Review dated 10-Oct 2002

Delta Concepts Assassin

by Ed Drakes and Phil Heydon

Manufacturer: Delta Concepts - South Australia

Supplier: Model Flight in South Australia www.modelflight.com.au

Supplied Items:

Construction Comments:

Follow the instructions for best results!!
Take care to align the white tape covering with care! Also, don't forget to overlap every strip by 50%.
We recommend purchasing coloured tape to improve the presentation of the final article - see photo.
Paint the canopy with warmed up, fast-setting enamel spray. 5 Lightly sprayed coats to prevent paint runs.
Add trim strip to the fins for that extra flare.
Thoroughly epoxy fins in place.
Use a full length piece of tape to fasten the elevons to the wing on the top surface first. Leave about 1mm gap between the control surface and the wing. Fold the elevon right over on to the wing and add short bits of tape (from elevon front face over sticky side of hinge and onto rear of wing) to ensure the main, top hinging tape does not come adrift.
Extensive use made of heat shrinking to get the smoothest finish possible. The white tape is quite amenable to heat shrinking.
Standard servos required a little enlargement of the recesses. They were pressed into place and required no extra gluing to maintain a firm base for the push rods.

Radio:

We use the Hitec Eclipse 7 for its comprehensive mixing facilities.
Elevon throws are setup, as per the instructions, using the Hitec Elevon mixing facility avoiding difficult horn adjustments. Dual rates on the Hitec are used to provide slightly more response once in combat.

Flat Field Flying:

Flat field flying is good for a quick swoop and roll.
We employ Velcro strips to attach a strip of wood with a hook to the underside of the wing.
The hook seems to work best when located 25mm in front of the nominated COG (260mm from trailing edge).
Use a light duty bungee so as not to pull the velcro'd hook off the wing!
You will need help to launch. The launch person holds the wing inboard of the elevons with both hands, releasing directly in line with the bungee line. At launch, DO NOT DROP THE WING!! Give the wing some flying speed before releasing.
Pilot, launch with slight down elevator pulling back for maximum height as the wing gains speed and height.
The glide path is fairly steep and thermalling highly unlikely.

Slope Soaring:

Remove the velcro'd hook for slope flying.
After trying many methods to launch in a howling gale, the best seems to be:
- Hold at the leading edge adjacent the canopy by reversing the launch hand with thumb under and fingers on top of the wing.
- Point 30 degrees down and give a light but firm 'PULL' into the air stream. If well trimmed the wing should climb away and forward with no requirement for panicked grabbing for control sticks!
A very easy wing to fly on the slope.

Conclusions:

We really like the thick wing section - 75mm. No spars in this design.
Very robust with the 40mm EPP leading edge.
Only snag is that the receiver, battery and lead weights can fly out, on heavy impact, thus ripping the canopy off its screws. The canopy does repair well with CA glue. Sad if you lose the broken bits!
The embedded canopy screw mounts are very firm and reliable.
Like the inboard fins. They are somewhat protected in this location.
Speed and maneuverability is very comparable to other wing designs. Roll rate a bit slow.
Strong design resulted in the serious demise of a Taipan II just yesterday.
Flies quite well upside down!

Recommended Upgrades:

Really would like to see a thermalling version of the Assassin.
Improved hold-down of the battery, receiver and weights would make this wing indestructible.