Squirrel Works RED BARRON

[slackdaddy]

Top Quality components,
Had my reservations while "test glidding"
Turned out to be a real crowd pleaser, I am ordering 2 more.

The laser cut balsa is the best "precut" balsa of any rocket kit I have seen. Instructions are good, You need a steady hand to put this together and keep everything square.

The kit comes with some clay to balance (glide). it says to add some to nose or wings. before gluing the nose cone on I drilled it out a little so it would not be nose heavy, I did not want to stick clay on My freshly painted gliders wings.

As hard as I tried, I could not get it to glide good hand launching it in the yard or from the roof. it either stalled or nose dived.
The joint between the wings and struts cracked, so I reglued all the wing joints and put oversized fillets, no more problems.
I added a little clay weight to the nose to get rid of any hint of stalling, but was getting conflicting results with My hand launches,
so I decided to launch it in the front yard with an A8-3 and see how it acted.

It's glide slope was good but it made tight circles to the left, I added some epoxy to the right side fillets and launched agian, it glided some what strait, but had a slight stall, after getting it out of the tree I added a small BB of clay into the nose, and shelved it till the MDRA launch.


MDRA launch (HPR EX style launch) - Middle of cut farmers field, good wind.
I put it up on an A8-3, ejection, 1 roll, then it just hung there in the sky facing into the wind did not even move for 5 seconds, then made lazy, large circles back down. had a number of people ask where I got it.

Next on a B6-4, This thing just hung up in the air forever, slow gracefull glider. Agian a number of people ask where I got it

Next C6-3, I followed it for about a 1/4 mile, but it actully appeared to gain Alt over the next field, last I saw it, it has just hanging up in the sky, drifting away

Ordering 2 more,
How about an up scale ??

Slack

 

[wwattles]

They've got a 24mm upscale in the works, but they are saying that the materials are pretty expensive (solid balsa nosecone, heavier wing materials, etc).

I too had some serious reservations after hand-testing, but the first flight was very gentle circles and it nearly came right back to me.

Second flight actually broke the vertical struts (not the joints), and I haven't yet replaced them. Despite coming in on only one of the wings, it STILL was able to glide well and do the lazy circles for recovery.

It is truly a well-designed model, that everybody loves to see fly!

WW

 

[cls]

same story here. yeah, it's a real crowd pleaser!! ours shredded the struts too. we ordered another. can't wait for the upscale one!

 

[SecretSquirrel]

I'm glad you enjoyed the kit. I've lost a couple flying them on C engines too. I pretty much only fly them on A's now.

As far as cracked struts, I've only seen this happen once. Those of us observing the flight all agreed that the engine casing must have struck the wing when it ejected. I'm not sure how common this is, I've been flying the same Red Baron for almost a year now and it just has a couple of dents in the nose.

As far as the larger fillets, yes good glue penetration into the wood is critical. We're looking at changing the design slightly on the upscale Red Baron to provide slots and tabs for all the joints. This should increase the surface area for glueing and provide stronger joints. We're also looking at making each wing and rudder a 2 piece assembly. This should reduce the cost of the kit and since the glue joint is stronger than the wood, give an overall stronger model.

Here's a photo of one of the upscale prototypes:

 

[cls]

We're looking at changing the design slightly on the upscale Red Baron to provide slots and tabs for all the joints.

put that in your "must have" box for the kit. Edmonds' larger kits are all that way and it's essential.

 

[slackdaddy]

SS,
Is there an ETA on the upscale ??

ever think about a really large one ? ~3' wing span ?
A large, 1 of, scratch built has crossed My mind. perhaps rib and fabric wings, R/C, E powered ?

Slack

 

[rstaff3]

I saw a couple of your flights. Flew nicely. I might go for the bigger version myself.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

Originally posted by slackdaddy
SS,
Is there an ETA on the upscale ??

ever think about a really large one ? ~3' wing span ?
A large, 1 of, scratch built has crossed My mind. perhaps rib and fabric wings, R/C, E powered ?

Slack

The upscale isn't even in the production schedule yet. I'm still doing some testing to make sure the 2 piece rudders will be strong enough at the canard joint. The kit may be available very late this year. It's hard to say just now.

A really big one? Like K powered and R/C? Like with a 96" wingspan? Maybe a foam core in the wings and covered in carbon fiber and fiberglass?

Here's a pic of the upper wing core. I work on this when I have the spare time, but that's been rare lately. BTW, I don't think I could ever kit this.