grampayeehaa
Member
My Art Tech Diamond 2500 arrived a couple of days ago in one large double packed box. I found no damaged or missing parts. According to the advertisements, you simply screw down the vertical stab, mount the wings, charge the battery and you are flying. Sounds easy enough but it is a bit more involved than that. I started the assembly with the vertical stab. The forward screw went in well but when it came time to screw the rearward screw down it bottomed out about 3/16" short and would not go in any further. I fiddled with it for a while but I ended up epoxying the rear of the stab down. Now that I have had a bit more time to consider this problem it appears that the long screw bottomed out on the upper most rudder hinge. A little shorter screw could have solved this problem. Next I tackled the wings. I noted that the wing rod sleeve was made of metal which made the wings rather heavy. I also saw that there were a lot of burrs at the opening with a lot of metal shaving inside the sleeve. A file, rifle cleaning rod, and alcohol cleaned it up nicely. The wing rod was made of aluminum and also had burrs and required cleaning. When I tried to fit the wing I found the fit to be very snug and it was impossible to bring the two halves together in the fuselage. I spent the better part of the day working to get the halves together but I could not line up the holes for the wing pegs. I ended up taking a piece of wooden dowel, that was slightly smaller in diameter than the wing peg, putting a slight tamper on one end and used it to help line up the holes. I also put a slight taper on the wing peg ends. Problem solved. Next task was to mount the battery, receiver and ESC and of course adjust for the CG. Lets hold here for a moment and advise that the Velcro that comes with the kit is worthless as it won't even hold the light weight receiver in place let alone to heavy battery. According to the manual, the CG was between 80 and 90mm rear of the leading edge. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. no matter how far I moved the battery rearward the nose dropped like a rock. It was then that I remembered what and old modeler told me. The CG is generally 25% of the wing depth behind the leading edge and is usually located at the main wing support. in this case the CG was 2.25" as adverse to 3 to 3 1/2". This new location was directly below the the wing support rod. This proved correct on her maiden.
The next day I packed up my Diamond and headed off to the Myrtle Creek Airport to see my old flight instructor. After the pre-flight checks we came to the conclusion the my old instructor would handle the controls during launch while I handled the hand launch. As the motor went to full power I could fell the strong thrust of of the motor eager to get in to the air. With a gentle shove, off she went. There was no dip as she left my hand as I have seen in underpowered planes, rather she began a steady 45 degree climb. She was not the fastest climber I had ever seen she was just strong and steady. Once at altitude, trimmed and with power off, I took the controls. She flew a little faster than my Radian and she responded immediately to any input. She also required a gentle hand on the controls. I was pleased to see that if I kept my turns gentle and flat, she lost very little altitude. She was beautiful, graceful, well mannered and very impressive in the air. Reluctantly it came time to bring her in. As I turned final and lined her up, I basically let her land herself. I was expecting a long glide as she came down but not as long as it was. She finally came down on her wheel and rolled along another 25 feet before coming to rest. Both my instructor and I were impressed with the Diamond. I must say however, that this plane is not for beginners. For that task I would suggest the Radian. Check out the photos in my next post.
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Here are a few photos. Sorry I do not have access to a video recorder. By the way I am the guy with the screwdriver mounting the vertical stab. The last photo is the Diamond still 3 ft off the deck. She finally stop near the bushes, another 100+ft along.
The next day I packed up my Diamond and headed off to the Myrtle Creek Airport to see my old flight instructor. After the pre-flight checks we came to the conclusion the my old instructor would handle the controls during launch while I handled the hand launch. As the motor went to full power I could fell the strong thrust of of the motor eager to get in to the air. With a gentle shove, off she went. There was no dip as she left my hand as I have seen in underpowered planes, rather she began a steady 45 degree climb. She was not the fastest climber I had ever seen she was just strong and steady. Once at altitude, trimmed and with power off, I took the controls. She flew a little faster than my Radian and she responded immediately to any input. She also required a gentle hand on the controls. I was pleased to see that if I kept my turns gentle and flat, she lost very little altitude. She was beautiful, graceful, well mannered and very impressive in the air. Reluctantly it came time to bring her in. As I turned final and lined her up, I basically let her land herself. I was expecting a long glide as she came down but not as long as it was. She finally came down on her wheel and rolled along another 25 feet before coming to rest. Both my instructor and I were impressed with the Diamond. I must say however, that this plane is not for beginners. For that task I would suggest the Radian. Check out the photos in my next post.
- - - Updated - - -
Here are a few photos. Sorry I do not have access to a video recorder. By the way I am the guy with the screwdriver mounting the vertical stab. The last photo is the Diamond still 3 ft off the deck. She finally stop near the bushes, another 100+ft along.
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