"Arresti III - F3A"

From Kondor Models, Canadian importer

NEWEST UPDATES!!!!

New Arresti -   Friday when arriving home from work, there in the entry way was the NEW Arresti III.  Those of you following this page know that I planned to have a #2 Arresti ever since I realized how good this airplane performed!!!

Well - it's here, and nearly completed.  A number of important improvements have been made, most notably in the wing tube/socket construction, and the fact that the wing is completely built up, as is the stab, fin, and rudder.  The wing tube is still 25mm, but now slides into a fully-supported socket that extends into the wing panel about 10.5".  This is a huge change, yet the built-up weight is not any more than the foam wing.

Among other improvements;

•     Stab sockets are much tighter around the CF tubes.

•     Belly pan mounting has been hugely simplified by extending the ply fuse sides lower so that the belly pan simply screws to it.  Very simple, and should be fine.

•     Canopy install has been equally-improved with six blind nuts already installed;  all the builder has to do is locate and drill the holes in the canopy rail/base.

I should have this going pretty quick, and will anticipate test flights shortly!  With the improvements made, this is an even greater value to the market!  Not only is it definitely competitive, AND legal, but it's stage of completion means it can get done in a hurry, also.

Update 9/17/04 - Springfield, MO, pattern contest is history, and the Arresti took me to another Masters' win.  Working on presentation a lot now, and tried the 4 blader in competition for the first time.  I have to do some "power curve" learning to make that right, but it will do the job!

Of course, there's always a brain fade, and this time it was not leaning the needle after a glow plug change before a round.  Got off rich, and it did the throttle-up and die maneuver before I even ENTERED THE BOX!!!!  THAT was pretty stupid.

The airplane is still performing flawlessly, the motor/Aeroslave pipe combo is just unbeatable as far as consistency and reliability, and I'm still just as happy as Day ONE!!!

Updated 8/10/2004 - Lubbock, High Plains Championship, Texas.  Another victory, but by only a small margin!  EXCELLENT competition.  Airplane worked perfectly, OS never missed a beat.  Rediscovered that a large altitude change means a big setup difference in control travels and expo.  After sorting that out, things got much better.

    In round 3, when I did the Reverse Immelmann INSTEAD of the Half Square, 2 of 4 Up, I remained in "brain lock mode", flying the balance of the sequence correctly from the Immelmann on!!!!  This meant SEVEN zeroes, a pile of embarassment, and the lowest throwout I've had in a long time!  I just *have* to work on my memory!

Updated 6/21/2004 - Kansas City Radio Control club, Lee's Summit, MO, the site for the 49th Annual Pattern event.  The Arresti, on 15% Cool Power, and the Aeroslave CF pipe ran absolutely flawlessly, and the airplane performed as well, bringing another win in Masters' class.  Let NO one doubt the capability of this ARF - it is a "serious" Pattern Airplane!

UPDATED 5/28/2004 - Temple, Texas, was the site on May 22-23 for a terrific contest!  While reuniting with many friends, I was able to have some pretty good flights.  When the smoke settled after 6 rounds, we had won 5 of them.  Bill Bloodworth, Designer, ESM Factory, and Kondor models (distributor) have a package that WORKS!  I think it surprised more than just a couple folks!

Flight conditions both days weren't very good;  Saturday it was downright terrible, with heavy gusts, variable directions, poor visibility most of the time.  On Friday evening, I had installed the 15.75x12 APC "Lockhart" prop (repitched APC 15.75x13 Three Blade), because Friday's practice with the 17x12 Std proved it was just too fast.  Of course, I had never flown that prop before, ever.

Saturday morning, I was first at the field to rush in that first test hop.  What a difference!  The 3 blader pulled as good, or better, and was much more "controlled", particularly in braking.  The change proved to be a "good thing", as the three blader allowed much better energy management, and still had plenty of power to make some pretty large manuevers.  The airplane worked perfectly, the OS never missed a beat (except for some long-pipe transitions now and then), and we just kept on going.

Even had a chance to play with different fuels, and compare the tach side by side....THAT was interesting, too.  Magnum 15% proved best with 8160, Powermaster next with 8090, and Cool Power in back with only 7950.  Of course, I must say that ANY of those rpm figures represent awesome vertical performance with this 11 lb. airframe, because I tried them all!!!

UPDATED 05/08/2004 - Last weekend, at the end of Saturday's flying at Pawnee Rock, someone pointed out that my dihedral looked "funny".  Close examination revealed that the wing tube socket on the right wing had fractured the sheeting and started separating.

On the Monday following, I contacted Kondor Models by email, including my work telephone.  Andrew Kondor called me the next day, and to make a long story short, new wings are on their way.  Andrew deserves an A+ for service here, and it's obvious he wants this airplane to be a success.

New wings are of built-up balsa/ply, have a longer tube socket, and are quite different internally.  They also should weigh quite a bit less, but I'm still going with a PBG Carbon Fiber wing tube when I install these.  The CF tube weighs 64g!!!

Look for more updates when wings are installed.  I'll also update the "Weights" page then.

Update April 15th, 2004 - IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MANUAL CORRECTION - Finishing mine, I discovered that mine balanced perfectly at 198 mm aft of the leading edge.  Since the instructions and addendum call for 165m then 145 mm respectively, I freaked.  30mm too far aft is hugely-bad.  So I compared info I had from the designer, emailed ESM models in China, and received THEIR confirmation that the 198 mm number is "the" number for the correct CG.  If you're like me, this amount of error on a CG number was a VERY high "freak factor", and if I did NOT have the first hand info from Bill Bloodworth in Australia, I would not believe the "revised" number.

    I believe Bill, and will test fly this thing at the 198 mm setting and see what happens.  If you have an Arresti, check your documentation, and proceed carefully on this!

Completing the Package 2-20-04  Today, I pretty much completed the major stuff.  Pipe and pipe mounting done, throttle servo setup complete, fuel lines/dots, and building the canopy frame.  It all went pretty well, and so far, I'm really pleased with the performance of the mount and the throttle servo setup.  Those two things are the biggest experiments to this point, and they both seem to have held up well with my two tanks of ground runs.

Wings Installation 2-15-04 -  It has been a VERY interesting day of building.  And fixing all the stuff that had to be done because the *FIN IS NOT "SQUARE" TO THE VERTICAL AXIS OF THE FUSE!!!*  I can tell you that's a mixed blessing discovery.  First part is that it is off enough (over 1/4" measured at top of fin) to cause the jigged stab holes , and wing socket holes in the fuse, to be wrong by the amount they were.  Good news is that if *you* get one, and the fin *IS* square, then your wings and stabs will align perfectly!!  And no doubt about it.  Of course, on THIS one - well, that wasn't meant to be, I guess, so the only thing I could do was fix it in the angle of the wing socket through the fuse.  Wasn't hard, just took more sanding and cutting than I cared to have to do, but it worked out okay.  At least now it's close enough.

Well - not close enough, but usable.  Couple of important ARF pattern principles arose today - 

    1.  Do check the fin alignment to the fuse sides (if flat) BEFORE gluing a darn thing.

    2.  If the fin is outta whack - start with the stabs, just like I did, then plan on changing the wing.  It looks a little off kilter, but at least this way, most of the mechanical error has been 'tuned out'.  Least I hope so.

Progress 2-15-04  - Have been able to get quite a lot done.  Some of it actually fun, some not so much fun.  Stab installation was a bit of a chore, so here's some suggestions....

Today, I'll start on the wings/fuse installation, although I already dry assembled them, and found the holes in the fuse sides for the tube sockets, although laser cut, and jig assembled, were not in location to permit the wing and stab span-wise alignment to be parallel.  Not a big deal, probably not a great deal off, but it was a surprise anyway.

Arrival 2-2-04 - Well, the baby arrived!  Anxious about Fed Ex ground handling, there was no cause for concern.  EVERYTHING arrived without so much as a scratch!!!  It is well-packaged, with a durable outer cardboard container housing the main inner box.  Inside, the fuse is suspended in cardboard supports at the firewall and the fin, with the wings and stabs bagged, and safely tucked underneath.  An additional box holds the pants, wheels, tank, wing tube, and hardware.

ON first blush, this looks to be an extremely-well made ARF.  In fact, the finish rivals that of the best stuff I've gotten from Great Planes, and is wrinkle free, with pretty complex schemes.  Don't let any of the advertising pictures fool you - the green on the cowl matches the covering perfectly, and the colors chosen are very pleasant.  The top and bottom of the wings are different, with an easy-to-see white striping pattern on the bottom so common these days!  The fuse has the almost traditional upswept red swatch on the fin, then extends forward to blend into the cowl top.  The bottom portion of the fuse is dark blue, as are the wheel pants and aluminum gear.

Go to the weights page HERE and review the weight of the basic parts.  I was VERY pleasantly surprised, and it's good to see that I can easily be under 5.0 kg, providing I *choose* to be...  The OS 1.6, the Gator mount, and my 5 cell NiMh all together represent about 6 ounces that wouldn't be needed...but it's what I have in the shop to use....

I really can hardly wait to get started on this!  The stab is two piece, mounted on two CF tubes, and the wings attach to a relatively-short alum wing tube.  Look for more updates as I proceed!!!

Recently, on the NSRCA mailing list and RC Universe, I noted some comments and notes from our Australian pattern-brethren regarding a Bill Bloodworth (Australian F3A World team member) design.  Called the "Arresti III", it is intended to fill a need for an inexpensive, yet fully F3A capable, "Pattern ARF".

As I enjoy trying new things, and testing the waters, I thought I'd be the first I know of to publish my experience with the design.  Mine should arrive around February1st, so there will be plenty of assembly time to get it ready for spring.  If it works as advertised, then I'll have TWO pretty current designs, fully outfitted in time for the 2004 Pattern season.

It's specs of 78 x 78 pretty well spells 2M size, and although initially introduced with retracts, the newest version is provided with fixed gear to conserve weight.  Apparently the initial versions seemed quite beefy, and the canopy, wing structure/assembly method, and the retracts contributed to a typical all up weigh of OVER 5 kg.

Of course, recognizing that the market doesn't want "heavy" (not to mention "illegal") airframes, they went to work lightening things.  Matt at Kondor Models assures me that the new ones are lighter, and that mine is one of the new shipments with all changes incorporated.