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Airspeed Courier


Tim Hooper
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Two more sorties today confirms the Courier as a very well-behaved and effortless performer.  Scale-like take offs are performed on half throttle, which leads one to assume that the model could be fitted with a much smaller motor and battery.  Unfortunately, this would mean having to carry some useless ballast up front, so we may as well leave the power train as it is.  Besides which, there’s always the potential to fully open the throttle, and watch the Courier really hoist up her skirts and run! 

Increasing the rudder and ailerons throws over the stated amounts, allows for some big, smooth aerobatics – although the modest size of the control surfaces thankfully precludes any psuedo 3D nonsense!  Loops are as big as you like, and rolls take a fair amount of sky to complete, so be ready to use a little elevator to keep the nose up during the inverted bit.  Speaking of inverted flight – yes it will, but that wing section needs a thumbful of down elevator in order to maintain height.

The built-in washout is more than capable of keeping the stall civilised in that it’s very benign; straight head and a gentle nod is all that happens when an excess of elevator is applied at low speeds, with no tendency to drop a wing.  This certainly inspires confidence when practicing low speed flypasts.

As of yet, I haven’t been able to persuade her to spin, probably due to the size of the rudder.  All I can achieve is a lazy spiral dive.  Moving the CG further back might resolve this, but conducting the ‘dive test’ at part throttle has confirmed that the CG is quite happy just where it is, so that’s where it’s going to stay!
 
All in all, a keeper!
 
tim
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  • 2 months later...
Posted by David Ashby - RCME Administrator on 06/03/2011 08:49:43:
Tim's Airspeed Courier article and plan will be in the May issue
 
 
Excellent news, David!
 
Just to celebrate this fact, the Courier was treated to a couple of flights today from our newly-rolled strip.
 
tim
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Very nice pics Tim of a even nicer model.
 
Always great to see how such a simple constructed model can turn into a beauty like this.
 
Would love to see the conversion on your loft the light look good, is there a lot of light coming in from outside.
 
How many flights did you do until now and how are the retracts holding.
 
Ton
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Thanks Gents!
 
Ton,
 
The loft has no windows, but has just enough room for the pair of old studio lights that I used to use in my previous incarnation as a home portrait photographer. The backdrop is an 8ft roll of white paper. F20 @ ISO400.
 
The retracts are holding up very well - 100% reliable so far (aan some of my landings have been less than perfect!)
 
tim
 
 
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That plane really is spiffing, the finish looks fantastic !!
 
If you need some light in the loft you could always put a couple of velux type center pivot windows in?
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