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Top Flite Antares User Manual

Rc-31 instruction manual, Top flite models inc

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RC-31 INSTRUCTION MANUAL

INTRODUCTION

TOP FLITE is proud to present the ANTARES, a multi task
capable, Standard Class sailplane that was designed
expressly to take a lot of the "mystery" out of flatwing,
aileron-equipped configurations and at the same time

offer you new levels of soaring capabilities There is no

denying that national and international competition has

made its' presence known at even the club-level of con-

test work The airfoil work alone has provided most of us
with capabilities in a wide variety of weather conditions
that just a few short years ago were unheard of Of course

t h e r e is a lot more going on than just airfoil work The top

U S and foreign R/C sailplane pilots long ago realized

that FAI - F3B competition was extremely hard on air-
frames, in particularthe speed portion of the three-event
format. This one aspect of the F3B competitions has
spurred a great deal of work in the areas of wing construc-
tion and spar engineering This to withstand the tremend
ous loads imposed on the wings during fully-ballasted

launches using extremely strong winches Work in this

area, particularly in Europe, has gone into the use of
exotic materials and methods that, for most of us, are

simply too costly and time consuming to even consider

All of this brings us to the reasons behind the design of
the ANTARES The design had to be efficient We were
looking for, and feel we have achieved, a tremendous
glide ratio with the ANTARES by use of a combination of

the top polars of the Eppler 193 "married" to the bottom

plots of the Eppler 205 and adding flaps to this combina

tion These flaps, as well as the rest of the controls, are
driven by a single servo in the fuselage with very simple
and straight-forward cable and tube connections This
airfoil was designed expressly for the use of flaps and we

think you will find that their use provides you with the

kind of control over the airplane that you have not ex

penenced before Our experience has been that these

flaps provide very tall, non critical launchesoneven the
weakest of launch devices, very precise speed control
during flight and remarkable glide path control during
the landing phase If you feel for any reason that you are
paying some kind of "penalty" in the use of flaps, con
sider the above If you feel that spoilers may be superior
to flaps, consider that the servo required is only of use
during one aspect of the total flight—landing, while the
servo required for the use of these flaps provides im
provement and modification of the total flight.

The ANTARES uses both ailerons and rudder (coupled) to

provide extremely flat, precise turning capability. We
discovered early on with the prototypes that we were

comfortably working light I lift at much lower altitudes and
distances than we would have ever done with our poly-
hedral ships and still making it easily back to the spot

when the time came We also found that wind became

much less of a factor in our thinking when making the
ever present "continue to thermal or return" decision.

With the reflexing capability of the flaps, returning to the
spot at high speed, even from low altitudes, certainly
bought us more time to work lift

You will also notice on the plans that we have shown the
optional installation of four Estes BT 5 rockettube bodies,

two in each wing panel on each side of the spar structure.
These are used to introduce lead ballast into the airframe,
thus increasing your wing loading and therefore your

speed and or ability to penetrate This feature, relatively
easy to do, has been incorporated into all of our proto-

types and used to good advantage on more than one
occasion The wing structure when built to the plans, will
support this increase of weight and you will have yet
another tool to work with in your flying There is more on

this aspect of the design in the Ballasting section of this
manual

A word about the radios that may or may not be suitable
for this design In this day and age of specialization it
simply is not possible to set-up a design such as the

ANTARES to carry every radio system currently or histori-
cally on the market Most of the radios currently on the

market, with the use of standard small or micro servos

will fit and work with the ANTARES CHECK YOUR RADIO

SYSTEM FIRST FOR SIZE AND FIT BEFORE STARTING

CONSTRUCTION Secondly, radio systems which are
equipped with such features as electronic RUDDER/

AILERON mixing servo reversing and, of less impor-

tance but a nicety non the less, EPA or "end point ad-

justment , tend to be great for this design If your radio

does not have RUDDER AILERON mixing, you will have

to do one of three things, 1. Obtain and install an elec-
tronic mixer such as ACE R/C's Christy Mixer", 2.

mechanically (with linkage) connect the rudder to the
aileron servo using a modified servo output arm or 3.

learn to fly the airplane uncoupled, co-ordinating both

TOP FLITE MODELS INC.

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Original Copy of Manual