PRODUCT REVIEW-DETAILED REVIEW PEL-AERO KITS ZEPHYR This page provides additional information with respect to reviews that have been conducted on items sold by Free Flight Supplies.
PEL-AERO KITS HAND LAUNCHED GLIDER RANGE - AUSTRALIA
ZEPHYR - Span 18.0" (45 cm), Length 15.75" (40 cm).
Chris Strachan has done a review of the ZEPHYR Jetex/Jet-x model in "Aviation Modeller International" in the August 2002 edition. Chris has produced a Rapier version of the model! Details of the Rapier modifications will be included in the later kits.
A transcript of the review follows:
The kit for review was supplied by Mike- Free Flight Supplies Mike Woodhouse.
It is supplied in a clear plastic wrapper which reveals that something good is coming as the quality of the wood is clearly something special. Actually it is just superb ñ clearly hand selected by an expert and beautiful. The kit is a must for that alone.
The model is designed for Jet-x 50 or catapult launch. The object of this review was to try it for Rapier power, of which more later. First the build.
The instructions are comprehensive and someone who has never built a competition standard chuck glider will learn a lot by following them. One or two points are unusual but they all work ñ so stick to them. Just a couple of comments here. The instruction is to finish the under surfaces before carving the uppers. Unusual, but it certainly produced a warp free result. However you do need to be careful as it is all too easy to dent the finished undersurface while working on the top, especially with the lovely soft but stiff wood provided.
The assembly process is well planned and follow it because it really works. Twin boom designs are not the easiest to get square and true but in this case it was no problem. The instructions are keen on Cyano and balsa cement fillets. I have to confess that I did not like this idea and used Ambroid throughout.
I set the model up for side mounting of the motor,(the kit offers alternatives of side or centre mount), as I wanted to be able to try two L2's. The photos show the set up, with the front of the Rapiers in line with the leading edge at the root. The mountings are the simple way of installing Rapiers with a balsa cradle, a wire hook and a dental band (the method works fine and is the invention of David Deadman). A lead nose weight was built in as shown on the plan to put the CG in the recommended position with 2 empty L2's in place.
Initial glide trimming was fine but did reveal that the leading edge is rather vulnerable to dings ñ shouldn't do first glide tests in the garden! A piece of thread cemented to the leading edge or one of the other tricks for giving a hard leading edge on a chuck glider would be a good idea.
The glide was set up to give a fairly wide left turn, although obviously with rocket power you can go either way. Then for the exciting bit! First flight was with a firing Rapier on the left side and an empty one on the right. The result was a gentle left turn and a steady climb to about 20 feet. Very elegant with the motor offset to the left keeping the turn open. So now lets try two motors. The left motor was lit about one second before the right to hold the turn open and off she went. A beautiful left climb to about 100 feet with a super smoke trail from the two motors. At the end the right motor runs for an extra second and turns the model into the glide. Magic!
Conclusion. A superb kit and an excellent introduction to Rapier flying. Buy one and build one today! I really ought to paint mine now - but it is a shame to hide that beautiful wood. Isn't life full of dilemmas!
Chris Strachan 5/01/02
For details of availability of all kits see PEL-AERO kits
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