both ailerons deflect ‘up’ a little when the flaps come down for landing, but you should check this
out at height first to adjust the throws suited to your flying style. This method has the advantage
of giving more drag, but you will need to keep plenty of power on to prevent it getting too slow on
finals. Be careful if you try more flap throw than 45°, as the plane slows down very quickly indeed.
With aileron and rudder throws as stated above you will experience no problems at all, and the
Hawk is very smooth. Nevertheless the rudder is quite powerful, and the plane will climb in knife-
edge easily with only small throws. My old ducted fan version would perform knife-edge loops!
Landings are generally easy, but do not try to land with the nose high, like a ‘delta’. Just fly it in as
if you are doing a slow, low pass, and reduce the power until it touches down with the nosewheel
only very slightly higher than the mains. If you attempt to lift the nose a lot, then the Hawk may drop
a wing. I recommend that you use the flaps to control the speed and descent, and keep the fuse-
lage level to touch down on all 3 wheels almost together - at least until you have flight experience.
Of course you can easily practice this at higher altitude so that you don’t have any surprises !
Also remember, if you have been flying ‘delta’ models before this, that the Hawk has a much longer
and flatter glide, especially without any flap - useful to know if your have an engine flame-out !
Several of our customers have been flying the Hawk with both Wren 44 power, and also recently
Electric Ducted fan set-ups and both perform very well. More details on these can be found in the
thread on RC Universe at internet: www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5453789/mpage_1/key /tm.htm
My original ducted-fan Hawk had over 350 flights, and only crashed because of my own stupidity!
I hope that your new Fox Composites Hawk has at least as long and happy life, and gives you as
much fun as mine did.
Jim Fox
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Paul Gray, Trevor Skedge, Dave Wilshere and Mark Diggle for
some of the photos used in this manual.
Fox Composites Co., Ltd.
35
The prototype BAe Hawk outside the Fox Composites factory
in Pattaya, Thailand. The lady is quite small, which makes the
plane appear larger than it really is !
