Hi all,
I received my Stribog 2 to 3 weeks ago.
For the servos, MKS HV inside of course ! The assembly went well, my exemplar arrived with the servoframes installed. The LDS system is pretty tight and absolutely slop free, but also easy for servo installation and maintenance. The ball bearing support is in fact with a U shape, so work laterally and you can extract the servo vertically before to remove the aluminium servo "head". I used MPjet brass couplers on the elevator control snakes, glues with some rapid epoxy and pinched on the snake. standard M2 clevises are used on the elevator horns, and plastic MPjet clevises on the servo end. I uses MPjet plastic clevises for a while on all my model and I'm pretty satisfied because they are robust and don't take any slop with time. The plane weight 2382 grs, with 900gr of ballast in the fuselage. I can add 500 gr in the joiner with some tungsten 10x10 slugs, and a piece of plastic aside to block them.
You can find the assembly log photo album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/108261435497421048134/album/6298154204285498593
Then, I sucessfully flown the Stribog last Saturday in light wind (6 to 8m/s of wind), and used it for a 8 rounds competition of the french league on Sunday.
I finally set the CG at 105/106 mm before the maiden flight after asking Markus, and it seemed to be a fine CG. The Stribog has a very different attitude in flight compared to the Rotmilan and Rotmilan midi.
I found it much more performant as it gives an excellent compromise between speed and grip/energy retention in turn.
I did another flight on Sunday morning before the competition with 1.1kg of ballast (I prepared a 500 grs of tungsten ballast in the joiner) and the plane was fast and performant. I had a bad landing in a bush then the right wing tip enter the ground by 20cm. Hopefully it as only minor damages (hinge light delamination on 10cm from the tip), so I could repair.
I was confident enough to use The Stribog all the contest to evaluate it in real conditions agains Shintos, Pitbulls, Freestyler, AlliajHM ...
I flew from 1kg to 1.4kg (full) of ballast using some tungsten in the joiner. In the air, the behaviour of the Stribog is very different from the predecessors (Extreme, Rotmilan and Rotmilan midi): It is much more agile, and give a very nice balance of straight speed and grip in turn with an excellent energy retention.
I tried different turn styles with the same success, including energy managment turns.
A third place with 2 bad rounds due to the flying order (I was flying last, with one interruption because of the rain) is definitively a good result and show that the Stribog is very competitive against of the usual references of the market. I got lots of questions about the plane during the comp showing an real interrest from the pilots.
For information, I won 3 of the 8 rounds ! I flew 2 times 32s (best time of the competition was 31,xx).
Video of the maiden flight with 6 to 8m/s of wind on Saturday:
https://youtu.be/JQR26AjyNEQ
I will continue to test-fly it next week-ends, but I can certainly say already that this plane is very competitive.
settings (subject to change with next flying sessions):
Ailerons: 25mm up / 15mm down
quadroflaps: 15 mm up / 10mm down
Elevator: 7mm up/down
Rudder: 9 mm up/down
Snapflaps: 5mm down at full elevator stick, ailerons and flaps aligned
Thermal position: 4mm down ailerons and flaps aligned
Speed position: 1.5 mm up ailerons and flaps aligned
Butterfly: Flaps 55 to 60mm down, Ailerons 10mm up, elevator compensation 4mm down (ajustable by trim on the Taranis )
Best regards,
Pierre
www.planet-soaring.com
https://www.facebook.com/PlanetSoaring
