Ripmax Bolero

[John Roberts 16]

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At last, got a day with a little more faversble weather but not ideal for the maiden. 12 mph winds gusting 16mph....ASP .52 12x6 prop onboard glow engine running quite nice eventuallly, very touchy needle valve adjustments but appears to run nicely with good tick over and pickup.

Still had the 400grams of lead on the engine mount to get it balancing in the recommended area. Rates setup to give the manufacturers recommended throws on alll surfaces with 30% expo. Side force generators were also fitted for the maiden.

Take off into wind quite straight forward took about 10-15m on 3/4 throttle and up she went. Required quite a lot of up trim to maintain flat level flight ( perhaps all the additional lead up front causing it to nose down, something to consider and try correcting later) plane kept wanting to bank and turn right, initially tried correcting with aileron trim and some rudder left trim. Improved s little but did not maintain the same degree of correction through the whole flight envelope..... need to investigate this. Flew several flat ish circuits seemed to be constantly correcting the left and right roll, very touchy, when looping it seemed to peel of to one side after going over the top, thinking something is not aligned right. or could this be the lead again up front? Or the 12mph wind and effect of the Side force generators?)

First landing, throttle back to idle, head into wind, killed the speed now it really was twitching around left and right vertually on the stall, even with the 12mph headwind. Not a very pleasant experience but down safely.

Second flight was pretty much the same as the first very difficult to keep straight, flat or level and far too twitchy for comfort. Pity Ripmax never replied to my questions about the balance point could have ended up with a better review.

Next flights. Remove the lead in increments, bit wary of doing it too much as the CofG will move back possibly compounding the already unstable twitchy flight characteristics. I need to check again all the flying surfaces the way it screws out of loops and turns / rolls left or right depending on the air speed.

Conclusion so far, the plane looks good, but needs some investigation and tweaking to fly on the rails.

For myself not particularly impressed, doesn’t compare to some other more stabile flying of other similar ilk models. Can understand why there is so little information about it anywhere on web now.

[Denis Watkins]

Posted by John Roberts 16 on 24/05/2018 14:42:23:

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At last, got a day with a little more faversble weather but not ideal for the maiden. 12 mph winds gusting 16mph....ASP .52 12x6 prop onboard glow engine running quite nice eventuallly, very touchy needle valve adjustments but appears to run nicely with good tick over and pickup.

Touchy needle valve John

Check for tightness every single bolt on a new motor, and that the carb is down on the O ring.

The backplate too. Then tune with the onboard glow switched Off

[John Roberts 16]

Hi Denis,

Had read a few reports about some engines vibrating apart in flight along with exhaust bolts falling out and exhaust gaskets failing. All my bolts are now thread locked, the carb tube and O ring as well as the high speed needle thread has gasket sealer on also the exhaust gasket removed and sealed with high temp gasket sealer. Found my ASP .52 with 12x5 prop 10% nitro is running quite well now throttles up well and nice low smooth tick over. Only had 5 tanks through it though.

Have removed 50% of the lead from the front end of the Bolero, there’s still an additional 100grams up front and the CofG now just behind the recommended.

Increased Expo to 40% on all flying surfaces and removed the winglets for now, as I’m not sure if when I flew it on the windy maiden day they were impacting on the lateral stability, so going to try without them hopefully on less windy day.

Not giving up yet, will persevere.

[John Roberts 16]

Success..... at last..... converted to the manufacturers electric specs, wow what difference. Picked up the courage to go for it regardless of the additional weight up front to balance.

WoW what a difference straight level controllable a real delight to fly....happy days.

Flight not to aerobatic more to get the feel of it. Looks really promising. Happy days. Thanks for all the advice guys appreciated. Video below of the test flight with comments.

**LINK**

[John Roberts 16]

Sunday 22 Sept update on my electric converted Bolero. My first ever Club aerobatic competition, nice and simple, fly the clubman aerobatic schedule as accurately as possible. Guess what ? I won it with the Bolero.....Testament to how good this plane is.

I'm not the best pilot in the club, far from, some are far more experienced and better than myself. However the breezy 12 -16mph wind basically forced me to try the Bolero, rather than one of my other sports type planes.

The Bolero was an absolute dream, easy take off, gradual climb, take off circuit completed into the 2x inside loops, nice and big equal size, then the Immelmann no problem, tons of power great roll out, then the downwind outside loop, completed easily but could haver been more round... Split S again easy for the Bolero then the Cuban 8, no problems here, just getting pushed off line by the wind. next stall turn straight up, back off the power boot full of rudder, nice and straight on the down. Slow roll next , I had practiced this on the simulator using the rudder and elevator to keep level during the roll, the Bolero actually did it so easily gaining full marks on that one. The 1/2 square loop and roll out at the top again no problems, the 2 x spins I miss timed slightly so didn't look as elegant as it should, my fault. The landing circuit and landing into wind was a so graceful and slow fantastic.

Overall I was thoroughly impressed with how this Bolero flies, it goes where you put it, its a good sized plane, easy to see and so stable. Its down to how you fly, your rates and expo settings, om sure it will do the book, I'm not a 3D pilot, perhaps one day with more practice, (much more practice) I'm sure the Bolero is capable of meeting most pilots needs.

So glad I got one now, all my initial worries and concerns over the CofG and extra weight were miss founded.

I now want another, as a back up, but it doesn't appear to be available anywhere.........!!!!!!!!!!

Many UK shops and outlets are advertising it, but always showing Out of stock....!!!!!.

Have Ripmax stopped making it ? Has it become one of those flash in the pan Discontinued model....???

I sincerely hope not ! If any of you know what's happening regarding Bolero stocks I would definitely appreciate an update. No info anywhere, such a pity as its such a fantastic plane. Huge thumbs up for it, we need more of them now....

[John Roberts 16]

At last the new Ripmax Bolero is out.

Coral Snake. Looks exactly the same as the original Bolero just a new colour scheme.

Couldn't resist the temptation had to buy one of these too

If the old Bolero was anything to go by the stocks wont last long.

My local model shop had purchased 6 sold 3 of them in the first day.

A superb plane. Will be going electric with this, using the Quantum 55 II as advertised, really packs a punch, great combo.

Edited By John Roberts 16 on 10/07/2020 00:06:54

Edited By John Roberts 16 on 10/07/2020 00:10:06