hello,
I discarded my eagle plane (which was posted in this forum), after many many flights, due to wear and tear. So i wanted another bird plane, this time more gentle and floaty. So i chose the 56 inch FFF eagle from RCGROUPS at the following link.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=950519&page=37

I am half way thru my build and here are the few build photos. Pl see the comments printed on the photos. Another 8- 12 hours of work excluding the painting, before it can be maidened.
thanking you.

Ashta.

some more build photos

some more photos

some more build photos

Sir, this is beautiful...............

The best part of Ashta bhai's builds are that they show the step by step progression

Thanks VC and Anwarji... ur attention and remarks are real motivation..

Wow!! This looks really like a Bird !! would be great spectacle to see it flying!
What better thermal glider than an Eagle shaped plane!!
Kudos!!

dear ujjwaana,
thanks. if time permits, aiming to try this this saturday.

Also, he takes every project to completion. Unlike some of us, who have dozens of models lying around in various stages of construction.

Or in different stage of re-construction after crash, like me

every one here goes thru or has gone thru this phase some time or the other ujjwaana.

Worked fow few more hours y'day to almost complete the bird in order to maiden today. Ofcourse lot of work to do in terms painting and completion .

See the attached photo. Thats how it looks.Huge !!!

ashta

A planned took the Eagle to Hoskote for the maiden.
Not a very good day in terms of wind, to fly such a floaty plane, but i did not have patience. The wind was blowing very strong, esp. Gusting. As usual did some glide test near a bush and finally gave it a toss.

This is what happened. see the video.

First time my Uptrim was more and it balooned and crashed. Not much damge though...
Corrected it and tried again. Again it crashed turning fully to the right beyond contol. this time damage was more. the Vtail broke the nose got damaged. All in all it lost its initial finish and good looks.

Succumbed to the temptations on a self admitted "gentle and floaty" plane  

It has no ailerons, right ? Not sure it could handle such winds with v-tail only ?

Not wanting to give up, decided to repair the bird on the field. Mainly Nose, the motor mount, and the Vtail. Lot of Fevitite and Cellotape. Though not perfect, Ok for trials.
This time did lot more glide tests, though, each time,  it was damaging the plane little bit, (610 grams plane) since the bushes were not thick and soft. On carefull observation i found that the controls, left and right was not working properly. This was my first V tail model. I had made the V tail exactly like ELEVON.

Stick Left: V tail, Left half going up, as in Elevon.
Stick right: V tail, Right half going up, as in Elevon.

When i closely observed the test glides,  i noticed that this is wrong. I had to reverse the controls to get it right wrt the stick movements.

Hard learning indeed!!

The wind had picked up but still i wanted to try the model with th V tail change.

It flew......

Pl see the video. During the flight, i was doing the trims, since it was the maiden. Too windy for this to fly gentle and smooth. In the video you will see the Bird topling after landing due to the wind.

Any way, great learning about V tail, though a hard way.

Now lot of repair work and painting left. Doubt if i can get back the original finish.

regards
ashta

Yes Anwarjii.. Hard to overcome temptations!
It has aelerons. I will do it after testing V tail, i thought...

Woww! I am so glad Ashta sir that your bird flew so gracefully as I  expected!!

The plane seems to re-define 'Slow flyer' as the glide was so gentle! Esp at 2:30.

At 3:30, its hard to tell if it is a plane as it  looked exactly the same species flying nearby!!

Would love to join you in its next flights!

Thanks ujjwaana.
will lookforward to that.

did some quick panting on my Eagle.
Did it little in a  hurry. Nevertheless..

I did not use paint for the body, thinking also of reinforcement if i use tape. Hindsight.. could have painted and used clear tape.

attached are some photos

Photos bottom side..

great ashta bhaiya when have you planned for its next flight


would love to see it once in calm conditions i know its hard as monsoons are approaching but if you could that would be awesome

subbu

Thanks subu. Will wait for a calm day and take some video.

Ashta Sir! What a mix of Techie and Artiest you are!! That bird looks Wow!!! I would have slrruped if it were chicken, Pigeon or Turkey!!

Thanks Ujjwaana. But i just tried to copy from other pictures posted in this thread. No artistic value from myside. May be thats wahy it looks OK.

Waited impatiently all these days to fly my Bird after the painting. Today morning it was relatively calm (6AM) when i started to Hoskote. By the time i reached the wind had picked up but still thre were times when it was relatively calm. Flew the bird for > 1 hour with little experimentation each time.

Overall very happy with the way it flies. Very gentle, floaty and stable.

Here are some videos.






ashta

In this hand launch, I tried it with out realising that the batery had completely emptied. Still look at the way it glided in to the ground

Thanks for watching

ashta

First of all,you are an awesome artist and a great builder. I never thought that something man-mad ethat imitates nature could do it that well.

thanks for the kind words iamahuman.
ashta

Mr.Ashta,my name is Gandhar.Actually, I wanted to start out all over again on a new username,but then decided against it.

Awesome bird!

hi astha ji,

What is the material used on this bird ?

thats a nice bird plane sir
and i would like to know about the power systems

thanks.
the power system is
1550maH hyperion 3 cell
2409-21, 80X4.3 prop
30A Esc.

flies > 20 mins per charge