I suppose if the Lulu II in the previous topic could be called a "mini e-soarer" then my R/C electric adaptation of Frog's graceful 36 inch Tarquin would best be called a "micro e-soarer". This one is under 7 ounces ready to fly, power is the same 1811 50 watt outrunner as the Lulu but this time turning a 5" x 3" prop from a 320 2S lipo for a maximum of about 30 watts.
Due to the very slender fuselage some innovative thinking was required and resulted in a two piece fuselage with a bottom half "pan" incorporating the lipo sliding into a hollowed out nose block and the ESC and Rx in the bottom part whilst the rudder and elevator servos live in the top rear half. The two bits are held together by a ply tongue and a pair of 5 mm diameter rare earth magnets.
The elevator servo is mounted on it's side in the top of the cabin with just the drive protruding through to the outside where it is connected to the elevator by a 1.5 mm carbon fibre push rod which runs on the outside of the slim tailboom through aluminium tube supports. The elevator is one side only of the swept tailplane and rudder drive is by closed loop.
The three wires from the pod mounted motor are extended to run down through the hollow pylon to connect with the ESC in the bottom fuselage pan.
The model is seven years old now and a regular and reliable performer, it's only slight quirk being that it is best launched on half throttle as the high thrust-line tends to pull it into a shallow dive until speed has built up, doing it this way gives time for this right handed Mode 2 pilot to get his hand back on the elevator stick before it hits the ground! The one sided elevator is not powerful, and like the Lulu it would be perfectly happy as a rudder/throttle model. Probably due to the clean lines and slim fuselage it has a surprising turn of speed and, despite the fixed prop will, with power off, happily make use of any light small thermals available.
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It provides a nice "different" shape in the air and is a really good small field model with average "no lift" flights of around 15 minutes, it's longest flight to date on a day when there was plenty of lift about being just over 50 minutes.
