Mutleys Ritewing Z3 spade

[mutley2]

Had a chance to crack on with the Spade Z3s over Christmas, very easy build and no issues. Must say I'm impressed with the way it's all open to fit your FPV gear to suit your own needs, mine is a alternative to the Zephyr 2 which had it's first flying season (never flown a plane so much) Z2 upgrades/changes for 2015 ie air-speed and anti-vib mount for the RVOSD.
Spade spec is
1300Kv HK motor
80Amp ESC
5000mAh 4s
HS-485HB servos
Cyclops tornado flight controller
Immersionrc EZUHF
Immersionrc tiny tel
Immersionrc 2.4Ghz VTX
AUW is 2.25Kg
Should do a LOS maiden in the next few days and a FPV just after that if the gods allow  ;)

[Coyote]

Very smart, love the paint scheme :)

[stevec]

looking good. very nice finish.

/Steve

[mark1975]

looks the mutts mutley lol

[mutley2]

looks the mutts mutley lol

Cheers mate, tell me that after the maiden lol, I hate maiden's, second flight is always the best  ;)

[Ratty]

Looks great, very nice.

I was going to use the same vinyl, that or digital artic camo.  :D

[mutley2]

I was going to use the same vinyl, that or digital artic camo.  :D

Used it on the Z2 and it's a little heavy but tough, after a full summer of flying she still looks as good which is surprising with some of the sites I was flying out of hehehehe.

[ThunderstruK]

Where did you get that vinyl?

[mutley2]

Where did you get that vinyl?

It's an Ebay shop from Ireland, very fast postage but its not cheap and the sizes are a bit odd which is why you don't see that much of it around. You can buy just plain single colour vinyl which is just as good but a lot cheaper  ;)

[iPeel]

That's a really nice job, well done.

I'm also impressed you managed to keep the weight down without making sacrifices too.


Neil.

[dp106]

You don't really need both those and the Twinstar as well then...  :D Looks great, very jealous!

[Billy_boy_2010]

Looks great. Quite a low weight compared to others I have seen too.

Did you laminate it and put the camo stuff on?

And can we have a link to the ebay camo please? If it's that tough I may put a different colour on my z3

[mutley2]

Yep it's laminated first and camo on after, my Z2 was a real heavy wing so I did go to town and kept every thing as light as possible, saying that I still ended up with 35g of weight on the motor mount to get the CG to 8" that should come off after the maiden with any luck.
The Ebay shop is
http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/carwrapdirect?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
Be careful when buying to choose the right size, I think these are just samples so the sizes are odd.

[mutley2]

Well after a month of life, love and work getting in the way I FPV'ed maidened the Z3, it was not the best of dawn's as I'd hoped with a gusty wind and a cloud base at 400ft but just wanted to get flying and I was not disappointed. She needed a bit of trim and the gains on the Cyclops Tornado needed a tweak, but all told she flew really well, not a trace of wag at any speed either straight into or cross wind, that pleased me loads. Only issue I had was interference on the camera so some sort of filter is needed (not had to before) and the throws are a little high.
Is it better than the Z2 or Twinstar? it's just a different craft that flies really really well IMo, the Twinny and Z2 have there own merits but the Z3 does do a lot more of what both the Twinny and Z2 do well all in one airframe. This summer will tell, still need to tune it and will report back my finding.
The vid is a little dark as it was just after dawn, I tried out both high and low speed ranges in the vid and the PA/RTH mode on the Tornado which suits the Z3 very well.

http://youtu.be/7ZSnVaN6qSA

[Ratty]

Looks like it flies great. Nice job.

What prop did you go for?