to be stiff enough. The fuselage moulding to be honest is not the best that I have seen. It is very lightly made and I must admit I would be tempted to rub the join line down, fill a couple of the imperfections and re-spray it. But then it is designed for pylon racing and the associated shorter model life expectancy.
Conceptually the model is slightly different from most other racers. It avoids putting the aileron servos in the wing by having them mounted in the fuselage. The wing is then mounted on a pylon with the ailerons being controlled by a pair of pushrods which exit the fuselage at the rear of the pylon - neat and it helps keep tip inertia down so the roll rate should be very good as the ailerons are quite large anyway
As there is no hardware included in the kit, you will need to sort this out yourself - a pair of wing bolts, a tail bolt, pushrods, ball joints for the wing and tail and a piece of ply or grp for the radio plate, pushrods for the tail - the sort of stuff that most of us already have in our bits and pieces box - although I hadn't and had to visit my local mdel shop!
So with no more excuses I took a big deep breath and cut the ailerons off the panel. To help I used a steel straight edge which I stuck to the wing in the correct place using some double sided tape. It was then a simple matter then to just run the panel through my bandsaw, running the blade along the straight edge - a gauranteed straight cut. Once removed the ailerons are sanded to allow movement, have a reinforcing plate let in at the root end to take the ball joint connectors and can then be hinged using diamond tape.
The wing is drilled at the root for the wing bolts and a suitable reinforcing plate to take the captive nuts is let into the fuselage. The tail plane was sanded to section and finished in my usual 3oz glass cloth, left unpainted to keep the weight to a minimum. It could I suppose be solarfilmed but it is only 3/16 thick and I was worried about flutter at high speed. The instructions say (I think) to glue the V-tail in place and this I did, forming a fillet to the fuselage with epoxy and micro-balloons.
The four servos for ailerons and v-tail all fit on a removable plate that fits in the fuselage under the pylon - a little fiddly to set up the pushrods initially. Battery and receiver fit in front of the servos, a small amount of lead to balance and it is ready to fly. The model balanced without needing any lead inthe nose - all-up weight - 1lb 8ozs
The night before the test flight, the weatherman had said that the following day would be bright and sunny in the afternoon with a 15 mph easterly wind. We were somewhat surprised to find ourselves the following afternoon on the Reservoir slope at the Long Mynd facing an indifferent northerly wind in a light drizzle.
In the air the MiniJ climbed relatively easily in the light lift, the controls being authoritative but not overly sensitive. Several fast passes across the slope were performed - the model flying very fast considering the light nature of the lift. Rolls and loops were easily accomplished Turns were quick, the model maintaining its speed well. Several circuits were flown close in for the camera - the model coping well in the slope-side turbulence that is a feature of the Reservoir slope.
The unavoidable was uneventful, raising both ailerons helping to land the model without any trauma - be careful here though - I found that raising them too far causes an oscillation in roll that is difficult to control.
Flying the model in stronger lift just made the grin on my face even wider - the model is fast and quiet and using coupled flap turns quicker than anything I have flown before. The roll rate is particularly impressive - no doubt due to the fact that there are no servos in the wing so the ailerons have less work to do th roll the machine.I can see the attractiveness of the airframe for anyone who wants a quick and easy model to put in the air. Its moulded nature ensures a higher standard of accuracy and repeatability than any other method of construction can achieve.
The only other model of its kind that I can think of is the Mini Ellipse - and for that money you can have three MiniJ !
I have today received an e-mail from Alexis detailing his recomended setup for the MiniJ. He terms it a '4 axis' setup.
'The profile Mh22 is very thin and straight on the 30% of the end which means that the flaps are very efficient. If I understand correctly the ideas is to put the flap function on the throttle stick - using springs to bring the stick to the centre (neutral flap). Elevator to flap mix should be set to about 80% - the flaps moving more than the elevator. This way, when you want to climb, you pull on the flaps, and when you are flying fast, the mix E >> F give you a very efficient elevator. When you are on the inverted, you push on the flaps and it is very funny.'
Sounds interesting! I use exactly the same setup but instead of having the flaps controlled by the throttle stick, mine are operated by a stick top switch on my MC20 radio, the throttle stick being reserved for operating the raised ailerons braking
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