Mega-Baron

[geof]

I've been working for some time on this Squirrel Works Mega-Red Baron. The bag says 7oz but mine has come in at 6.5oz before painting. It has a 20.5in wingspan.

It has a nifty interlocking part system, but I have one serious complaint. The rocket itself weighs only 5.25oz, but you have to add 1.25oz of tail weight: essentially all of the ping pong ball sized block of clay they provide! I replaced this with a collection of fishing weights which look like weapons. However, it seems to me that this massive weight addition could have been avoided by moving the fins back an inch or two. Why add 25% to the weight of a glider?

I'll continue about trimming in the next post.

 

[rokitflite]

I've been working for some time on this Squirrel Works Mega-Red Baron. The bag says 7oz but mine has come in at 6.5oz before painting. It has a 20.5in wingspan.

It has a nifty interlocking part system, but I have one serious complaint. The rocket itself weighs only 5.25oz, but you have to add 1.25oz of tail weight: essentially all of the ping pong ball sized block of clay they provide! I replaced this with a collection of fishing weights which look like weapons. However, it seems to me that this massive weight addition could have been avoided by moving the fins back an inch or two. Why add 25% to the weight of a glider?

I'll continue about trimming in the next post.

Give it a nice finish and be generous with the paint... That should help.

 

[geof]

Trimming this glider is terrifying because you know you are doomed to break it. I added the huge clay weight to achieve the precise balance point given in the instructions, then took her out for a toss in the tallest prairie grass I could find.

The first toss was so good that she overshot my grass and hit some twiggy branches of a tree. For all my complaints about the weight, they got the balance point absolutely perfect for my build. It was a bit swift with a medium left curve, so I found a more open spot and tried again. Bad toss. Broke the right rudder completely in two, just above the notch joint.

As I said, you've just got to be stoic about this process. It is very large, heavily weighted glider with some comparatively fragile wing supports. Every landing or two is liable to be a damaging one. This break was pretty clean and I fixed it right up over the next few days.

Now that I knew the trim weight was quite good, I replaced it with my lead weights and took her out again. I went back to the first site with the tallest grass, but tossed away from the tree. Very good flight, a bit swift and again with a clear right curve. I added a bit of clay to the left wing and tried again. Bad toss. Hold breath. No damage. Again. Bad toss. Cringe. No damage. Again. Great glide, gentler without stalling, totally straight. (Don't worry about the straightness: at our launch site the prairie wind will always nudge gliders into a curve, and I have miles of open space anyway.)

That was four tosses without breaking. I decided not to press my luck any further. You may wonder why I seem to be the world's worst tosser. (Hah! to my UK friends). Well, there's nowhere to hold because the balance point is on the spar pole. I eventually held it on the nose tube, ran quickly while holding, and released the glider nose up with a gentle nudge. But tossing this glider is really no harder than any other. Since you only have about five feet of airspace, you've got to get the toss close to perfect. There is no opportunity for the glider to recover like it would in several hundred feet of air.

Okay, so she's ready for final cleanup to remove dents from tossing and repairs. Then paint. I'm kind of hoping to launch her the weekend after next. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Gillard]

as a Uk er, i liked the tosser pun:lol:

the mega baron is similiar to the flying jenny. and it is really hard to do tosses, for the reason geof gives. with the fly jenny we had in my club , we eventually gave up and launched her anyway. she gave several really good flights, until one day she literally exploded in the air. from looking at the fragments that we collected, came to the comclusion that the motor, which the Jenny spits out (does this happen with the Baron?) must have hit the rear wing and the forch of that hit ripped her to pieces.

 

[user 13]

I've built 3 Jenny's. All of them fly great. None of them needed the balance weight that your Barron does, The only trimming I have had to do was add weight to the nose! I'm not sure why the Barron would be so different, it's basically the same design.

The hardest part of flying it is connecting the igniter clips so they wont catch a wing at lift off!

Mark

 

[geof]

Yes, the Mega-Baron spits its motor, too.

One EMRR review mentions using most of the clay, so I think this weight is standard. I had emailed SW but didn't get a reply so I went ahead, and it seems to be correct.

When I went to touch things up before painting, I discovered that there had been further damage during tossing. One of the center wings had slightly cracked away from the tube, and the spar had nearly entirely cracked away from the tube. I fixed these up and hopefully today will begin the final finishing.

G

 

[SecretSquirrel]

I make it a point to answer all emails about our products. I've replied to a few emails about the Mega Baron over the past few months, I don't know which may have been yours.


EDIT: Found your email but I haven't opened it. My email client doesn't like it and tagged it as spam. There's an attachment that has been flagged as possibly dangerous.

 

[Gillard]

I've built 3 Jenny's. All of them fly great. None of them needed the balance weight that your Barron does, The only trimming I have had to do was add weight to the nose! I'm not sure why the Barron would be so different, it's basically the same design.

The hardest part of flying it is connecting the igniter clips so they wont catch a wing at lift off!

Mark

with the jenny, we had to add some wieght to the nose as well, we also put a small flap on the bottom wing to get it to turn. the quality of the balsa really affects the balance point. we used quite stong , but also quite dense balsa - perhaps the Baron uses low density balsa?

 

[BobCox]

While I have not built the Mega Baron, I have built the smaller Red Baron. My experiences with hand-tossing were very similar to Geof's. I broke one rudder on the very first toss. The other rudder broke on about the 5th toss. In both cases, the break occurred right on the laser-cut seam.

I would recommend adding a piece of balsa or cardstock over that seam on both rudders. Not only will it strengthen the joint, it will provide a little more weight toward the rear. If I have to add weight, I'd rather have it provde structural strength instead of being dead weight like clay.

 

[atticus]

When I built mine last year, it balanced right at the point given in the instructions. I gave one half hearted trial toss and it seemed acceptable, so I decided to not risk any damage.
It flew in July '07 and it was doing a pretty nice glide when about 3 feet off the ground it came to an abrupt stop and fell backwards to the ground.
The NC had hit dead center on the cross pipe of an outfield fence for a baseball field.
I repaired and repainted the cone and flew it again two months later. I must have overlooked some other damage as this time it disintegrated on the way up.
It has been repaired and is awaiting trimming and a repaint.
Every body loved it.
Tim

 

[geof]

I make it a point to answer all emails about our products. I've replied to a few emails about the Mega Baron over the past few months, I don't know which may have been yours.


EDIT: Found your email but I haven't opened it. My email client doesn't like it and tagged it as spam. There's an attachment that has been flagged as possibly dangerous.

Thanks. I know you're really good about emails and was surprised that you didn't get back quickly. It was a weekend, and I was anxious to proceed, so I decided not to wait any longer. No reflection on you!

I think I've got the weight balance settled. I was surprised how much clay was needed, so that's why I wrote.

PS. The attachment was a jpg photo.

 

[cwbullet]

I have flown mine twice. Once it flew and broke the supports between the wings and the other it broke the support on the bottom. I would like to try one made of 1/8 or 1/4 inch plywood.