christchurch and district model flying club

Sas wild thing

by Terry Sullivan

It seems a lot longer ago than 10^th July 2004 that I put fingers to keyboard and wrote an article called “My First Build” on my Mk 2 46 inch Wild Thing, but I have just re-read the article and that is the date on the file. So why am I writing another one?

 In part it is so I can read it without groaning at my naivety! I now know that the “plastic thingies” are called horns and clevises!  Another reason is that Alan Head has considerably refined the design of the model and it seems very different. But it is difficult to compare a brand new model with one that has been flown for 3 years, broken, repaired, bent, buckled and twisted. It is now heavier, less aerodynamic and a lot less fun to fly. An additional difficulty is that I am no longer a novice flier, I now use Buddy Leads to train others, and have been doing so for a couple of years – a fact I owe largely to what my original Mk 2 Wild Thing taught me.

 So how are the designs different? To quote from The SAS website. “It retains the same fuselage and fin profile, uses the same root section, but a reduced tip section and less leading edge sweepback. It soars as well or better than the model it replaces but accelerates more quickly, flies faster and tracks more accurately” In fact the Modified version of the Mk3 has a forward tapered trailing edge, the standard Mk 3 has a straight trailing edge.

This picture shows the different planform. Tony Cousins holds his Orange Mk 2, whilst I am holding the green Mk3.Photo by Phil Thompson

 The first area in which my increased expertise manifested itself was in the building. Whereas my original one took me the best part of a week to build, I ordered this one by phone to Alan Head on Wednesday evening and got it from the Sorting Office at 5.00pm on Friday. I flew it today, Saturday! The construction is identical, except for a minor mod I made myself. My old one needed re-covering several times, and on each occasion the trailing edges crumbled a bit more. As I plan to keep this model for a similar time, I glued some very thin carbon fibre strips to the trailing edge to prevent this.

 The early Mk2 was made of black foam, the new one is white foam. This appears a lot finer grained and lighter weight than the black. And while weight equates to speed in a glider, it also means less height for the same lift. I can control my speed with the elevator, I can’t increase the wind speed!

 I won’t go into the building of the model, as I did so at length in the earlier article, probably because it took me so long! Now it seems very straightforward! The instruction book looks exactly the same as I recall, but now I understand it and what once seemed so bad that I had to contact Alan Head for advice is now abundantly clear!

 And so to the tricky part – trying to remember how my old one flew when new and compare it to the new model. At first I was reluctant to try her as it seemed quite light lift – certainly would have been difficult with the old one, but maybe not when she was new, if I had been the same flier I am now. But I recall a time when a group of us were attempting to fly a shingle bank, two X-its in experienced hands were able to fly, two novices with a Zagi and a Wild Thing could not! Yet when I flew the Zagi, I kept it in the air! So I conclude that when new, she needed more lift than a Zagi. This does not appear to be the case with the current model, she easily attained similar height to the X-its that were being flown, despite considerably less wing area.

 The mark 2 was an ideal beginners model, stable and forgiving, she could still do most manoeuvres, but take your hands off the sticks and she would settle herself down quickly. A few favourite manoeuvres I used with her were to do what I call a reverse loop, position the model into wind and trimmed to hold 0 ground speed, then gentle up elevator and she would rise, floating backwards and gently stall, dropping her nose and going forward. In the right conditions I could do this several times in larger and larger “loops”. Another favourite was to pass close across the cliff face crosswind, turn her out and up, then immediately apply opposite aileron so she rolled in the direction she had been going, somewhat like a car that tries a handbrake turn and rolls over. Either of these tricks was quite difficult with an X-it! The Mk 3 rolls so fast it is no problem at all.

 Initially I was content to fly her around gently, and she did this nicely. The old model was incredibly stable, but with a yank on the sticks would tumble around happily enough. But I recall that once I had progressed to the stage where I wanted to engage in combat, I increased all the throws to maximum and fitted larger elevons to compete with the X-its. I set similar Tx settings for the new model and found that I had more than enough! I won’t need to put bigger elevons here, or use maxed out EPA or Dual rates!

Later in the afternoon the breeze picked up and the model really came alive! At one point I was doing some figure 8’s for some spectators and she was zipping around like a fly on speed! Bank-and-yank pylon turns one after another, consecutive multiple loops, rolls in a twinkle! This is one lively model. But level the wings, put in a couple of clicks of up trim and she is back to being an easy to fly stable model! You just have to keep the sticks still!

She is not as easy to trim to hover as the old design, I suspect that higher windspeeds will be needed to achieve the reverse loop as she penetrates so much more readily. But when she does get the right conditions, it will be equally easy to do either of my favourite tricks!  (p.s. it is!)

Whereas the Mk 2 needed to be given a nudge to perform, the Mk 3 revels in doing so. The tighter you turn the happier she seems, and yet when you want to sit still and relax, she does so. I love it!  

Today I flew her in a stronger breeze, and she was just as good as I expected. Sustained inverted flight with a tiny bit of down elevator, even her “slow” rolls are as fast as the older model. But steady her up and she is a real pussycat! I trimmed her to sit almost still and she just went up, hands off! I can’t wait to get her in a crowd of X-its for some combat! What is really interesting is the stall when inverted, she just nods and carrries on regardless, it is so benign that at first I did not realise it was stalling!

I flew her several times whilst on holiday in Devon from 400ft cliffs, and whilst she was not able to reach the extreme altitudes that some of the X-its were able to get, she easily outperformed them in every other area. Speed was superior, as was aerobatic agility, I was able to perform manoeuvres such as an inverted loop and a bunt. At one time I was able to hold her stationary whilst inverted, which the older model was very good at doing the right way up. Cross wind loops and rolls were easy, and square loops could be performed with accuracy and precision. This updated model tracks accurately whichever way up you put her, but is also very sensitive. In 22/25mph winds I flew her alongside a PMP Fast-bak, a specialist pylon racer. Whilst this was on a maiden flight and was probably in need of some ballast, the Wild Thing was not disgraced! And I can fly in a lot less wind!

Today’s flying was yet another surprise! Our local site is far from perfect, a 100 foot slope at about 1 in 3 angle average, but with a 15/20 foot vertical top. The slope is not smooth, has trees and bushes near the top, so the air is often bumpy. I read in magazines and such that “this model flies well in a 10mph wind” when on our slope it needs 15mph! So when I arrived at the site to find 8mph, I initially flew an electric model. But eventually I decided to give the WT a big heave and hope I could get enough height so that if it wouldn’t stay up I could get it back up top. But away she went, handling the light airs with ease. True, it was only a case of floating up and down the edge in the main, but I did get enough height to do a couple of loops. Bear in mind that this was in conditions that no comparable model that I know of would have flown in, and she was still floating around when the wind swung about 20 degrees off the slope and dropped to 6mph!

In the last few years, designer Alan Head has become involved in Dynamic Soaring, the form of slope soaring where by flying in the curlover behind a slope, extreme speeds are attained. Whilst I have no experience of this, it seems to me that the Mk3 is an ideal model for the beginner in this field. But she is superb for sport flying generally. Perhaps the new model is not so suited to the absolute beginner as the old one was, but for the intermediate to advanced flier, she is a delight, and she is still not beyond the scope of a novice! It took one look for one of our trainees to decide to buy one, he has now flown it and finds it far better than the X-it he is used to! He is already talking about getting another SAS model!

Another gem from Alan Head!

Back to Contents

[Home] [Chairman's Chatter] [Editorial] [Diary of a Flier] [Harry Spotters] [Ken's Seafox] [Cyril's Walrus] [Here we are...] [Ken's Piper] [Andrew's Alula] [Wild Things] [Reflections] [Andrew's Bingo]