Top Flite Metrick - Manual (Page 2)

and captive towhook systems and room for reason-
able ballasting as desired by the pilot.
4. The ability to accept and use today's radio equipment
including the standard configuration 500 mah battery
pack.
5. An overall appearance that is as pleasant to look at as
it is efficient.
In our opinion, the METRICK not only has met these
criteria but in actual practice has exceeded them. In
contest situations the METRICK has been launched with a
12 volt winch into 15mph+ winds, penetrated forward
from launch about 1/4 mile and completed the 10-minute
task with a high 90's spot landing—all of this in a 31
ounce, unballasted condition! It is interesting to point out
that in this particular contest, all other 2-meter designs,
and many Standard class entries either folded their wings
on tow or were blown so far back off of launch that they
were forced to land well down-wind of the landing site.
Since very few of us have anything to say about the
weather conditions that a given contest is going to have,
the METRICK had to handle the worst and still come out
on top. What about light or no-wind conditions? Your
METRICK will really come into its' own on these types of
days! The design has a longer than usual tail-moment
which dampens the usual low-speed porpoising tenden-
cies associated with newer second generation two-meter
sailplanes.Stalls, the nemesis of sail planes since they eat
up much hard gained altitude, are very shallow with the
METRICK. The glide in these light conditions is nothing
short of incredible. The airfoil used on the METRICK
allows you to cover so much sky with such a minimal loss
of altitude you will no longer have many excuses for
missing thermals! When the nose is trimmed slightly
down the design will accelerate rapidly with a very flat
glide rate, getting you from point A to B faster than you
can believe at virtually the same altitude you started at.
The METRICK can be launched using any one of the
commercially available hi-start systems as well as 6 or 12
volt winches. The design also slope soars beautifully and
has an .049 engine set-up shown on the plans. You will
find, no matter what configuration you set the airplane
up with—engine or unpowered—your METRICK has
hands-off performance, making it an excellent choice for
a first R/C ship and an equally smart choice if competition
is your goal.
PRE-CONSTRUCTION NOTES
The METRICK, like other Top Flite kits employs the use of
die-cut wood to ease the task of construction, parts fit and
identification. The dies used for this kit have been rigor-
ously checked for absolute accuracy and should provide
you with excellent fit. Die-cut parts should be carefully
removed from their sheets by first lightly sanding the
back of each sheet of parts and then carefully removing
each part. Use a light garnet paper for the sanding and
keep a sharp hobby knife with an X-acto #11 blade or
equivalent handy for assistance in removing any parts
that might not have been completely cut-through on the
dies. Parts which oppose one another and must be pre-
cisely uniform—such as fuselage sides, ribs, etc...—
should be carefully "matched" after their removal from
the parts sheets. Matching is the process of holding the
opposing pieces together with either pins, tape or spot
gluing and lightly sanding the edges of the parts until
they are identical. A sanding blockwith light garnet paper
is most useful for this and other phases of construction.
Your building surface should be at least large enough to
accommodate the wing panels. This surface should be as
absolutely flat as possible and yet be able to accept pins
easily. We have found that a product such as Celotex fiber
board works quite well for this purpose. Another good
surface can be found in most well-stocked hardware
stores, this is a 2' x 4' fiber board ceiling tile—these are
quite inexpensive and can be used for several airplanes
before needing replacement.
As with most R/C kits that are constructed from wood, a
selection of tools—most of which can be found in the
average workshop—are a must to do the job correctly:
Hobby knife and sharp #11 blades
Single-edge razor blades
T-pins
Sanding blocks in assorted sizes
Sandpaper—220, 320, 400 and light garnet paper
Hand-held hobby saw, such as an X-acto
Power drill and assorted drill bits
Straight-edge, preferably metal, at least 24" long
90° triangle
Small power jig-saw such as the Moto-Saw
Tapes such as masking and cellophane.
Our METRICK's were constructed using a variety of com-
mon hobby adhesives including 5-minute epoxy, Cyano-
acrylates, aliphatic resin (such as Titebond) and 1-hour
epoxy was used to secure the main wing wire tubes in the
wing roots. Since all of us have our own construction
techniques and favorite adhesives, stick with the ones
that you are familiar with and prefer. However, in certain
areas there will be callouts for certain types of adhesives
and we urge you to try not to substitute since doing so
could possibly cause problems structurally later on.
The last thing we should touch on before we begin actual
construction is the sequence in which the METRICK is
assembled. The sequence given to you in this booklet has
been proven to be the most straight-forward and pro-
vides the finished components in the order that you will
need them to progress to the next assembly phase. Try to
stick with the building order presented here to avoid
mistakes.
Spread the plans out on your work surface, cover them
with a clear plastic material, such as the backing from a
roll of Monokote or plastic food wrap and commence
construction.
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