MAX THRUST AGGRESSOR RIDGE BUILD AND REVIEW.

Mark J has kindly provided a short build log and a review of the Max Thrust Aggressor Ridge. Many thanks to Mark for his submission.

I was after a replacement for my Multiplex Blizzard after a machine ground interface event which left it being more PU glue than foam. I’ve a ST Model Blaze in the loft, but as I prefer a cross tail I decided to give the Max Thrust Aggressor Ridge a go. 

Overall the quality isn’t bad, the foam is smooth and hard with few injection mould marks. Though one of my wings looks to be a Friday afternoon job, the colour is slightly different, the stickers were not well applied and there was a bit of an upward curve to the trailing edge at the root. A bit of heat with the iron and bending got it straight. The servos are generic no name Chinese jobs with the all-moving  elevator being digital metal gear.

The rudder has a hidden servo linkage so no control horns sticking out the back. The wing is held on with M4 countersunk metal bolts which I replaced with nylon. There’s a 5mm carbon spar about 1 meter long to join the wings, with further carbon spars in each wing half, the wing is quite stiff. 

The linkage to the ailerons is a bit bendy so I put a small carbon tube over them to stiffen them up. I also moved the linkage down one hole to get more throws. I cut down the ballast tube from the Blizzard and printed up a rear mount for it and used  epoxy  to fit it in over the C of G. It takes a couple of slugs of ballast  - weights are  80,120,160,240 grams. There’s a lump of steel in the nose to replace the motor, I removed the foam nose cone and printed up TPU (soft and squidgy) replacement. If you have a 3D printer you may as well use it. I also printed a bracket to hold in the battery which, pushed to the front, gets the C of G about right.

The maiden was at Firle in not perfect conditions, the aileron response wasn’t brilliant so I got it down and made the changes above. Second flight at Itford in much better conditions was more successful. It flies well on a par with the Blizzard. Roll rate is now OK. Inverted required a touch of down. The stall is pretty benign and easy to recover. It can be made to fly quite fast and it has a faint whistle on fast passes. I put 80 gms of ballast in it which made it slightly faster, with no wing flex. I think, like the blizzard, it benefits from a bit of ballast when the wind picks up as the overall weight is about 1kg. I set the ailerons as spoilerons (both up) for landing, they have an effect and slow it down a bit, no elevator compensation was required.

So on the whole I’m pleased with it, build quality is OK, longevity of servos and airframe we will have to see. For about £110 it’s reasonable value. I think it would make a good step on from a Wildthing, without too much expense or time investment to get it in the air -  a halfway house to a mouldie? The changes I’ve made are not needed to get it in the air, I just like playing, but I think it benefits from the ballast.