Global Raven
Super Tigre G90 engine, JR 6 channel radio, APC 14x8 prop,
TME Smoke pump with Pitts Slimline smoke muffler.
This is the Global Raven .60 kit. It took me about 6 months to build, primarliy because we moved from an apartment to our new house after I started construction. The most difficult part was the balsa sheeting used on the belly of the fuse and upper cowl. Parts of it are 1/4" thick and are almost impossible to bend at the circumference they require. It took me a few days of soaking the wood in water and alcohol before I got the shape I wanted. The wing is not quite as bad, but took some serious soaking as well for the leading edge sheeting. I used the SuperTigre G-90 on this kit mostly because the plane is VERY heavy, and needs some extra kick. I completed the Raven around 6/98.
7/98 - This is what happens when you try to turn too fast with a
tapered wing and you don't know how to get out of a tip-stall.
Oh well, I rebuilt it in about two weeks, and I've flown it about
fifty times since, and now I've added a smoke system to it.
1/16/2000 - Well, another one bites the dust, but I've already started
to rebuild it. This time the engine quit as I was coming over the runway
really low, and I was downwind and had no choice but to put it down.
It over-shot the runway and went down a little ditch that builds up to our
road that leads to the field, and it kind of launched out of it and back up into
the air, but I couldn't save it from smashing down on it's belly. It cracked
the entire fuselage just ahead of the leading edge of the wing and destroyed
the former and the firewall. I'll have it back in shape in about a week, because
this
plane is just too fun to fly, especially with my new smoke system. See video
below: