Monday, June 6, 2022

BJ Craft Epilogue ARC status

The Epilogue was ready-to-fly back in March of this year.  Since the EPIC Evo and Invitation G2 I have been flying so well that I was in no hurry to maiden the Epilogue.  However, at my club’s annual pattern event held in early May, an FAI competitor flew a stock color scheme Epilogue.  I was blown away by how it performed which motivated me to get mine in the air.

 The following Monday after the contest I maiden my Epilogue.  As a starting point I applied for the radio program I use for the EPIC E.  Since both planes are powered by a Hacker C54/D3 combo I also applied the same RPM per flight condition and throttle curves.  Within a dozen or so flights and a few tweaks to the radio program and a couple of prop changes, I was feeling very comfortable flying the 2022-23 Masters sequence which is unusual for me.

 Likes:

·        The ARC kit quality.  It took minimal effort to prep surfaces for covering and painting

·        Positive and negative snaps, present a break, rotates quickly, and stops immediately enabling the plane to stay on-line

·        Cross-wind tracking

·        Speed management

·        Finished flying weight

·        Access to internal equipment thru canopy opening

Dislikes:

·        Landing gear supplied with kit, it’s heavy and stiff (substituted PT non-swept)

·        Condition of the factory added nose ring to change thrust arrangement 

This past weekend I competed with the Epilogue. It flew flawlessly.  I receive many compliments on my flying which I attribute to the Epilogue. I was fortunate to come away with a win even though I seem to have trouble counting the correct number of revolutions of the 3-turn spin 😊.

Jetero Contest Results







2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Glen,

I love your Blog and the very helpful information on the covering and painting of your Epilogue Pattern Plane. I am currently finishing up a Desire 120 Pattern Plane I have built from an Aero Composites basic kit. I also used West Wings Primer, Paint and Spray Max 2K clear. My question to you is ...did you sand and polish the Epilogue? If so, what was your process for doing so...I am afraid of sanding through the Clear cote and into the paint...and we know the paint is not Nitro fuel proof. I will be using a YS 120 engine with 30% Heli fuel. Keep up all you do for our love of Pattern!

Thanks, Floyd Town

rcprecision said...

Floyd, yes I do sand the clear coat. I first wet sand the paint with ~600-800 grit before clearing to remove orange peel and paint lines from masking. This is followed with a light coat of clear which is wet sanded with ~1500-2000 grit. Then I shoot a final coat of clear to seal the paint. This final coat provides sufficient gloss to me. A glosser finish is possible if you choose to buff and polish this second coat of clear.

Sorry for the late response, hope this helps.

Regards,

~Glen