All the extras. Use digital servos only for this airplane to make the best use of its flying precision (above left). The Evolution .60 NX proved a real powerhouse but needed care to tune properly. Cut out the engine fuselage cutting template
it. Use a small pipe cutter to remove ³⁄₁₆ inch from the header. Retest. Once the rpm starts to increase, keep cutting but only ¹⁄₈ inch each time. As soon as the rpm does not in- crease further, stop cutting. Move the pipe rearward ¹⁄₈ inch and fix it in place. Moving the pipe slightly rearward prevents the en- gine from coming “off the pipe” and losing power during verticals or sudden accelera- tion from slow airspeeds. Take all rpm read- ings from behind the engine, stay clear of the propeller arc and stop the engine each time before cutting. The initial c.g. was per the book—7¹⁄₁₆
inches back from the wing’s leading edge at the fuselage; a good starting point but slight- ly nose heavy for spins and snap rolls. Mov- ing the c.g. back ¼ inch helps these maneu- vers but does make the Phoenix more responsive then some sport pilots not used to such high performance might prefer. Control movements were per the book also which can be found at:
http://www.horizonhobby.com/ ProdInfo/Files/HAN4755-Manual.pdf
from the instruction book and position it on the fuselage (above right). It is hard to make this process any simpler than Hangar 9 does. Time savers such as this really cut down shop time.
Flying the Phoenix If you have flown a Phoenix or similar air-
plane then you don’t need to be told what an experience it is. It you haven’t, imagine fly- ing an airplane that answers your every whim almost before you make it. The air- plane flies like a carbon fiber arrow mount- ed on rails inside a narrow tube. It does not move in the slightest from the pilot’s chosen path.
There is no rudder coupling (rudder caus-
ing a roll), no walking in knife-edge flight and no tendency to pull out of an extended vertical downline. No right rudder is needed in extended vertical climbs and almost none even on takeoff. The airplane itself does all of its own trimming; no mixing needed here. And then, there are the rolls. Thank you
Mr. Lowe, thank you. I can’t describe how prefect rolls are with this airplane. I had for- gotten how perfectly these high-speed preci- sion airplanes rolled with so little pilot in- put. Axial and precise does not even begin to describe them. Slow, 4-point, 8-point, 16-
point, multiple, reverse and vertical rolls are an ecstasy of precision. The Phoenix out- rolls today’s Pattern airplanes by so much that any comparison is meaningless. But there is a price to pay for such preci-
sion. The Phoenix tracks exactly as it is told. Unlike modern Pattern airplanes that do compensate some for a pilot’s imprecision, the Phoenix does not. If the vertical line is not truly vertical, the airplane will stay off line in the climb. There is no self correction. If its wing’s are off level by 3 degrees go-
ing into a loop, then the airplane will stay 3 degrees banked throughout the loop which, if not corrected, will then corkscrew off cen- ter. This is especially apparent when flying some of the Ballistic Pattern Association’s (BPA) maneuvers like three outside loops. Just to test the airplane, it was flown through the 2007 BPA’s Masters Schedule. The Phoenix completed the extensive rou- tine with flying colors. I haven’t heard much of the BPA or its cousin, the Classic Pattern Assoc. (CPA) in the Northeast lately but the
Secure the servo lead extensions using ¹⁄₂-inch heat-shrink tubing as shown (above left). The Phoenixwill not turn on rudder so keep those ailerons working.
FLYING MODELS
Protect the surrounding area with low-tack masking tape. Lightly roughen the gluing surface for the stabilizers as a strong bond is required here (above right).
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