Erwin 5 Build Tips

October 29, 2004January 9, 2018 - slopeflyer Leave a comment

The Erwin 5 is an all carbon, 2-meter slope ship. This article has several pictures and some notes on the building of my current version.

Erwin 5 elevator showing the channel for the control horn

Erwin 5 V-tial half

Wing root showing 2 joiner tubes, bakllast acces in between and the wire channel aft

Hitec HS-5125 thin wing servo

V-tail control horns

V-tail control horns installed

The V-tail cradle with control horn access hole.

This is the pallet that slides up into the nose

Airtech Passion Building Info

October 29, 2004January 9, 2018 - slopeflyer Leave a comment

The Passion is a 2.45-meter sailplane from Airtech in France. It is an all around plane with an eye towards slope flying and F3F but is also a very capable thermal ship. This article has tips from the building of my current Passion.

Routing out the aileron and flap channel

Scraping the wood away from the hingeline

Pushrod holes in the fuse

Gluing the pushrod housings to the fuse

Pushrods housings installed

V-tail control horns

Center mark on the V-tail

Ready to glue the control horns in

Control horn channel

Control horns installed

Control horn installed

Routed out servo pocket

Fuse setup

Receiver tucked forward of the wing

Control horn and control rod setup

Wing tip routed out

Servo leads

Ballast block and ballast tray

Ballast tray installed

Columbus Day 2004 – Wilson Lake, Kansas

October 17, 2004January 21, 2016 - slopeflyer Leave a comment

Greg and Mirko took a trip to Wilson Lake, Kansas for what has become a tradition, the Columbus Day slope get together at one of the Midwest’s best known slope sites.

Mirko and I left Milwaukee dark and early on Thursday at 5 AM for the 12 hour drive to Wilson Lake near Lucas, Kansas. We took a different route that I had been using in the past and it seems like a better way to go. Basically I-80 to York, Nebraska and then south on US-81 which is now 4-lane all the way to Salina, Kansas. Very nice.

We got to the lake about 5:30 PM and met a few guys just packing it up for the day. We were still in for a couple of hours of flying! We didn’t drive all this way for nothing! The highlight for me was the first flight of my Erwin 5. The wind was light but it was “magic air”, the buoyant air at the end of the day, and the Erwin loved it. I spent quite a bit of the remaining daylight sorting and tweaking.

After it got dark we headed over to Jack Cooper’s new home and the new shop for Leading Edge Gliders. Very nice!
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