Aresti 108 prototype

It's been a while, not only since the last time I made an entry but also for the Aresti 108 which I can now finally say has been born! It's at the Sloperacer workshops and busy getting it installed for it's first flight. The quality fit and finish for this huge, full carbon acrobat is definitely what you would call top notch 'EU quality'! Which shouldn't really be a surprise to us as our manufacturing partner is a renowned competition glider manufacturer in CZ. They have done a great job and all helps with the pride and excitement of seeing this project coming now nearing it's final stages.  It definitely deserves the accolade of being a flagship model for us and this is only the prototype! It's designed by Dr James Hammond and though I'm obviously biased, dare I say it's his best to date! I and many others have always wondered what a Hammond design could do if it was built by a top EU manufacturer. Well we won't have long to find out!

Even though it's a proto, it's beautifully made- simple stripe scheme for now but at least it isn't our usual 'white ghost' proto! 

It has some of the modifications from the 2m Aresti prototypes and so yes the rudder is enormous but then so is the whole plane, much bigger than you would expect for it's 108'' span. The pleasing thing though is that this prototype comes in at 2.7kg empty so reckoning on around 3.5kg ready to fly. To put this in perspective, I guess the X Models Stingray is a simlair size and aspect ratio. These are around 7kg empty! So we are really hoping for light wing performance too with the Aresti 108 someting I know a lot of acrobatic pilots have been asking for. However, there will be plenty of ballast provision with 20mm round tube in the wings and I'll be putting in 20mm tube in the fuse too. Aiming for around 2.4kg so approx 6kg fully laden. I'll guess we'll find out soon enough if this is going to be adequate!  

Did I mention it's full carbon? That's all the tail surfaces too, only the front nose section is glass for 2.4 purposes.

Massive joiner!

The joiner is 40mm x 20mm in section and over 1/2m long! After all it's a huge plane, let's see if the following pictures do it justice.

Yep, that's the chord!

Can't wait to get this flown! It's going to be a show stopper on the slopes!

The space for wing servos will allow full size 20mm thick all round but a bit of a squeeze in the aileron well so probably best with a midi 15-17mm servo.

Flap well about 25mm

Aileron about 20mm

The horn geometry and servo well positioning has been very well thought out and designed for flush covers

Servo wells opened up on LHS wing, note they are angled to be at 90 degrees to the hinge line- no binding here! 

Well we know how the 2m Aresti flies and this big Aresti prototype has ticked all the boxes in terms of weight, strength and most importantly quality. It's exciting times, stand by for maiden report!