I am very new to the sport, less than 2 months. I built a Zagi for my first ship on the recommendation of a friend. That is the ship everyone uses for combat where I fly in the bay area. Well I finished it on a Tuesday flew it twice that week before I went down south to visit family for Mother's Day weekend. Ok, I was visiting my mom. Well, I was anxious to fly after having done it twice the week before and went on the internet to find a place to fly. Well, after finding a phone number of a local club member I was on my way to Parker Mtn. There I met Pat Bowman and another guy named Joe who everyone seemed to revere. I think it was Joe Wurtz, but I am not sure. There was some guy filming Joe DSing a three meter and another guy with a speed gun reading out the speed in the loops. Max was 157Mph averaging 140Mph. They said the film will be done in the fall sometime. Funny story about the 3meter plane. Joe noticed a little extra dihedral in the wing while he was flying, well when he flattened out the plane to come in for a landing, the wings fell off and the plane became a huge lawn dart going off in the distance. He broke the spar in half, but the tension of the flight kept it flying for quite sometime. Anyway, back to the wings. There were a lot of people out there that weekend and several were flying Sonics. Everyone said it was the best DSing wing out there and would fly circles around the Zagi. I am sure they were a little biased since Pat was standing right there, but I watched as those wings flew round and round. Being only my third day flying, I decided not to try the DSing thing then. As fast as those planes were going, I would have killed someone. I went back down there two weeks ago with my new Sonic and now old Zagi and tried to do some DSing. The wind was blowing much stronger than the last time I was down there and the rotor seemed to go further down the hill. The Zagi was getting knocked around quite a bit by it and if you didn't come in just perfect with plenty of speed, it seemed to stall easier too. The sonic was built for this type of flying. It carved through the back rotor much cleaner than the Zagi and retained better speed through-out the maneuver. Since it was a clean airfoil it came through with a deep howl instead of a light whistle you usually hear from a plane passing by. It was pretty cool. Now since this was my first time trying it, I was coming out more in front than the people I had witnessed previously. Also, one of the guys there had said it was also tough conditions to fly in since the rotor was pretty strong and it was difficult to get real low without being thrown into the ground! You know, I thought I had hit the ground hard while flying combat, but that is NOTHING compared to a DS crash! To compare the two airfoils, it seems to me that the Zagi has a better recovery rate and on my plane a better roll rate than the Sonic. The Sonic has much better elevator response and can fly in lighter conditions than the Zagi. Be careful though, although it can fly in lighter lift, it does tip-stall easier too, so there is a fine line. Anyway, that is just my story. Jim - RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
