Reviewed by: Anders Hoberg - West Bloomfield, MI, USA
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When the UltraSport was on the market, Great Planes made the claim, "You'll look like a better pilot immediately with your first Ultra Sport flight." This statement was absolutely true. Great Planes added to their sport/pattern offerings with the Tracer and recently the Hobbico Spectrum ARF. The Spectrum has long pattern like tail moments, and is almost square in design. Compared to an UltraSport ARF, which is covered with a foam material rather that the plastic film, the Spectrum has a heat-shrinkable self-adhesive film in a very colorful scheme. The kit comes with two wing halves with ailerons mounted, fuselage with pipe fairing, canopy, fin with mounted rudder, horizontal stabilizer with the elevators attached, pilot, ABS cowl, landing gear, wheels, tail wheel assembly, fuel tank, push-rods, and aileron servo fairing. The kit includes everything needed other than the radio and the engine. All parts were packaged in plastic bags. The instructions were very complete. The first impression this plane is that it looked very good. Wing construction is very "ARF" like. The center ribs and dihedral brace are epoxied together and except for the pipe tunnel fairing the wing is complete. The landing gear is wing mounted and retracts are optional. The mounting brackets inside the wing, which normally is a weak point on an ARF, are very sturdy and of a nice design. The optional retracts are not recommended. They add additional weight and the plane flies great without them. Minimizing the weight should be the prime objective with this machine, since it allows for very low wing loading, if one is careful with amount of glue used, etc. The wing is fully sheeted, which is nice. The tail assembly is installed simply by lining up the horizontal stabilizer and the fin and epoxying them in place. The fuselage needs the turtle deck glued using RC-56 to avoid any visible seams. The cowl is a three-piece design that is very easy to fit but it needs to be opened for the engine and muffler or pipe. The engine mount and the cowling with it is complimentary pipe tunnel is well prepared for piped engines. It makes for a quick and simple installation. Radio installation is very straightforward and the only component that was substituted in the entire kit is the addition of a 4-40 pull-pull system for the rudder. Very firm rudder response is desirable on pattern machines and the Spectrum would not be an exception. Futaba 3001 servos were installed all around except for the rudder, where a ball bearing Hitec 605 serves. A 6 volt, 800 mAh Duralite was used on the receiver to shave another ounce weight off. Since this a practice machine and not assembled for competition the radio components are acceptable. Should novice pattern or IMAC basic competition be the goal with the purchase, substitution of the servos chosen, might be the only alteration needed. A very powerful and user-friendly MVVS .45 with a tuned pipe was used on the plane with an APC 10-7 to translate the power into thrust. The engine is well in the upper range of power plants needed, and provides unlimited vertical. Although something like an OS .40FP would fly the machine through all maneuvers, acceptably, a piped version or a stronger .45 size engine is recommended for maximum fun-return on the investment. After careful balancing and dual rates setup, the model was ready for its maiden voyage. Dual rates were used per the manual with around 10-20 percent exponential, and they worked very well. A few clicks of elevator, rudder and aileron adjustment and the Spectrum was "wrung out". Rolls were smooth and axial, and loops tracked very nicely. High rate aileron makes snap rolls overshoot quite a bit, so low rates were used through all the flights. Furthermore, during rolling circles, it was the first time this reviewer could actually control number of rolls. Normally, it is a statement such as: "- Nice roller! - Oh yeah? How many did I do?" were the Spectrum tracks so well, so aileron could be compensated for through the maneuver. Knife-edge did not show any pitch or roll coupling, which was one of the criteria with the purchase. The plane has a lot of power with the MVVS and unlimited vertical performance. The elevator is neutral, with hands off inverted. A bit of exponential is recommended on the elevator but that is due to preference for a rearward CG, which makes pitch control a bit sensitive. The rudder has a lot of authority. Triple rates on rudder, just for fun, were the highest rates are max throw - or twice the recommended maximum throw. This enables comfortable pull out through the fourth quadrant in knife-edge loops - a respectable sign of a straight and balanced design. No re-balancing was needed after the first couple of flights. Landing speed is fairly slow, and pattern like. The tail wheel can be dragged for a respectable distance before planting the mains. The wing stalls straight ahead at high alpha, but can be forced into a wingtip stall, by applying a tad of aileron, just before the break, which makes for nice spin entries. No 3D maneuvers were attempted, since that portfolio of maneuvers is not the goal for the design criteria. The Spectrum is a very worthy successor to the UltraSport; beautiful looking and great flying. It tracks like it is on rails, it goes where you point it, and it is extremely smooth. It is very aerobatic and easy enough to fly to be a good second/third airplane. The color scheme makes it easy to see at all attitudes. Compared to an UltraSport, the Spectrum should be easily repairable should the need arise. The flight envelope in combination with its assembly technique puts the Spectrum well ahead of its comparable .45 size ARF pattern/sport machines on the market. Those who have been contemplating upgrading their current .40 size pattern machine, or been bitten by the "pattern-bug" are highly advised to consider Hobbico's Spectrum. |
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