Bob,
Thanks for the kind words. The Crossfire is truly a wonderful design.
I see that the trash talk has begun.
Pics of the pair should show up next week.
Alan
Trash talk? No trash talk here, just the cold hard truth...
In all seriousness (and those who really know me also know that this is a stretch for me...), Chris and Alan have been a delight to work with. It is a great honor to have someone ask if they could have plans for your design, and a greater honor to have them actually build a model from those plans. However, when the results are models like those that Chris and Alan have turned out over the past couple of years, there are no words to convey the joy that it brings to the designer.
Chris, Alan, and I have been exchanging trim ideas and findings for the Crossfire, and I have to admit that most of the stuff that Chris has suggested has indeed improved the performance of my ship. Same for Alan, although he files in the "wrong" direction...
While I'm giving due credit, I must make mention here of the help I've received from Paul Walker. Paul has been great in sharing information about electric specific trim issues, and we have all learned from it.
I have three new Crossfires in the building process. One is nearing the paint booth. Except for my new twin, I have no intention of using any other design for competition in the foreseeable future. The swept forward hinge line reduces stick load in high winds and the airplane is, well, just friendly to fly. This all stared back in 1979 when I watched Bill Werwage fly his Juno in some ferocious wind in Lincoln, Nebraska at that year's Nats. He ended up in second that year, but I was mesmerized by how well his ship seemed to handle the wind. I came home from that Nats and worked up some airfoils of my own and designed a swept forward hinge line variant of my Genesis aesthetic to incorporate that wing. That model was perhaps the best maneuver "scriber" I've ever owned. It was a bit "twisty" because of a too thin fuselage at the rear, and that cost me dearly at the 1980 Nats. I ended up in second there to Les McDonald, just as I had a few weeks earlier in Poland at the World Championships. That ship did prove out that those airfoils and that swept forward TE wing design were valid. The Crossfire has that exact wing design and it exhibits all the good traits of that 1980 Genesis, but it also has a much more rigid aft fuselage and it doesn't "twist" when the wind blows. I believe it to be my best model to date.
Later - Bob Hunt