Spirit of yesteryear Dallaire Sportster

Model Airplane News, May 2000 by Gimlick, Greg

LOW-SPEED FLIGHT

This is something the model does extremely well along with thermalling. The undercambered airfoil is very efficient in this regime, and with a stiff breeze, you can hover the plane. On a calm evening, it is relaxing to fly, and it can be flown in small fields because it can slow down so much. At low throttle and with full up-elevator, the model just mushed along straight ahead and descended gently, never really entering a "stair step" profile. Turning the motor completely off will produce a gentle stall of no consequence; the Sportster easily recovers with either motor or airspeed.

AEROBATICS

OK; this is not why you build an old-timer, but this model will loop and, if you have the altitude, it can do a very big sloppy roll. The plane will spin when forced to and will recover nicely with some throttle and opposite rudder. Inverted flight is possible, but this requires a fair amount of elevator. The most aerobatics I did with it were by accident because I took it out on a day not fit for flying slow oldtimers. The gusty wind tossed the little plane around, but the impressive part of this experience was how well it recovered after each assault. Although I don't expect to fly this model in these conditions again, it was nice to see how well it handled because on a booming thermal day in North Carolina, there can be some rough air.

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