Tornado XX EPP Slope Combat

Tornado (Telink) EPP slope combat wing  (10/2/00)

Jarda Resatko, one of the designers of the Tornado, gave me one of the first samples of the kit. Another designer is Libor Malak, one of the relentless propagators and makers of flying wings. Both of them are members the Prague 8 Model Club. Tornado is actually the last member of a long series of flying wings, designed by these guys. 

There are nicely cut EPP wing panels in the kit, wooden spar and joiner sticks, Coroplast stabilizers, styrofoam elevons, pushrods, clevises, control horns etc., pieces of FG sheet and the instruction manual. The builder needs to supply the filament tape, 3M77 spray, glue, the covering (I prefer ordinary plastic color tape) and naturally the RC parts.
I glued together the facing sections of the wing panels with thick CA (but first I glued spar sticks into the grooves in the lower surface of the wing and installed the servos). I forced the wing into the required negative dihedral and fixed the angle with two joiner wooden sticks. This method diverged slightly from the instruction manual but worked well. After this I installed the batteries and the receiver by cutting and digging the necessary cavities by an X-acto knife. Wing (standard) servos are fixed in their place by few drops of an epoxy glue.

digging EPP is fun

fixing the dihedral

Next steps were routine: light coat of 3M77, applying filament tape on critical parts of the wing, covering the wing in plastic colour tape. There is one unique procedure in building the Tornado though. The elevons are cut from white styrofoam and you have to zig-zag cover them in filament tape to increase their torsion rigidity. After this you may cover them in plastic tape or Orastick. Control horns are attached through pieces of FG sheet as the elevon surface is quite soft.

 
cutting the elevon leading edge angle

the styrofoam elevon covered in filament tape, placed in a negative form

For the whole building time I had some doubts about the elevon making technology. I thought that such elevons might not be good enough looking (although slope combat plane, in my mind, is just a sport equipment destined for bad treatment and inevitable wear-out) and/or not enough rigid and combat-proof. After some test flights it seems that these worries were not justified. These elevons don´t look too bad nor do they seem to be extremely vulnerable. We will see after few more combat sessions.
In contrast to the manual, I placed the pushrods on the bottom of the wing. I capped the servo horns with some spare plastic parts originally belonging to some other model kit. 

The CG was exactly as recommended by the manual. The plane weight was 520g. The wingspan is 120 cm. It was January, sunny Sunday afternoon, just about freezing, W wind some 5m/s - so I decided to do the flight tests on the Velka ohrada slope.

I was quite surprised to see two other guys already flying there. They both had Tornados, too.

maybe I should rather land inverted...

They were both pretending to "just fly". I threw the plane into an ideal wind without any turbulence whatsoever. It flew almost like a powered plane. Before I tested all the manoeuvres, Martin (one of the two guys) couldn´t wait any more and killed me with a rather spectacular move. This fired up all my fighting spirit and I started to chase him, which helped me to test quickly the combat potential of the wing. It is pretty high. The turns are smooth and with good energy retention, it can fly inverted and do all the other tricks. After a radical pull of the elevator, it may sometimes spin-out like other flying wings. Again the proper adjustment of  elevator throws will turn it into a very well behaving plane.
Before I repaid Martin (the guy with the yellow wing)  the kill, he managed to kill me once more. One arrogant 14-year old kid!

January, Sunday afternoon

The combat season is almost here. I decided to have always at least two combat planes ready (there is nothing as sad as to watch everybody dogfight while my warbird is broken beyond repair). One of them might be the Tornado.

	View Telink Tornado Review   Tornado XX Slope Combat Wingspan 1.22metres Weight 350- 380 gms Beginner through to expert Wind speed above 8kmph

You may also need the following to complete the model:

	Sanwa Dash II Digital Proportional Remote Control.  2 Servos & dry batteries. Reliable and functional for use in model aircraft and in cars. Features servo reversing and a special boat/car differential throttle setting.

You will need 8 x AA Alkaline batteries  or rechargeable batteries for the transmitter

	Venom 240V Speed Charger suit 1-4 pieces of AAA or AA rechargeable batteries

	Venom AA alkaline batteries - 4 in a pack

OR

	JR X-2610/XP6102 - "Solid 6-channel simplicity and practicality combined with the kind of refinement and ease of programming that-until now-has been reserved only for the "high-end" rigs" Download JR X2610/XP6102 Manual Note: 36MHz only [JRP2610] X-2610 PCM 6 ch Computer set with RS77S Rx, 4 servos, nicads, charger [JRP2610.2] JRP2610.2 X-2610 Tx, RS77S, TX crystal+ [JRP2610.H] X-2610 Heli set, 5x537,G410 gyro [JRP2610.EH] X-2610 Elec Heli PCM, w/ 4x381 servos,nic,chgr,G410 gyro [JRP2610TX] X-2610 Transmitter w/nicad

	Programmable v-tail & elevon mixer for 2 channel radio.

	Coloured covering tape for your EPP foamie. Red AU$6.40   US$4.95 Yellow AU$6.40   US$4.95 Green AU$6.40   US$4.95 Blue AU$6.40   US$4.95

OR

	Solar Film (26x50”) heat shrink covering. Red AU$15.95   US$11.95 Cub Yellow AU$15.95   US$11.95 Blue AU$15.95   US$11.95 Orange AU$15.95   US$11.95 Silver AU$15.95   US$11.95 Black AU$15.95   US$11.95 Trans Yellow AU$15.95   US$11.95 Trans Orange AU$15.95   US$11.95 Fluro Yellow AU$15.95   US$11.95 Fluro Pink AU$15.95   US$11.95

	[EFLA206] Foam Compatible CA, 1oz Thick. * Compatible with most Styrofoam and foams * Odorless, non-allergenic, thick, slow-cure Cyanoacrylate * Excellent for wood and most other hobby materials 1 oz

Slope Soaring DVDs

	Free Sample Lift Ticket Slope and Dynamic Soaring DVD Reese Productions. The new Directors Cut on DVD adds some great new footage as well - an incredible barage of stimulus guaranteed to inspire you to get out and fly!

	Radio Carbon Art PSS Masters

	Radio Carbon Art - Soar Utah Adventure - "It is well worth the money to see the gorgeous airplanes flying in exotic places. I give it five out of five stars for content and quality. I hope Paul continues to produce such fine glider videos" - Mike Garton Model Aviation Magazine

	Endless Lift

	Endless Lift 2

	Radio Carbon Art - Endless Lift 3 - "I found endless lift 3 to be a cool soaring sampler. Like all Paul's videos, it is professional enough for broadcast television" - Mike Garton AMA Magazine