Sport Aerobatic r/c

Goldberg Tiger 2, with two modifications

The picture above is my latest r/c contraption. It is what many would call an intermediate plane, a good first low winger, a pattern trainer or just a sport aerobatic airplane. I can honestly say that if you are comfortable flying a trainer plane (that is to say you can land and take off without scaring yourself or others), then you can fly a Tiger. It has long span, large wing area and it is not particularly heavy (It's perhaps a touch lighter than the Kadet Mk2 I learned to fly), so while it may demonstrate competent moves up in the air it is no sweat to land.

I made two structurally insignificant changes during construction. First and most obvious, I made the plane as a tail dragger instead of using the stock tricycle gear. One reason is that some of the planes I'd like to build (Caps, Extras, and WW2 fighters) are all tail draggers. While I wouldn't call this plane a hand full on the ground, it would ground loop on every landing if I just let it roll, so it does require that you be alert and that you know the correct control inputs to keep it where you want it. Another is that it just plain looks better. The conversion was a simple matter of mounting a tail wheel bracket and bending up a new pair of main gear legs. I could convert it back to tricycle gear in less than half an hour.

Less obvious is that I also replaced the original center mounted aileron servo with an indepenant servo in each wing (Hitech 225). It could be argued that this gives some redundancy in case of servo failure, but I've yet to have one roach on me that wasn't the result of a crash. It may result in quicker aileron response since the 225 servos have quite serious torque for their size and it was also easy to set up.

On the first flight it was nose heavy. The tail came off the ground in a stiff breeze and it "weathervaned" readily. Of course I flew it anyway and it not only flew fine, but I got it back without a scratch. On the next outing I moved the battery pack aft and ground handling was much more normal. I have the ailerons and elevator travel set to the maximum recommended by the manufacturer and the rudder set to all I can get out of it. The ailerons are acceptable but not fast and the elevator is not adequate (I routinely use full deflection at the bottom of a fast loop and on landing flare). I will first seal the elevator hing line and then add a notch or two of travel. Rudder is just great.

It flies inverted just fine with barely any correction and just as CG models states, it does axial rolls and big loops just great. It is a smooth flying plane that I hope to own for a long time.