Canterbury Sailplane Eagle Review

One thing I must say about Canterbury Sailplane’s kits is that they're very high quality. Not only is the fuselage of the Eagle cut to shape in all dimensions, but the cut outs have been pre-made for the radio AND slots have been cut between the receiver and battery area! Now that’s above and beyond!!

I’m one of those guys who like to have a really good understanding of what he’s going to do before he does it. So in keeping with this, I read the instructions at least three times before I even took the wings out of their packaging. Ok, so it was about now that I started getting a little nervous. Carbon fibre booms, epoxy on tail fins, sanding finisher, not to mention the need to keep it all LIGHT!

Yes I was a little apprehensive; I didn’t want to make a mess of this. As I got started and moved into the detailed building I was extremely surprised! This thing was actually really easy to build AND a lot of fun!! Soon all thoughts of disaster had evaporated as I confidently progressed though the very thorough instructions.

Now at some stage I did get a little too confident and decided to try something different. Not having a ready supply of Balsa sanding sealer available, I decided to cover the ailerons in coloured tape. Thinking that I might have added a little weight by going with this option, I make my big
mistake, and connected the ailerons to the wing with coloured tape rather than the (to my thinking) heavier strapping tape. Much later I discovered that this was a very BAD idea and ended up going back to the original configuration. I did leave the ailerons uncovered and un-sealed though. So the
lesson learnt was; Follow the Instructions! These guys know what they're doing.

Without going into all the details, the plane came together very well. I stuck with the recommended Hitec HS-65HB servos, and used an MKS PRO-RX8 RX, with a 270mah 2/3AA size NiCad pack purchased from CS. The battery cut out in the Eagle is made for this size pack so it was a nice comfy fit. In my initial build I hung part of the battery cable and an extension cable from the RX out of the fuselage as a manual switch. (A little later I decided to use a home made Black Jack in place of the
manual connection. I think this was a better choice so if you have the option, search for “Black Jack”
on the CS forum and find the link to the instructions on how to make one yourself.)

Now with everything installed, and about 25g of led in the nose to bring the model up to a total weight of 432g, I was ready for the first flight.


First flight.
I started with the mandatory test throws – After some initial trimming, the model flew very well from the hand with a standard straight hand launch. In fact it didn’t really want to come down.
Ok, enough of this, time for a real throw…Ok, so other than a few practice manoeuvres in the lounge room following the directions as outlined in the instructions I’ve never done this discus launch thing before.

I didn’t want to try to throw it too hard for the first one; get in position facing across the wind then spin, spin, launch and away she goes…easy as you like. A near perfect first launch, a couple of quick
circuits, then in for a straight forward landing. Very, very easy, quite surprising actually, I think the instructions make it seem harder than it actually is.

I found that the model climbs on its own during launch no input required, then as it starts to lose speed add in a whack of down on the elevator to level off and you’re away. As the model launched nice and straight with no need for correction, after the first couple of launches I didn’t even keep my thumb on the control, just held the transmitter tight whilst I was rotating.

I put in a number of tight thermal turns to see how she’d go. Now I’m no expert flyer, nor do I have years and years of DLG experience, but I was very surprised to note that, despite there being no thermals around, the model stayed in the air longer when in the thermal turns than when flying
circuits.

My model was on the heavier side and on the cold day that it was, my flights weren’t particularly long. The good thing about short flights though is you get to practice catching the Eagle on the landings!! This thing can sure build up momentum though, it almost took my head off a few times, expecting it to come in a little slower only to have it go sailing straight past me at speed!

Even though I only flew for about 15mins, I had a ball. This is a great alternative for those no-wind or low-wind days when you still want to get a flight in. I think I’ll also throw it in the boot when I next head down to the slope as it’ll enable me to keep flying off the slope as the wind drops below 10 knots.

I’ve had a good look at other DLGs and I’m yet to find something that lines against the Eagle for price, ease of build and robustness.

All in all I found the Canterbury Sailplane’s Eagle an easy and fun to build model with great flying characteristics. Well done CS, I can’t wait for next weekend!!


Additional note:
I’ve now been out on three weekends with the Eagle and I just can’t put it away. The more I fly it, the more I like it. Still haven’t got to the slope, but roll on Summer, I can’t wait!!

Shane Williams.

	Download CS Eagle Manual Download CS Eagle Plans View CS Eagle Review   [CSEAGLE] Canterbury Sailplanes EPP Eagle Discus HLG - Discus launched lightweight EPP sailplane.