Bird of Time

Last year before we went into this latest lockdown Rob  sent a message out on our WhatsApp group saying he had a number of models looking for new homes and included in the list was a Bird of Time kit. At the time I was just completing the Phase 5 build so it was a timely message one which I could not turn down. So after a visit to Copthorne to get a car serviced and MOT'd I dropped into Chez Rob and picked up the said kit. The Bird of Time has a 118" (3 m) wing span, it's an old design and is intended for flying off a winch or bungee and has four tow points built in to the fuselage. However, many people fly them on the slope so I've built the tow hook locations in but intend to fly it off the slope for which I have added a spoiler to each inner wing.

This is the first time I have built an American kit so a few words on the kit: the kit is well presented and the wood to be of good quality the only gripe I had was the quality of the die-cut parts, which was poor in comparison to current standards of laser cut parts. The poor cutting wasn't too bigger an issue it just meant I had to be more careful in taking the parts off the sheets and a fair bit of sanding was then required, something they advise you to do anyway.

The hardware was of good quality. The supplied push rods for the rudder and elevator controls are substantial, I ended up modifying my approach because getting the elevator control in place in the recommended way left the rod so badly bent the servo was using all its energy just to move the rod in the conduit. This was a great pity and for the rudder I replaced the supplied rod with a lighter weight one in order for it to freely move in the conduit where it exits the rear fuselage.

Building it wasn't much of a problem other than getting the wing roots correct. The spar is substantial and obviously aimed at winch launching as there is a 3/8" thick vertical grain web between the upper and lower hardwood spars in the inner wing. Epoxy is used extensively at the wing root and the dihedral changes and other than the wing 'D' box which uses pva most of the gluing uses cyno.

The instructions are good and a lot of information is provided on how to set up the model, something often left out, so in short I've enjoyed building it and as I'm planning to use it on the slope I've covered it in nylon to add strength. Now all that's needed is for me to be able to go to the slopes and fly it along with my other lockdown builds.