Cupid Stunt's Super Skysurfer 2.4m

[Cupid Stunt]

Well it arrived, my Bananahobby Super Skysurfer that is

I'll reserve a few posts for build and maiden
For now let's just say "it's frikin' hooooooooge"

Here's some pics that hopefully show that

Super Skysurfer Pictures:

[Cupid Stunt]

Bananahobby Super Sky Surfer build

OK, it was fairly straight forward really, instructions were fine even though they are in Chinglish

All control horns and rods need to be fitted and adjusted which of course means setting up your radio and installing a receiver, no problem there as there's more than enough room, spoiled for choice as far as where to put anything really



I opted to glue the tail sections in place even though the section are clearly molded to take a captive nut so you can screw it together, not hard to fit a nut glued to a small piece of ply if you wanted a removable tail section

Fit and finish of the components is great and I'm happy to go with the standard electronics (servos, esc, motor)

For the wings I had to cut two lengths of pine dowel (12mm) to slide down the wing tubes and act as stops for the spar, otherwise there's nothing to stop the spar sliding down the tube too far when assembling
I personally wouldn't fly this without fixing the wings in place to stop them sliding off, for me I'm happy to just tape the wings on as my car can take a huge capacity due to it's width (three seats up front) and the fact the front centre seat folds down, but I suspect for most people this isn't a realistic option
I'd suggest fixing two velcro straps to the fuse where the wings go in, cut a small recess in each wing half so the wings still slide on OK and fix matching velcro to the wing halves, this is something I may do later but for now it fits in my car anyway
Doing the velcro would be no big deal, it took some time to eliminate other ideas and try to find the "perfect" solution and was a little frustrating to find that your really have to take a knife to this to get it to work how it should do out of the shop/factory
Other than this the only mod I'd make is to cut the EPO hinges and use flat plastic hinges as well as tape, that's not something I normally do but it only took a very slight knock to rip one of my flap hinges before the plane had even been in the air

Already touched on the room in there but let's expand on that a little...
I flew it's maiden with a 5000mah 3S in the nose, OSD etc could easily fit on the flat ledge under the wings making it accesible from under the canopy or when the wings are removed, that leaves a fairly large unused area directly under the canopy, the servos are slight to the rear of that and set into the sides, you could easily fit a second 5000mah 3S in there, in fact if you moved the servos rearward to balance the weight along with mounting your VTX on the tail boom then you could have 2 x 3000mah 3S in the nose section and another 2 x 3000mah 3S below the canopy, that's 12,000 mah in total, you might want to upgrade the motor, esc and prop though



The plane will accommodate a 9 inch prop easily but I believe that may be too much for the standard 40a esc and motor, though an 8x8 prop may give it a little more punch
Let's face it this is no aerobatic pole racer, that's not what it's designed for, what it does do is spread a load over a huge set of wings, you can either use that to carry heavy gear or use it to float for all eternity without hardly using the throttle

Stay tuned for more Super Skysurfer pictures and videos

[Cupid Stunt]

2.4m Super Skysurfer Maiden Pictures

Well the day was quite windy averaging over 15mph and frequent gusts to around 24mph, the wind was funny though as when I self hand launched the Skysurfer just went straight upwards above my head about 50ft then I'd panic and have to get the throttle on to get it out in front of me so I could see it's orientation , suffice to say that in an avg 15mph wind bog standard with a 5000mah 3S battery it floats very well, I may tweak the CG back a tiny bit as it seems to drop the nose when the wind dropped but before doping that I need to fly it in calm conditions to get a real feel for it





















CoG and battery
I used a 5000mah 3S battery which fitted beautifully snug into the nose compartment and as a bonus it also put the CoG at exactly 100mm from the leading edge (right over the main spar)
After having flown the plane now I may well move the CoG back a little as I just felt it may have been a tiny bit nose heavy but I'll reserve judgement until I've flown it in calmer weather
No point in trying to ascertain power consumption yet either as it was so windy over the slopes I didn't need throttle at all so could have stayed aloft for hours, I only used throttle when I just fancied doing so to move faster from one spot to another, I suspect though with prudent use of the throttle and a 5000mah 3S you'd get an hour of flight, if you was a competent glider/soarer then you'd get hours as there's definitely no lack of lift on this big birdy

Super Skysurfer Videos to follow

[Cupid Stunt]

Super Skysurfer Videos

Quite funny really as it wasn't exactly ideal conditions for a maiden, with gusts to 24mph and an average of 15mph it didn't allow me to asses hwo she'd fly in normal conditions, no point in trying to trim the plane or guage CG properly or even battery usage as most of the time she was just floating on the wind with no power required
The first launch I got Richard to throw her up whilst I piloted just to be safe so I could catch here with the controls if she wasn't quite right, on later launches I wanted to see how difficult she was to self launch one handed, no trouble other than the wind taking her straight up above my head making it really hard to get orientation and forcing me to power on to get her out in front of me

Super Skysurfer Hat Cam Footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz8ZRiSexgI
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Compact Cam Footage Super Skysurfer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfjwg4gKXwk
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How does the Super Skysurfer fly ?
Well unsurprisingly she flies like a rather large (read humungous) Skysurfer, a bit more daunting especially if you're not used to large planes, power wise she's adequate, load wise she'd take a ton but you'd want to upgrade the power set, for me I'll keep her light as possible using a Pixim Seawolf and a Horyzon HD cam along with my RVOSD, she soars nicely and glides great too, just about everything I wanted a large FPV plane to be really (build niggles aside)
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New day, new video
Well 2nd day and two more flights, this time in calmer weather with winds around 5-8mph gusting to 10mph
She flies great I still feel that the 100mm CG makes it nose heavy and lethargic/slow and less floaty

Each flight was 20 minutes give or take 30 secs averaging half throttle all the time, one battery took 2466mah to top up and the other took 3059mah so with the CG set at 100mm a 5000mah battery will give you 30 minutes flight time at half throttle
Another thing that points to the 100mm in the manual being wrong is that they themselves recommend a 3600mah battery and with that it's impossible to get the CG at 100mm without adding weights in the nose, she also dips her nose very quickly when lift is lost and her nose drops in turns which has to be corrected with elevator, in fact pretty much the same symptoms as the FMS Fox glider which was also cured by moving the CG back
Anyway I will experiment with the CG one tiny bit at a time and report back, in the meanwhile here's the video

Super Skysurfer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngb8ChnihO8
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[Dusty]

Freakin Fanny Frogs Terry!!!!!! That's massive!!!

Ok, I want one... lol. stuff how much it costs.

and it comes with ALL electronics, barring RC gear?

What quality are the servos and ESC? reckon they'll need replacing?

I know what I'm saving up for lol

[Cupid Stunt]

LOL, it is a fair size ain't it

Yes all electrics, effectively it PnP, just requires receiver, transmitter, battery and charger

[Mancini]

oo shit that thing is huge !!!   
Waiting to see this maiden and FPV flights. 

[MrBen]

Looks good, Im sure there are a few on here waiting on your always impartial post flight review.

[rick]

Holy crap!!  Ha, those wings are massive in terms of area too.  Is there wing loading figures for this?

I love it - get that bird in the air Terry and let's see what she can do.

[Cupid Stunt]

Here's some interior shots of the Super Skysurfer

A handy ledge for my RVOSD


The ledge is also accessible from the top when the wings are removed:


Fitted with a 5000mah 3s battery, a very snug fit length wise but a 4s would probably fit tightly in the same compartment






If the central raised foam was removed there'd be plenty of room for a second large battery

[Dusty]

cavernous. I cant think of enough FPV gear to stuff into that bottomless pit of flying foam lol

[Cupid Stunt]

I'm still struggling with trying to figure out the best way to fix the wings

1. The tubes are longer than the rod, so when trying to slide the second wing half on there's nothing to stop the rod from just sliding further into the first wing half
2. Once the wings are in place there's nothing to stop them sliding off again in flight, fitting a screw near the end of the rod on each wing half is not a good idea as that will not allow the wing to flex upwards in flight and something will give way

So at the moment my thoughts are to drill the tube in each wing half just to fit an end stop so the rod cannot slide beyond half way, this will compromise the tube strength at that point but at least it only supports 1/3rd of the wing end, then maybe use velcro where the two wing halves meet to keep them together

Alternatively the rod could be permanently glued into one half and then use velcro but with the rod glued in that wing half with rod is then 1850mm long, OK for me but probably no good for may others out there


Can't believe how dumb the manufacturers have been over this, especially considering that for years we've had the exact same problems with the Bixler and original 1.4m Skysurfer, come on guys get a grip

[Cupid Stunt]

That's it, I'm feked off with this now

Anyone want to buy a never used brand new Super Surfer ?

[mark1975]

nooooooo you have barely had it two mins its not that bad is it?

[MrBen]

couldnt you use some tape on the rod to build up its diameter which would make it a snug fit insude the tube? and again use tape to joing the wing halfs togther, pull it off when you dismantle.