|
When i visit 2009 year French F3P championship this spring, Mr. Jerome show me new Aito wooden prototype they were testing, from first time i saw this plane i knew i need to have it! Covering sheme and shape of wing just looks so gorgeous, but the best part is plane super light weight. Donuts models grow and get stronger and now make own wooden ARF's with same idea how they build indoor F3P planes, best and lightest materials are used for these planes! Aito was well known F3P biplane few year ago, when biplanes were still popular. Depron Aito won many international F3P competitions in Belgium and France. And now Donuts bring this plane back for outdoor flying. Here i present you Aito flying in last sunny autumn days in Vilnius. Special thanks for video shooting to Aleksey and www.myresearch.lt !!! Aito is good designed ARF, installation of servos and motor is real easy. All surfaces are connected together using CA glues and flexible hinges. Top wing is attached using two SFG'S and small fin on fuselage, total you will need ten 3 mm bolt, each aileron is controlled by one HD 2216MG servo, this small but powerful (3.9kg) and fast (0,09) servo can control two ailerons on each side with no problem. When all ten screws tighten you can fell plane have very solid construction, there is no need for X wires to reinforce wings. Two ailerons can be connected with each other using 2mm carbon rod ore tube. 
Top wing is from one piece, and is very solid, bottom wing is from two pieces and is connected between on carbon tube. 
Technical spec's; Wingspan : 1200mm
Fuselage: 1300mm
Wing area: 64dm²
Weight deppending on equipment: 1600-2000g
Wingloading: ~25g/dm² Motor: AXI 2826/12. ESC; Castle Creations 45a Phoenix.
Battery: Flight power EonX 30 2450mah 4s. Servos: Elevator and rudder Airtronic 94751, ailerons HD2216MG Propeller: APC 14x7 Receiver: Jeti, Duplex R6. RX powered from main 4s battery with Castle Creation 10 A Bec. 
AXI 2826/12 have solid trust with 4s, and with 2450mah capacity i have about 8 minutes of hard 3 flight. Standart size rudder servo is located in middle of fuselage and connected with pull pull cables to surface. Battery and RX location can reach by opening small covering plate on bottom of fuselage. Cockpit is glued in factory and there is no need to remove it during flying at field. Instead of using separate battery for RX with linear BEC i decide to use switching BEC that was connected to main 4S battery. Using castle creation USB link you can program CC bec to give your RX from 4,8 to 9 volts. I set it for 6v, so all servos are used with best spec's they have. For ESC my selection was obvious, i select 45amp ESC from CC Phoenix series, i already use same ESC for 2,5 years is my Vanquish from Extreme Flight RC and had no problems a all. Aito is designed as biplane, but as you see i flew it as monoplane as well, wings are not only super light 9 thanks to selected balsa and light film) but they are also build with good quality and with wise construction, so this mean they are also very strong. If you like faster rolls and more agile plane, then you can try your Aito as monoplane without much modifications, simply remove top wing and enjoy;) New generation lypo battery from Flight Power, EONX show very solid trust and no bad signs after 46 flights, power is same from beginning, we will see how it will work in future. However i must say im really happy with flight power packs, i still have some 2500mah 4s packs from 2007 season that is still fly, not good for competition flying, but still enough for fooling around. And i notice some friends that buy cheap packs from China with famous "R" animal sign have good power in first flights but lypo "balloons" after 20 flights..;) So my understanding is better to invest and buy serious brand products. Light weight tail, controlled by standart servo, however i still plan to make some changes and put this servo in middle of fuselage to reduce tail inertia, such size plane must have lighter tail in my opinion. Plane fly very fun and easy, of course don't expect pattern plane characteristics, its a 3D trainer. Each pilot have own style so i suggest everyone to spend some time and setup plane like he wan't. For knife edge flight you will need some mixes to make it fly perfect, also CH and battery location here is important. This plane make some usual 3d maneuver like harrier, knife edge spin, hovering very easy, and what even better some more advanced maneuvers plane make really impressive, for example popular snap to hover by Schulmann/Bruckmann (ore Snap-a-saurus how people say). Normally in this maneuver most difficult part is to keep same height after snap, because when plane climb up its not so impressive to watch, with Aito you can always exit to hover in same altitude where you start snap, and with some practice with throttle you can exit from this maneuver even lower!!! 
Quite nice number on wing, as far as i know this is first prototype that reach France. Right now Donuts launch production and should have Aito in stock, so if you looking for different looking and flying plane, consider getting new Aito for Christmas! Plane kit price: 249 Eur. http://shop.donuts-models.com/boutique/fiche_produit.cfm?ref=01DM-AITOEP&type=15&code_lg=lg_fr&num=14 |
