JCadwell
Key Veteran
Location: Richland WA/ Morro Bay, CA
My Posts This: Topic Forum | The hawk seems pretty decent for the money. The stock graphics are UGLY though. Not sure how well they stick, I just stuck them on the shelf. The frame material is some sort of fiber filled plastic, which isn't terribly attractive to look at. The sceadu frames have much prettier molding, and radiused edges around everything. Building it requires bolting a bunch of flat pieces togethor, unlike the sceadu, which really only has three frame components (two main and servo tray).
The control system seems pretty slop free. The instructions are EXCELLENT btw. Very easy to read, well labeled parts and all the parts are in bags that are reffered to by bag. Easy to build. I really like the clutch setup as well. Everything is attached to the motor, so there is not any alignment issue with the engine other than main gear to the clutch bell gear. The clutch was also prebuilt, and toleranced correctly. Better than I could have done.
Many of the instructions present construction sequences that have already been done. I'd imagine these are parts that people screw up most often, and the factory has just done it for you, instead of letting you screw it up.
The tail is really stiff. The small molded parts are not molded all that well, and the tail pitch ball links had mold seems and binded when I installed them. I surfaced the faces of the pitch links, as well as the pitch change plate. They were still snug. I pressed the pins in, and tried some grease, with no love. Finally I heated the ball links for a fraction of a second with a lighter, and the thermoset plastic took an imperceptable new shape, and relieved the inward pinch. They are pretty smooth and free now. The tail blade holders have plastic balls. Everything else has nice metal balls. I want metal on the tail. The plastic on plastic just doesn't cut it. On the plus side, the tail is already set up for a tail mounted servo. The linkage has a threaded coupler in the correct spot, so when you get the tail mount all you have to do is thread a ball link on rather than the coupler. No need to buy a new pushrod. I thought that was kinda cool.
The servo setup does leave a little to be desired. I wanted to use beefy servo horns, and the way they linkages interact makes this a little harder. I had to SLIGHTLY angle a few links (the aileron ones) to avoid rubbing. No binding, just touching links.
Other than its erector set look, I like the way things are put togethor on this ship. Almost all machine screws have nylon locknuts, and I ended up with the tuned muffler (which looks REALLY nice) instead of the short stubby one for some reason. There is setup data for all the links, and a page with links printed out so you can make them all by comparing to their life size views. Easy. They were all pretty close too.
As for flying? I have no friggin idea. It is done. Just the main blades to balance. It is also dark. Tommorrow is going to be the big day I guess. We shall see.
Thanks, John Cadwell |
But looking at the pic I can see that it has the same frames as the Hawk 3.
Enjoy your new Hawk. Tell us how it goes.
