Anyone flying the SZD-45 Ogar?

[Ken Crawford]

Hello,

I normally fly a skywalker - Easystar - Raven FPV but was wondering if anyone has tried out this ;

http://www.readymaderc.com/store/ind...hak7iili8v2p84

Kindest Regards,

[Keith]

I think Sentry has one, not sure if he's flown it or not. I was sizing it up not long ago, but have too many planes/projects now... lol

[trying_to_fly]

I will be soon!

[Ken Crawford]

Great - I am curious as it looks like a nice addition to my Skywalker and Raven. I am not a big fan of the T-tail as I had to do some mods to the skywalker to make sure my tail vibrations were small enough not to "jello" my Gopro. Looking forward to the reviews.

[Ian Davidson]

There's a thread about the SZD-45 Ogar on the 'dark side'

[trying_to_fly]

I took my Ogar out for her maiden today. It was a short flight, but a very successful flight none the less. Everything went better than expected. I did get a tip stall at one point, but this was operator error (to slow, to sharp of a turn). I landed right after that (I got nervous), and it went perfect. I landed in a field and if anything, had a problem getting the plane to come down.

It flew quiet well, pretty easy to control and had no problem picking up speed with the stock motor and prop. One thing I did notice though was wing flex. I wasn't going very fast and as I passed in front of myself, at around 50' up, I could clearly see a little flex in the wings (the two other guys I was flying with noticed it as well). The manufacturer did install two rods going the entire length of each wing. I think further reinforcements might be in order... but I'm not sure installing a 8' long spar is the answer.

The launching trolley that came with the plane is only good on pavement due to the tiny wheels and low clearance. I'm thinking about throwing some big wheels on it so I can self launch on grass. But today we hand launched. I used about 60-70% throttle and it climbed without a problem. My spotter isn't a quarter back, and didn't have to give it a huge 'manly' throw either. A good toss in to the wind and off I went.

As far as assembling the Ogar, I took the easy way out and bought the pre-assembled version from RMC. I had to install a three wire plug on to my ESC to connect the motor, pull the elevator servo wire through with a string thats pre-ran from the manufacturer and glue on the horizontal stab. Everything I'm using is stock. I did remove the 98oz led weight that they install in the nose. Then I installed my rx, eagle tree osd, gps, gaurdian etc.. I placed the vtx on top, between the wings, in front of the motor. With a 2200 installed, it was a little light in the nose. I brought the vtx in to the canopy and that seemed to balance it out.

There's enough room to place a pair of 2200's in the very front of the nose. Obviously if you had all the room in this cavernous canopy, you could easily fit four. But with two all the way forward, the plane is a little nose heavy. I think if I mount my vtx on the tail, that it might balance out. I could also slide the batteries back, towards the CG, which is 2.56" from the the leading edge. There's a seem on the wing right on the CG, which makes for quick finger tests.

I'll try to get some pictures posted later. So far I'm pleased with my purchase. I'll get some more flight time in this weekend and will hopefully have more good things to tell.

[Ken Crawford]

Thanks for the update! looking forward to to hearing how it handles during FPV and if the tail shows much vibration under full throttle. Congrats on your successful flight.

[trying_to_fly]

Today was the FPV maiden of the Ogar.

Heres some pictures so you can see how huge this cockpick is.



I only had to make one mod. I had to cut away some of the clear plastic so I could have pan/tilt. I also mounted my 1W 1.2GHz Lawmate vTX from inside the canopy (with very strong velcro). This lets makes it balance perfectly with the battery placement in the picture.




Unfortunately I do not have any video of the flights. I gotta say though, this plane is a pleasure to fly. You would think that going from an easystar to an Ogar would be like going from a pinto to an 18 wheeler, but to be totally honest, this plane is easier to fly. Using my ET Guardian, I never had to fight with the thing to keep a heading. I was hands off most of my flights, which let me enjoy my pan/tilt. This plane is just awesome. I got a solid 20 minutes out of a single 2200 with battery to spare (I was doing lots of motor off gliding)

I'll be taking her up for another flight sometime this week. This one will be recorded.

As far as wing flex, today I noticed very minimal amounts on the wings, and none on the tail.

[trying_to_fly]

I got a solid 20 minutes out of a single 2200 with battery to spare (I was doing lots of motor off gliding)

This might be a little misleading. One thing about the Ogar is when you kill the throttle, it will start to bleed altitude. Giving it some up elevator helps but too much and it might stall if you aren't moving fast enough. My cruise throttle was probably around 25%, climbing around 75%. Still, with enough altitude and the wind on my back, I was able to glide very easily with the motor off.

[ReadyMadeRC]

Thanks for that review! I'm ordering some more of these, I should have a good batch of them in a week or so if they are in stock from my distributor. I'm working with UPS to try to get the shipping costs down with these, but their sales people move slow as molasses...