Hangar 9 ASH 31 ~ 6.4m ARF

[mtnbiker63]

There were four ASH-31’s at Cumberland today. They all seemed to flying great. One was a maiden and mine was a re-maiden due to transmitter problems last week.

What a a great group of guys. So helpful and friendly. Already looking forward to the summer soar.

[chishp]

Sounds Great Rick, mine also is being set up for GPS so I note your comments with much interest, mine is set up for aero tow and elect self launch with the ability to remove the elect launch components in the pure glider mode. I am very impressed with the build of the model and the finished quality! well done Team Horizon right up to your standard. I have a 33% Pawnee with a DA 120 that goes very well also.

[RickS]

I finally got to fly with some other planes this past weekend at Visalia. We had some of the best and longest duration lift we have had in Visalia in a long time. It was almost good enough for ballast. The ASH 31 was right at home on the GPS Triangle course flying against Antares, AN66, ASW 22, and a JS1. It's just a bit slower (5-10 kph) as can be expected given it's light weight. But it is considerably faster than "normal" type scale sailplanes. It is definitely a great first GPS plane. It is fast enough that you will not be frustrated and climbs as well or better than the others while being much easier to land. I was so impressed I didn't even put my other glider together until the last of the 3 days.

Something that I don't recall being mentioned by anyone so far is how easy this plane is to put together and take apart. I actually pulled the wings off and put the plane back in the trailer each night, something I haven't done with my other models in years. It's a very easy plane to live with and with the quick takeoff and ease of landing can operate out of a much smaller field than you would expect given its impressive size.

At our Montague GPS race this year if we get more than a couple of these entered they will compete against each other as a one design class as well as be included in the normal classes. They will fly with the other gliders and scored with them but also scored against the other 31s.

[Sinkhappens86]

And I'm sitting here waiting on a day nice enough to fly mine!

[Ali Machinchy]

The second production run is all headed to EU as we speak. I expect it will arrive very soon. Although. I am pretty sure all are presold on this and maybe even the second shipment ( Sorry. No news on when the second shipment will be ready yet )
Regards Ali

[Uha]

In Germany the Hangar 9 ASH 31 is not in stock at any dealer!

[chishp]

Hi Guys
After 6 months wait my Hangar 9 ASH31 has arrived down here in New Zealand. Happy to report nil damage to what was a very well packed model, she is model (A10) not sure what that means in the production line, but very happy with the Quality. It is going to also be elect powered having purchased the spinner and two prop assys and the matching paint. I am intending to use a Scorpion SC4025-10 motor with a 100amp SEC. interested in peoples opinions, all the servos are Hitec, the same specs as the LET model of the same type. It will be also used for GPS racing as have T3000 gear to fit also.
regards
Paul Chisholm
NZ

[ARUP]

Might be fun to have a 'one design' GPS Triangle race with these! BTW... I know nothing of this sort of flying.

[kevj]

I have had a dozen or so flights with mine so far and have been reasonably happy with it. The very first flight was going to be just a short trimming flight but there was some terrific lift about and as I had the GPS Triangle gear in it, I decided that what better way to set up the trims than by flying around the course. After 30 minutes, I decided that I really had to change a few things as it flopped and wandered all over the place like a drunken duck and was hard to keep in line with the turn points but still managed to do 10 laps.
I moved the CG a bit forward and played with the aileron differential and aileron/flap mix and since then it behaves a lot better. It tracks between the turns well now and turns into thermals very nicely and makes use of even the lightest of lift.
I doubt it will match the big dollar machines but it is very much worth trying if anyone wanted to try GPS racing without spending lots of money.

[RickS]

I have flown mine several times in the past couple of weeks and it continues to impress. It is probably the nicest landing scale sailplane that I have flown. It really slows down with full flaps and the spoilers are very effective. They are so effective that I have so far always touched down with the spoilers fully retracted. The L/D is really impressive. It has by far the best L/D per dollar that I have seen. You would need to spend at least twice as much money to even get close.

I got to fly some laps on a GPS Triangle course today and it did very well. Conditions were far from ideal with a fully overcast sky, 39* F temperature, a 10 mph wind and weak choppy thermals. It did a good job of utilizing the weak lift in the thermals and covered ground quickly and efficiently in between thermals and turn points. I had a low start (380m vs the 500m that is allowed) yet still flew the 30 minute task and did 7 laps. Hopefully next week we will be able to fly at Visalia and I will be able to directly compare it to the all out GPS Racing models. I think it will be close in performance on days when ballast is not necessary.

[ARUP]

Ali... you are a cool dude!

[Ali Machinchy]

It is so rewarding to see customers getting out and enjoying their ASH's. It has ( and still is ) a super challenging project for us at Hangar 9, but I am really happy to be a part of it. Even more so now that I get to see fellow modelers getting to the point where the ASH really comes into its own. Thanks for your patience, feedback and understanding. Now.. back I go to hounding the vendor to rectify a few small niggles for future production models... Whilst trying to get them to speed up production so we can catch up with back orders.
FYI I have replacement bag sets on the water. Not sure when they will be here yet , but the good news is that they are on the way !

Regards Ali

[ARUP]

Make sure your sailplane is sponsored by your favorite mountain bike manufacturer! Looks great!

[lenb]

Congratulations Bryan. So happy you were able to get out an fly the beauty. The ASH-31 has been a wonderful project to be a small part of and to see the global acceptance and positivity is truly rewarding and inspiring.

[mtnbiker63]

Retracts arrived today. Thank you Horizon Hobby and Ali, they are working great. I also started applying the decals. Now is all I need is some good weather.