Supra from Kennedy Composites
Empty weight 1334g (detail weights), flying weight 1830g
Equipped with Volz servos, JR 770 Rx, 4xAA battery
This page is copy from Jojo's diary

DAY .. 18.april 2006- Supra
- It arrived!!!!! My new model that will be a good test against the Perfect is the Supra. The model is designed in USA but is built by Vladimir Gavrilko in Ukraine. So my model was sent directly from Ukraine to me in Norway in a wooden box as all shipments from Vladimir. 
Opening of the box reveals the goodies off course and what I found pleased me so far. Very little paint (as I want a competition model to be), all hardware included, lots of cool functional details and very light yet seems stiff where needed. First thing I looked at was inside the midsection. I wanted to check the spar... YES! they used the famous Vladimir spar that is wrapped in kevlar like the built up Graphite's/Organic. This is what I wanted to see and gives me confidence that it will not break. Off course I needed to put it together to get a view on how it looks. It comes with 3 different joiners. 0, 3 and 6 degrees I think. Just feeling the CG with nothing installed revealed that it would probably not need much lead. And with an empty weight of only 1340g + hardware it looks promising. I must say that like many F3J/B/F models around it is only sexy in some parts and ugly in others. But there are some sexy details on the Supra. I LOVE the pod. It is not only nice to see a shoulder wing again but also it should be very easy to throw this model with one hand. The elevator and rudder features light balsa and is both light and seems stiff enough (yes good old light balsa does the trick). The name Supra on the wingsection is also something I like with carbon showing thru the txt. I am waiting for some special pushrods from Kennedy. Otherwise I think I would be finished tomorrow... So did I find any bad points? I always find something to say if it the coffee I drink or the traffic not going smooth... The Supra might have stiffer tips I think but that would probably result in heavier model and less turning performance. I also found small faults in the paint but I will NEVER be able to produce something near this even with time and equipment. Dont think many other producers are near this either. And last since the model is so ready and nice it could be a point that the guiding of the pushrods in the fuse and boom was ready. There should also be a ready hole in the midsection for the wing connector. Small stuff as you see.

Left: Screwing in the horn is childs play. Right: 90 degree flap is possible I think


Left: If one wraps the frames in kevlar thread one can just of the kevlar and remove the frame.
Right: I glue in frame with servo in. But I use one layer of clear packing tape on the servo.


Left: Check those servo horns BEFORE you glue in the servo. Right: Press a bit to set it properly


Rubbing the bedding for the servo is important. Right: Picture shows spar wrapped in kevlar


On the ailerons I use heat shrink on the servos.
Right: As a funny one I received some good glue from Philip in Istanbul. Use goos stuff!!

When the winghalves are joined there might be a tiny difference. This is corrected with a "standing knife".
Right: Just had to put the parts together.


Neat details: The elevator screw is flush. Right: Also the bed under is flush.

DAY .. 21.april 2006 - Supra
- It is flown!! The Supra has been in the air in Europe! I finished up the fuse this morning with the stock pushrods even though some teflon tubes are somewhere between here and US. I will probably save a few more grams I think. I installed the tubes outside since I would rather have a perfect elevator neutral then a sloppy inside thing. For now I have just taped them in place since they will be replaced. I have not glued the ballast tube in either. Remember one thing: Do not glue in the tube before you have installed the tow hook... The installation I did in the cone became pretty cool. The Rx is under the servos so all is flush and nice. I can also use long solid ballast and even not install the ballast tube at all. This because the servos are not in the way. You got to love Volz for having lugs for both upright and flat installation. A small fancy screw system will be made I think to secure the ballast. Without the ballast tube installed I can save 30-40g. With the recommended CG at 91,5mm I ended up on 1909g with the ballast tube in. I will hopefully save even more with lighter teflon tubes and maybe a Hoopes wiring system. I did some other stuff that is not completely conventional. My antenna is routed thru the 9 pin plug in the wing and is routed in a "V" two ways (see picture). This way I don't need to have it outside the model. Remember this is NOT possible with a carbon wing. I also did a "L" instead of links for elevator and rudder. I used a 1mm iron wire and secured it with CA and shrinking tube. Be sure to do this right if you copy... A loose elevator is dangerous. One can also wrap with kevlar thread. My rudder is also made detachable. I squeezed it on the boom and had to cut a few millimetres of the boom because of this. Then I made two set screws on the underside. A total of 0,6g instead of glue resulting in a detachable rudder ;-)
Now over to the flights! It was mid-day and sunny but no thermals seemed to be working the air. It was almost dead quiet on the ice with only a small breeze from the left. First I had 3 hand throws just to get the elevator neutral in all phases. I normally also check the launch settings like this. Most models will fly in launch settings. It should not go hard up or down when the setting is applied. I started with something almost similar to the Drela settings. There is one very important issue here. The wing is made with speed setting so when all is in neutral this is speed. So for normal flying you drop the trailing edge 2mm. Next setting is 5mm. I did not pay too much attention to Drela's settings as I want to figure some things out myself. But I started with his CG and looked with half an eye on the rest of the settings. The first launch went ok but I think there is a lot to work on here to get the right launch camber. Altitude was ok but it was a bit on its tail "dragging". I had 7 launches all with different settings and hook placements but still need more time. The wing was sometimes bending quite a bit. Launch conditions were not super but ok. I used 150m to the turnaround, an F3B winch and some 1,35mm line. The last launch were "F3B style" 90 degrees to the side and up against the wind that picked up slightly for the last flight (only 1-2m/s). I found that the handling of the Supra is scary equal to the Pike Perfect. It is much slower but turns just as easy with little effort. Since the conditions were very calm and I wanted to see the "hands off" flying I needed to go from the 2,5 to the 5 degree joiners. With 2,5 degrees it turned a bit too much on its own. This was better with 5 degrees joiners. The floating abilities seemed to be good but I was not covering as much ground as with the Perfect and did not get feedback on the air. I also did not like that it had a little low tail and did not fly well with much camber. I had one "reference flight" with the Perfect just to feel the air. Times were in the 7-8min range mostly and better at lower altitude because one can see the flight pattern better off course. So in the last 2 flights I took out a 22g lead I had easy access too and was now at apx 97-98mm CG. The conditions now had changed to a bit more differences and downwind launches. The model now felt much better and I could now switch back and forth with small/big camber and get the feel for the air I am was flying in. If this is a good setting in more active conditions is yet to be seen off course. But the small positive air could now be worked. Logs of todays flights HERE
So did I find faults? There was one other issue they can work a little on. The joiners were fitting ok up/down but sideways there was some slop on almost all my joiners (the model comes with 0, 2,5 and 5 degree joiners. Cool!). So I will have some glue on the sides of the joiners and try to sand them into fitting better. There were also some strange crack in one tip joiner box. This might happen when the moulds are pressed together with a slight miss on joiner end. This is barely visible when you take a look at a new model. But when installing one see these things.
All in all a very successful first day on a new model I must say. It performed right out of the box and is definitively a model that can perform in light conditions. Stand by for windy conditions ;-)

 
Left: Neat installation if I must say so...


Left: 9 pin plug and right "half z-bend"


On the ice with my JR9303


Planform is kind of similar to the Pike Perfect

DAY .. 22.april 2006 - LSF in Skien
- I discovered that the club Vingen had an LSF competition today so I woke up early and thought "what the h..." I can fly LSF today and drive to the club Cirrus for 3x12 electro tomorrow. The competition did not start before 12:00 so I had good to even have a testflight before round 1. LSF here is 3x7min and one of the rounds can be 10min. This means one only have 4 minutes to fly in the last round. First round I was the only one with 10minutes and the rest of the guys had 4-6min. The conditions were tricky with 90 degree sidewind in the launch and not too much thermals. But that changed in the next rounds any the times got better. In the 2nd round I had a mishap with my Supra so I was allowed to switch to the Pike Perfect. I landed 0-1m every time but lost the competition because I landed 2 seconds to early in the last one. Erik Morgan Villadsen won (well deserved) with me on second and Egil Roland on third. I think we were 9 pilots competing. We had 4 winches set up with 180-190m to the turnaround and all with 1,15mm line. There were no line brakes during the day but in the last rounds I had to be a little bit careful on the settings and I did not go out to the side. We should probably have had some thicker lines but nobody bothered to change the lines. Thanks to Vingen for a nice event. The only thing I have to complain about was that it was reminding me about Istanbul (the ground was wet). My yellow boots came into action again ;-)
Logs and logs zoom and Detailed results on the Vingen website

DAY .. 27.april 2006
- No flying even though the weather was nice.. But I did mount the ballast tube today and the way I did it is pretty cool. I could save 40-50g by not installing it permanently so I had to come up with a solution that was both easy and rigid. I think I found it.

DAY .. 25.april 2006
- A little windy and cold with 3-4m/s from the south. The ice is not usable but I can stand on the beach with a bungee. Today I tried some different CG's and different camber. First I went to a slope on the beach and when I had some nice altitude I flew out over the ice to get some good measurements and feel for the different settings. I need to measure without the wind to see what I found but it was difficult to get altitude on the slope with too much forward (Around the 91,5mm setting). It was also clear that it was not stable that much forward. I needed more corrections than further back! Opposite to what some think maybe..
 

Want a logger? Go to THIS site. He is a good friend that also runs this webserver.

DAY .. 6.may 2006 - Supra
- Sorry! Totally forgot to take pictures today! Had so much fun on a local football field that is known as a windy place. It was warm today with 21 celcius (70F) so lots of thermals passing thru this place. It is placed in a tight valley so it gets pretty turbulent. So it was a good test of CG, joiners and ballast. Took out the short histart (bungee layed double and 20m line) and launched the Supra 11 times. I ended up with the medium joiners, 96-97mm CG and sometimes with 400g of ballast in. I also tested a little extra negative camber in those situations that I needed badly to get home. The Supra responds well to handling with ballast in though I offcourse could see the climb rate went a bit down. First 5 flights was with the biggest dihedral joiners but it was a bit too much in the turbulent air. It was smoother and more stable with the medium joiners. Did not try the straight ones. Logs HERE

DAY .. 7.may 2006 - Supra versus Perfect
- Late afternoon and it is hot to be this time of year. Used my short bungee (30m layed double to 15m and 20m line). This gives not an F3J launch but possibly a good 1-man tow with a ok zoom. I flew both the Supra and the Perfect and found what I have found before. The Supra can work very small thermals and goes up as a feather. The Perfect also works the small thermals well but its main weapon in these conditions is that it covers more ground. But in these conditions working "fiddling air" I must say the Supra is an edge in front. It also launches a bit better in these conditions. It actually was building power as it went up the line though it was only slight headwind (1-2m/s). But for stronger conditions I recommend a full carbon version. The lightweight glasfiber Supra is only for weak conditions and TD winching (tapping).