The Icon has been around for quite a while and has remained at the top of the heap in price and performance for a F3J or TD sailplane. Only Joe Wurts was flying the Icons at the 2004 F3J World Championships, which is strange since you would think that the competitors would choose to fly the best plane for the task. Maybe availability and price are deterrents to model choice, though the waiting lists for other top planes is not much different. Having owned several Joe Wurts designed sailplanes (Diamond, Emerald) before, there will be no disappointment in this plane. Several Icons and Icon Lites have been through the club in recent years, though it is different to fly one yourself over a season rather than just getting to see one in the air. Buy yours from Don Peters at Maple Leaf Design.
After years of dreaming and months on the waiting list, I chose the Lite version since I have seen one take a flat out 2 man tow into a moderate breeze. Since I fly off a winch, the Lite will be more than strong enough to serve my purposes. Don told me that the paint jobs on the Lite version will have some unavoidable cosmetic flaws in order to save weight. I was not concerned about this, the overall engineering and construction of these models are unsurpassed. As you can see from my own models, white tops with blue bottoms just won't pass muster for a custom model. Love this colour scheme.
Unwrapping the bubble pack to first trim throw was about 8 hours.
|
Task |
Time (min.) | Comments |
| Read manual | 15 | Yes it is worthwhile though lacking pictures |
| Fit up | 10 | Fun to put together for first time |
| Fuselage | ||
| Install servos | 30 | Made plywood sub tray to improve screw holes and to offset rudder servo to edge |
| Battery | 5 | Bought custom pack from Don. Cycle to 1500 mAh |
| Receiver | 10 | Enlarge hole and velcro in |
| Center Panel | ||
| Sand flap gap | 5 | Too tight going up |
| Make servo mounts | 30 | Build custom ply/basswood mounts |
| Align servos | 15 | Estimate link geometry and position servo arm |
| Cut skins and glue mounts | 30 | Layer of 5.6 oz. CF glued to top skin |
| Make pushrods | 10 | Used threaded rod instead of 0.070 CF rods |
| Cut and fit servo covers | 10 | Covers are pre-marked for trimming |
| Tip Panels | ||
| Make servo mounts | 30 | Build custom ply/basswood mounts |
| Cut skins and glue mounts | 30 | Layer of 5.6 oz. CF glued to top skin |
| Make pushrods | 10 | Use threaded rods |
| Cut and fit servo covers | 10 | |
| Gap seal fit | 10 | |
| Wiring | ||
| Build harness | 120 | I chose to buy a plane without a harness. |
| Final | ||
| Fill gaps | 15 | Epoxy mix into wing root gaps |
| Tape wingroots | 10 | Protect paint from wing tape |
| Balance | 20 | 46 grams nose weight required |
| Programming | 30 | Modify existing Stylus program |
| Wax stab rods | 3 | A little loose |
| Polish wings | 10 | Much more photogenic |
| Towhook | 2 | |
| TOTAL | 470 | 8 hours in three days, whew I'm worn out : ) |
Servos - MPX Micro MC/V2 flaps and ailerons, JR368 rudder, JR3421 elevator.
Receiver - Sombra Shadow 3, 7 channel, synth.
Battery - 1500 mAh 5 cell, direct from Maple Leaf.
Misc - Hoopes harness to be installed later, switchjack, Zlog.
That's all there is for construction on this true ARF sailplane. The fuselage comes with all the radio holes cut out of the nose tray, sized for appropriate servos. I chose to enlarge the rudder servo hole in order to off set the rudder servo towards the edge of the tray. The pre installed rudder pushrod requires so little travel that a very short (1/4") servo arm is used. Bending the pushrod is no good, and using a full length servo arm reduces resolution. Elevator servo is drop in and screw down. To give more meat to the tray so the servo screws are not tapped into the fiberglass tray only, I epoxied in a 1/8" thick plywood sub tray under the openings.
Wing servos are installed into the marked cutouts using custom servo mounts. I like that the wing is thick enough to hold a micro servo for the aileron, rather than having to go to a thin wing servo. I build the mounts out of 1/64" plywood and 1/2" basswood supports. The mount gets epoxied to the to wingskin with 5 oz carbon cloth underneath. Servos are removable with a ball end hex driver into the servo hold down screws. A slip fit to the basswood blocks provides a very secure mount. Note the tiny paint flecking in the almost opaque finish. Fifteen percent of the bottom of the wings and 2% of the tops are flecked.
On the center panel, the wing roots had some small voids, which I filled in with stiff epoxy/MB mix. Tape covers the joint so there's no effect on the airfoil. The fuselage has a large seam flaw under the fin. Though you can't see it normally, this still bugs me. Cosmetically this plane is worse than my Escape, Cobra and Pike.
A bigger deal was a 1/2" X 4" upper skin delamination on the right wing panel near the aileron hinge. This may have happened in shipping, but was not discovered until I was waxing the wings. Rather than try to deal with UPS claims or replacement of the panel, I repaired it with thinned epoxy injected under the skin.
| Item mass |
grams |
| Right tip | 191 |
| Servo MPX MC/V2 Micro | 29.8 |
| Pushrod | 3 |
| Servo mount | 5.7 |
| Joiner rod | 32.2 |
| Pushrod fairing | 3 |
| 264.9 | |
| Left tip | 188.1 |
| Servo MPX MC/V2 Micro | 29.8 |
| Pushrod | 3 |
| Servo mount | 5.7 |
| Joiner rod | 32.2 |
| Pushrod fairing | 3 |
| 262 | |
| Center panel | |
| Wiring | 30 |
| Servos MPX mc/v2 | 60 |
| Servo mount | 11.4 |
| Panel | 620 |
| Fairings | 7 |
| Pushrods | 7 |
| Total | 735.4 |
| Stab | 45.8 |
| Fuselage | |
| Fuse with pushrods & towhook | 390.9 |
| Nosecone | 50.2 |
| Battery 5 cell sub C | 213 |
| Servos JR3421, JR 368 | 52.6 |
| Switch and extension | 12 |
| Receiver Sombra Shadow 3 | 9 |
| Harness | 19 |
| Total Fuselage | 746.7 |
| Noseweight | 52 |
|
Total (g) |
2106.8 |
|
oz. |
74.3 |
Carrying the altimeter raises the weight to 74.8 oz.
Trim Flights and Performance Testing- yet to come.
The fuselage is nice and fat for a good grip. Here I am trying to stall the winch prior to a full tension throw. If the line breaks I won't topple over and damage the plane. Learning to throw like this will gain at least 15 feet on your launch, plus it's much safer for crosswinds
RETURN to RC SOARING
Copyright Warren Man-Son-Hing