AEROS PHANTOM PILOTS REPORT
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I have been a flex wing pilot until last year, so my only comparison of a Phantom is to a Flex.
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Assembly
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Assembling a Phantom consists of several steps which have to be done in the right order.
This can be learned very quickly, so assembly doesn′t take much longer than for
a flex.That became almost boring compared to the exciting assembly of a Phantom.The
constructional solutions and ideas are simply cool.
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Launching
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For foot launch off the hill I mostly use cca. 50% of flaps, following the motto "better too much than too little".
The wing carries very quickly and stable, it gives the pilot the confidence to launch at any launchable conditions and any
hill steepness. It has no tendency to nose up or down. The angle of attack before launch is similar as with flex.
The only difference for a flex wing pilot is higher weight to accelerate with and a feeling, that on your shoulders
there is a board which will never fly. But this is over after a step or two.
Aerotowing off a cart is even simpler. Here the flaps position is not so important, in Florida I was mostly using cca.
30% flaps.
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Handling
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Through aileron system handling a Phantom is very light and direct endash very similar as with flex.
The wing follows any command, almost any thought. Small, light directional corrections can be made also with
weight shift, without engaging the ailerons.
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Thermaling
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Compared to the flex thermaling is very simple, efficient and doesnt cost pilot much power.
Phantom circles in any angle position without bigger corrections from pilot. Circling radius
is regulated with flaps. For light, wide thermals no flaps or 10% are used, for narrow, strong
thermals the use of flaps can be up to 60% .
Narrow thermal bubles can be felt and used very efficient by the pilot.
Pushing out the control bar in thermals and slowing the wing to 40kph or even less is no problem.
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Gliding
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Phantom was built for high speed glide.At the moment it is the only rigid wing with RVG system.
This system consists of a complicated mechanism inside the wing and of a second cord on the speedbar.
Pulling the cord lowers both ailerons so changing aerodynamical properties of the wing through wing twist.
Bar pressure gets lower, wing gets faster and glide improves.
Launching, landing, thermaling, aerotowing and gliding up to 65kph MUST be done with RVG OFF. This way the
wing allows very low speeds, narrow turns and gives the tremendeous pitch value, much higher than most flex
which is felt on high bar pressure.
RVG ON makes gliding over 70kph very easy. The bar pressure gets lower, getting higher again with increasing
speed, glide improves, still very good pitch value increases with speed. In this RVG position max. speeds way
over 120kph are possible, 85-90kph is normal gliding speed.
Despite high manevurability the Phantom is very stable at glide, almost no directional corrections are
necesarry, turbulence is simply cut through by the wing.This makes aerotowing and long glides extremly easy.
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Landing
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With full flaps landing aproach is slow and easy, descending angle similar steep as flex with drogue shoot.
When it comes to bringing the Phantom to full stop, there is a diference to the flex wing, which allows less
concentrated landing.
The Phantom has sensitive wing tips, that is why the last seconds of the flight need to be done in the right way.
My preferred landing is to make full flaps, descend to ground effect and fly until the end of lifting force then
stop the wing with few steps, without pushing the A-frame out.This way Phantom can fly very slow, much slower than
flex, so the landing works also at light winds.
When a pilot pushes out energicaly with full flaps, the stall comes very sudden and is not controllable.
Second way to land is to make 30% flaps, apply the drogue shoot to shorten the aproach and at the end push out
as with flex. At this flap position the stall is similar as by the flex, it happens at a higher speed.
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Trimming
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You can trimm the Phantom by changing the hanging point and to move the aileron range up or down by changing the position of aileron control levers.
The hanging point should be adjusted so that trimm speed (RVG OFF, flaps 0) is arround 46 - 48 kph.
Screwing the aileron control levers in or out the aileron position can be adjusted. Experience has showen that moving the ailerons down results in
worse aerodinamical properties of the wing, thermaling and landing becomes more complicated (higher speeds), even glide gets a bit worse.
Therefore the serial settings of ailerons is recomendable.
Have fun,
Primoz GRIGAR
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