I've now had a chance to compare the old 63" Nitroplanes Predator with the new 98" Reaper, which is finally in stock. There's no comparison. Compared to the awesome Reaper model, the Predator is a toy. The new Reaper has a fiberglass and balsa/ply body, solid fittings and landing gear and about twice as much internal room. Very solid model and tremendous finish quality.
Here's another shot (I haven't assembled the Reaper's steerable nose gear yet)
Here's the cockpit view (I haven't put the servos in the Reaper yet, but you can get a sense of the size difference. Also note how much room there in the big canopy):
I haven't flown the Reaper yet, and my only concern is that it's very short-coupled (like all Predator models) and may be pretty twitchy in the pitch axis. But I sure feel more comfortable putting it in the air than I did with the little one, which had a bad habit of tip-stalling. I think the flaps on the Reaper are going to help a lot with solid landings.
I probably won't fly this until Sept, since it needs the servos and motor installed. But it's looking good so far!
Comments
Better safe than sorry, my appologies!!
Yes, the Predator doesn't have its battery in. Don't worry, I know how to set a CG--I'm not a total n00b!
Well it probably a matter of national security.. hehehe. So I gotta stick with my china model and again the Reaptor is probably also made in china.
Hooks.
Congrats on being one of the Lucky 100 and receiving one of the new Reapers! I'm commenting because I hope the reason your Predator is sitting on its tail skid is that the batteries are out of the nose or something similar. If not, the reason for its' being prone to tip stalling is the CG is too far back. If not, have you checked the wing loading (oz/ft2) or metric equivalent? If it is sitting there with full payload it should want to have the nosewheel on the ground. See the Zagi CG video on their website for more info about static balancing. The Reaper's beta test guy's video mentioned about having to move the CG forward, just FYI. He also mentioned that the nosewheel was a bear. I agree that the overall quality is great and the only thing that looks like it might need some modeling creativity is the camera turret!
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