E-Flite Opterra

[t33jetman]

Woody,
It's a little bit of both planes. I just didn't like the way it looked when it came. Horizon loved the paint job.
The HSD SUPER VIPER, never came from Banana Hobby. I was one the first order when it came out but the factory did not deliver for a year, so I cancelled my order with them. I will have to update my profile. it really made me mad it took so long on that plane because I ordered a lot of modifications for it which I was lucky enough to put on the FMS Avanti S.

[Woodcock]

By the way man, that's what ya call taking a Sow's Ear, and turning it into a Silk Purse. Looks nice Jman! What the heck is that thing? Looks like kind of a cross between an FPV & a B1-B.

Woody

[Woodcock]

Hey Jetman,

How are you liking that HSD Super Viper? Have ya flown it yet?

Woody

[t33jetman]

Here are some close up pics.

[rifleman_btx]

That looks great t33!:Cool:

[t33jetman]

[xviper]

We have more than one of these and put the stars on it to tell them apart.


I

I get these "stars" on sheets of decals from HobbyKing. I use them for ID purposes. On my Mystique RES, I used all the 3 different sizes of red stars on the underside of the wings just so they can be seen when the dang thing is up over 700 feet. They don't look like stars that high up but at least they look like something. Not a "Ruskie" theme as such. Sometimes, I'll use bright pink fluorescent duct tape but doesn't mean any kind of sexual orientation either. ;)

[Ole-Timer]

I’ve had mine two years now. Bought it for FPV flying. Using 3s 6600mAh and getting 15 minutes of low n slow cruise time or longer if thermal hopping in summer. I’ve really enjoyed it...!

[Grady.c]

Ok thats one way to do it

[TiredIronGRB]

Whats with the Russian stars and what looks like the flag near the nose? No judgment, it just seems a little odd.

We have more than one of these and put the stars on it to tell them apart.


I

[Grady.c]

I do the quads and planes but for me the planes are the best, it's great to get out and explore...I have a Hawk Sky that I fly into another state from my airstrip :)

Whats with the Russian stars and what looks like the flag near the nose? No judgment, it just seems a little odd.

[xviper]

Unlike a "conventional" airplane (with wing and tail surfaces), it is nearly impossible to have just "flaps" on a flying wing. The control surfaces on a flying wing act as both elevator and aileron (ie, elevons). If you deploy flaps, that's like DOWN elevator. If you deploy them as spoilers, that's like UP elevator. You "could" do small flaps on the inner part of the wing but you would need the outer elevons to be able to counter them with some UP elevator. On sailplanes, they call that "crow". In issence, this is like using "airbrakes". The opposite is "reflex" where the flaps go UP and both elevons go DOWN to counter.
On a flying wing, spoilers or airbrakes need to be put mid-wing so as to not affect the pitch of the plane adversely. They are meant to both slow the wing down and to cause the wing to lose lift.

[Boots Whirlygig]

I meant to include these pictures. 1982, the days of hair, LOL

[Boots Whirlygig]

I wonder how the Opterra would do with actual flaps? I put spoilers on my scratch build RF-4 gasser years ago, unfortunately I was using a 4 channel radio and they deployed only when the throttle and its trim were all the way back. Yeah, I didn't think that one through! You need power! Dropped like a graceful brick! Lucky I have pictures.

[rifleman_btx]

Yup wings love to float along in the ground effect. Heavily at 1/2 the wingspan in altitude

[xviper]

Just for kicks, I did a few passes today under different conditions to see what the Opterra does. The description in the video is as follows:
View in FULL SCREEN.
First pass after launch .... fly by, power off, stabilized mode.
2nd pass ........... power off, launch mode.
3rd pass ............ launch mode, motor at idle.
4th pass ............ full spoilers activated, power off, launch mode.
Landing ............. power off, full spoilers, launch mode.
Description .................................................. ...
Stabilized mode pass resulted in immediate loss of altitude when no other input made. This can be tuned out by manually adjusting the elevons to a more UP deflection.
Launch mode pass resulted in a fairly stable altitude, "floaty" fly by.
Idling prop resulted in marginal dip in altitude due to mild resistance from slow spinning prop.
Spoilers made the biggest difference in lowering speed and increasing sink rate. Stick input of elevons to control descent can make for a very short landing. Otherwise, this plane can float for a long way just 2 feet off the ground.

[xviper]

I haven't flown the Opterra without the wingtips. I believe they contribute to adding some extra lift by disrupting the wingtip vortices (like on real planes). They also add a bit of yaw stability but the inner vertical fins take care of that on the most part. I've flown other wings without wingtips or vertical fins and they tend to "wallow" side to side during parts of the flights, depending on which way the wind is coming from. I think the Opterra would fly OK without them but it wouldn't float nearly as well or be able to fly quite as slowly. For aerial videography (or even FPV) or for soaring, this plane is best flying as slow as possible (for me anyway). If you want to be able to do more stunts, then maybe do without the tips.
On this flying wing, SAFE contributes to stabilize and control roll and pitch. It would continue to do the same even without the wingtips. Whatever yaw control those wingtips may contribute, since SAFE on this plane doesn't really do much in terms of yaw correction, it shouldn't be any more unsafe without the tips.

[Boots Whirlygig]

Have you flown the Opterra with the winglets removed? Would you fly it with out the winglets? I know they contribute a lot for its directional stability but I wondered if SAFE would keep it safe. :Confused:

[xviper]

Had a chance to test out the Opterra today with it's new spoilers. These things really aid in shortening the landing run. In the video, you can see I could come in and about 30 feet above ground, deploying full spoilers dropped the Opterra in a very controlled manner (in LAUNCH mode) and touched down in a very short distance. Normally, from that height and that point in the landing strip, the Opterra would have over-shot the runway and flew over the hill at the end. If it was a couple of feet off the ground, it would have floated almost to the base of that little hill before stopping (maybe).

[xviper]

Here is a video I made some years ago, when this device was fairly new to the market. It was a sort of precursor to the "self leveling", Spektrum SAFE technologies we see everywhere today. View the video in full screen. You won't see the plane the whole time as it's far away at times, but listen to my narrative so you have an idea of what the plane is doing. This was when the T1000FC couldn't be turned off and that's why the "Buddy Box" is used. Today's Bigaole can be turned off on one of the switch positions.