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TOWING RESUMED
by Trevor Hewson
On Thursday I took up Tony Harris's offer of a Riot XL for use as a club tug. This model had in turn been donated to Tony by John Macklin after Tony's garage fire so I guess, after the crash of my Neindecker
(photo)
I am now custodian of it at least until another deserving case arises!
The Riot's experience of the great outdoors has, to date, consisted mainly of a lengthy sojourn in the top of the SF pine forest. Either on arrival or during its subsequent extraction from the clutches of the trees it has sustained quite a lot of bruising but the main damage was to the rear end which had been broken off. This had been remedied and although the repair isn't exactly invisible, the tail is firmly attached and pointing in roughly the right direction so I opted to leave that alone.
Over the next few days I gave the airframe a bit of tlc and installed the receiver and ESC from the late Neindecker. This ESC is a HobbyWing Pro series 70a unit specified for 5s-12s operation. This is potentially a problem since the Riot XL is sold as a 4s aeroplane. The reviews though suggest that, as supplied, it might be a bit lacking in the power department for aerotow duties so in the light of these comments and the ESC's specification, I squeezed in an elderly 5s x 3300mah pack and recorded a full throttle current draw of 40a which seemed quite promising. The only other change I made was to move the undercarriage. There are two mounting plates in the underside of the fuselage and the instructions clearly show the u/c fitted in the forward position. This places the wheels a long way forward and is a recipe for bouncy landings. I'm not sure what the second mounting plate is for (attachment of floats has been suggested) but, with the u/c fitted here, the wheels are still just about under the leading edge, so I thought I would see how this position worked out.
By Saturday evening I had got the control surfaces and linkages sorted and the radio programmed so I took the model to the Middle Wallop e-fly yesterday. On arrival, we drove even further round the perimeter track than usual before finding the flight line, set out on a section of the field which was on a slight slope, and with longish grass. This was a bit of a challenge to the rearward cg position but the model coped okay and, once trimmed, it flew well in the 12 to 15mph wind.
Heartened by this, I spent today re-instating the steerable tailwheel (which revealed a couple of broken rudder hinges). The last job was to cut the balance tab off the top of the rudder and attach it to the fin so that guard wires could be fitted to keep the towline clear of the control surfaces
So, if the weather eventually relents, aerotowing services are once again available by appointment.
My thanks to John and Tony for their generosity.
Trevor
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