Product Review…Venom Group/Atomik SKYANGEL Mini-warbirds SeaFury

 

What’s Bob doing with those ARF Foamies?

 If you have been following rcmodel.com for any time at all, you’re probably asking yourself “What’s Bob Benjamin doing with foam ARF models?” This guy is the original building them from balsa is better…forever… hard case guys.

Well, to put it most simply, I’m doing it because of YOU. Over the past few years that I’ve been offering my “Old Time Model Airplane Workshop” on-line, it has come to my attention that a lot of people who like model airplanes are looking at it. Some of you guys are hard-case builders like me. Others are just getting into (or back to)  model building, and quite a few, I suspect, are sort of lurking at the edges wondering whether to get involved. It’s a pretty sure bet that nearly all of you Do ARF’s, and because I want to share with you all I’ve learned over sixty years (so far) of cutting and gluing and sanding balsa wood into little flying machines, it has occurred to me that I need to get inside your collective head, to see electric powered RC  ARF scale model airplanes from your point of view and then try to offer whatever insights of mine about various models that might be interesting or helpful.

The reason I’m able to do this comes with my association with Vertical Partners West/Venom Group…you may know of them as suppliers of high-end LiPo battery packs, chargers, and related equipment. As it happens, Atomik RC lives under the same roof, and not long after Atomik became involved with the SKYANGEL line of ARF electric RC airplanes (most of them scale jobs) I was offered the opportunity to evaluate and review some of them on the basis of my experience with electric RC scale flying. Put all that together and you can see where we’re headed. Let’s go fly some ARF airplanes just for the fun of it.

 

Venom Group/Atomik RC/SKYANGEL’s Mini Warbird Series SEAFURY

 

 

The SeaFury is listed as one of the SKYANGEL mini-warbirds (there are several others in the series we may get to check out soon). They are all indeed “mini”…the SeaFury has a wingspan of 23.6 inches, which is typical. They are not, however, “park flyers” by any stretch of the imagination, nor should you assume that because they are foam, small, and light they might be trainers. The assembly and operating manual is acceptably complete and concise for a translated product, but it does not mention that the SeaFury is FAST. Perhaps the writers presumed that you’d take the “warbirds” part seriously, as you should. With all that said, if you can handle a

small, slippery, fast aileron-equipped low wing job that can easily get out of safe visual range in three or four seconds, you’re going to like this one.

 

The manual, as I mentioned, is reasonably complete but I noticed a few oversights and omissions in the text that I’ll bring to your attention. The elevator servo is supplied already installed, and you are instructed to connect the separate elevator pushrod to the servo output arm. What you might not notice is that (at least on my model) the several holes in the arm are of several different sizes. The outermost hole, which would be my first choice to use in order to get maximum mechanical advantage (most available control movement) is drilled oversize for the pushrod so that if you connect to that hole you are going to get some slop in the elevator linkage. This airplane is fast enough that this might  permit the elevator to flutter at high speed. Don’t take that chance. Use the outermost hole that FITS the pushrod wire exactly…and…check out the other end of the pushrod and the elevator horn for the same issue. On my model the aileron linkages were OK in this respect. There is another instruction sequence oversight you’ll encounter. Between the steps listed as Figure 14 and Figure 15, there should have been an instructional note to mount the wing. Step (Figure) 15 only makes sense with the wing in place.

 

Several other details (positive ones) are worth a note. The instructions call out “foam safe” adhesive for assembly. I discovered that SLO-ZAP and ZIP KICKER work just fine on the foam and finish of this model…BUT…don’t try to wipe off any ZIP KICKER overspray/residue. It’ll take the finish with it. Let it dry on its own and all will be fine. The CG (center of gravity or balance point) as noted should be at 60 mm back from the front-most part of the wing, and this worked out perfectly for me. When I set up my aileron and elevator throws using my Airtronics RDS 8000 transmitter and RX 6000receiver, it appeared that there was very little control surface throw available even using full servo movement. It turns out that the servos selected for this model were indeed just the right ones…you don’t NEED any more throw to fly the airplane well. The built-in thrust offset (quite a bit of right thrust) also turns out to be just right. The SeaFury  flies straight-out from a full-throttle hand launch.

 

You can’t help noticing that the aileron servo outputs and control horns are on the TOP of the wing rather than more or less out of sight underneath where they usually go. This looks odd at first, but I agree that it represents a wise choice. Belly landing an airplane of this size would condemn those control linkages to impact damage and a short life if they were “down under” where they’d be the first part of the model to hit the ground on every landing. However, I DID feel good enough about the general appearance of the SeaFury to add a few custom touches that really enhance the impression it makes. I gave the entire completed model a single wet brush coat of clear satin Minwax Polycrilic, which accomplished several things at once. It provided a nice matte finish that gets rid of the “foam look”, it effectively hides the edges of the pressure sensitive markings, and it protects the foam surface so that I was able to airbrush on those exhaust and gunport stains using my usual Stits Polytone finishing material which might otherwise have caused damage.

 

When all is said and done, if you have set up the model according to the manual (and you are prepared for a FAST mini- warbird that will LEAP out of your hand with no hint of hesitation if you launch at full throttle) there should be no surprises. It just FLIES. The book says to give it “ a reasonably strong, flat launch”. That’s just right…you’ll never need to “spearchuck” this one. I’m going to guess that the flat-out speed is on the order of 100 mph. This thing is QUICK. However, with the balance and the control throws set as recommended, my SeaFury showed no signs of bring twitchy or jumpy…it just goes where it’s pointed. Roll rate appears to be a bit better than 360 degrees per second and large, open loops that would do justice to a jet are easy. There is no way this SeaFury is going to let you perform real slow-speed flight, but I had no problem flying it close-in and low with the throttle stick down below half. As the airspeed gets low enough to worry about, the model displayed a faint “tail wag” and the control responses got progressively more sloppy. There is plenty of warning for a qualified pilot that it’s getting close to dropping out of the air. I haven’t felt the need to push mine to that point. If you let the speed bleed off in a long, straight landing approach you can make nice skid-on-the-grass landings on a smooth strip without hooking in or turning over. No doubt you could land it just as well on pavement, but I wouldn’t subject my model to the scraping-up that would result.  All in all, it’s a fine, fun little airplane.