Shrike1
Build it on Saturday, fly it indoors or outdoors on Sunday!
By Andy Kunz PHOTOGRAPHY: JIM WIGGIN S 18
ome planes are like great music and art, they are classics from the very first moment they fly. Joe Beshar’s Shrike is one such model. I first fell in love with the lines of the Shrike back in the mid 1980s when it first started to appear in model airplane magazines. The model said fast just sitting still! It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I finally had the oppor- tunity to build one, the Speed 400 size (FM 2/98, CD044). Its first flight just boosted my desire even more! Since then I’ve built half a dozen more in various sizes, including sever- al at this ultra micro size. After seeing it fly and flying it himself, Associate Editor, Jim Wiggin, asked me to put together this con- struction article.
A common complaint with the original
Shrike has been that while it flies fast, it also needs to land fast because it doesn’t have enough elevator to flare and slow down. This past spring I finally finished building a 43-inch Shrike in which I made a
slightly different design for the tail to ad- dress that issue. The 43-inch version worked so well I just had to make another micro ver- sion using it, and that’s what is presented here. The wing tips are also changed so they visually match the new tail shape, as are the fins which also have a very small amount more area—not to change performance, but simply to fit the new styling better. One of the benefits of the ultra micro size is that you can build the whole model from a partial sheet of balsa and some bits from your scrap box. The other big benefit to me is that I can build the whole model on a rainy day and have it ready if the sun comes out tomorrow. The 180 size brush- less motor as well as the AS3X brick and associated linear servos are available from Horizon or can be easily found from people selling or giving away old UMX planes, of- ten with perfectly healthy electronics and hardware. With those thoughts in mind, let’s get started!
AT A GLANCE Type:
Construction: Wing span: Wing area: Length: Weight:
Wing loading: Prop:
Motor:
Radio/ESC: Servos:
Battery:
80
R/C sport balsa
18.75 inches 88 sq. in. 14 inches
2.5–3.5 ounces 4–5.7 oz./sq.ft.
ParkZone Mini Stryker E-flite BL 180
Spektrum AS6410NBL
(3) Spektrum SPMSA2030L 2.3-gram linear ultra micro
2S 200 mAh Li-Po NOVEMBER 2013
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