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Set your radio up for these control throws.
Elevator
Up & Down – ⅜" with 30% exponential
Aileron
Up & Down –
3
/
16
" with 50% exponential
Test Flight:
The BLUE RAY can be easily hand launched. Advance the throttle to "full throttle" and
lightly toss the airplane into the wind. The climb out will be quick so be ready to
throttle back to keep the BLUE RAY in sight. Climb to a two mistakes high altitude and
trim the airplane.
Tip: If using a 3-cell battery, launch the airplane at half-throttle until
you get a feel for the BLUE RAY. Then advance the throttle and have a blast!
Use this first flight to get comfortable with the control rates and take mental notes of
more or less exponential rates. The control sensitivity follows the airspeed in that they
are nice and easy at slow speeds but get pretty quick at full throttle.
Even though the BLUE RAY is very light weight, it can easily handle winds over 10 mph.
Landings are actually very slow. We recommend keeping a little throttle “on” when
landing with a nose high attitude until just before touch-down, then cut the throttle and
land with very little sliding.
Optional Modifications:
The Blue Ray can be built with a single aileron servo and torque tubes. The double
servo arrangement is shown in the instructions because it's easy to install.
The Du-Bro micro control horns and keepers are inexpensive and easy to install, but
other brands or even home-made control horns and keepers can be used.
The original Blue Ray design had the aileron servos in a “stand up” position in the wing.
The “lay down” position is shown in the instructions because it gives more clearance
between the bottom of the servo and the top of the wing.
The foam ailerons may seem to be "floppy", especially at the outer ends of the ailerons.
They are still quite effective. You may prefer to stiffen them with a carbon fiber strip
along the top of the ailerons.
While 6 gram servos are recommended especially for the elevator servo, 9 gram servos
can be used for the aileron servos without affecting the CG location or flying
performance.
A good method of attaching the control surfaces is to use double-sided tape in an “X”
pattern. Start with a strip of tape on the top of the stabilizer and crossover to the
underside of the elevator with the first strip. The next strip is reversed. Start on the
bottom of the stabilizer and crossover to the top of the elevator. Repeat the process
until you have “X” strips at both ends of the stab/elevator assembly and on both sides
