Thunder Tiger
WINDSTAR EP
Almost Ready To Fly
2M Electric Powered Sailplane

Sailplane wing modifications from beginner RC model to intermediate RC model.
Other conversion link.

With the modifications underway most of the wing's framework was exposed and it was straightforward to cut ailerons into the outer wings, put a mini servo, from a wrecked Awesome Electrafun this time, on each one and run radio cable extensions with a Y cable to the receiver.

My Windstar EP was bought years ago and has given me endless pleasure. It is well built, looks good and is forgiving in flight. That said, like a lot of us there have been some rough landings and some outright prangs. I thought it to be a rightoff at least three times.
How I got to the point of making the modifications was easy. In the last five flights I had to repair the tailplane three times.
This old Thunder Tiger Windstar with it's 7 cell NiCad battery, brushed motor and full size servos is a heavy model. With a low tailplane, see illustration above, it only has to hit a small object on landing and the tailplane will break. If it was lighter it would probably not break so easily.

I felt like scrapping the old girl but I thought of modifying the tail so that there wouldn't be any landing damage, in other words a V or T tail.

I opted for a T tail. I could anchor the fin easily and it was easy to make a tailplane out of corflute. I put a mini servo out of a wrecked Awesome Extrafun at the base of the fin and added a radio cable extension to connect forward to the receiver. I couldn't see a way of adding and controlling a rudder with an elevator for this setup so the elevator won out.

All that needed to be done now was to turn the plane.

Adding ailerons was a good option but the wing was polyhedral and in that form was not going to work well. I cut the outer wings off and re-glued them flat with the inner wings ending up with a mild dihedral wing.

10 Dec 06. There has been a minor set back. A few flights were done but today the small (cheap?) aileron servos failed and she went straight in requiring  significant repairs.
Initial flights were impressive so it will be rebuilt.
23 Dec The fuselage is done and whilst the wing is being worked on spoilers are going to be cut into the trailing edge of the inner wing.
21 Jun Almost done now.
25 Jul Ready to go now except for the weather.
3 Aug 07. First flight and successful. Pictures below.