PROJECT: "RES" SuperHawk

I really wanted a SuperHawk with spoilers. My only "frustration" (ha, ha, ha!) with the stock SuperHawk is that is wants to glide forever! ;-) I simply have a hard time landing it in small areas. I also wanted something that would allow me to be competitive in RES competition. (Rudder/Elevator/Spoiler-only for thermal duration and spot landing). This would be a great nostalgia looking plane that might be capable of doing well in competition... it should turn heads!

The plane is identical to the regular SuperHawk except for the wings. I again chose the SD-7037 airfoil for these. The wings were beefed up with a spar system that extends just past the spoiler section and there is a upper and lower carbon fiber "sandwich"area at the root. This adds some weight but also a lot of stiffness. I wanted to be able to winch launch this baby!

	Man what beautiful work Tony does!		Here is a better view of the spoiler area that I will be cutting out.
	Here is what I originally had in mind... but that would change as you will see below.		I only get one chance to get it right... better make sure my ducks are in a row!
	Once I had my drawings done, I layed out the area to be cut out on the wing.		I VERY carefully scored the area to be cut, then cut all the way through the first layer of ply with an Exacto knife.
	With a little heat from my heating iron I was able to loosen the epoxy and lift off the ply.		Off comes the ply... EZ as you like... MUCH easier than routing it out, as I had originally planned!
	Whew! The most difficult part is over (at least the most nerve raking!) and it was not too bad at all!		Next I wanted to shave down the foam to accept about 90% of my 1/8" spoiler material. My router guide also clamped the wing to the table.
	Here is the finished spoiler bay. I also have the servo area cut-out and ready for the servo install.		Here is the spoiler cut to size. Note that it is a little too high. This is so I can sand it to the proper curved shape of the top of the wing.
	Sanding the spoiler to the proper curve of the airfoil.		Wow... it's starting to look like a spoiler system!
	I used a thin dremel bit to cut a slot and locate the tube for the servo wiring.		After the wire is pulled I am ready to splice the servo wiring. I'm using HiTech HS-55's.
	When I spliced the wires I staggered the splices so I did not increase the the diameter any more than neccessary.		This is what I ended up with on my linkage. It is a free floating/slider arm type. It opens easily to 90 degrees.
	The bent end of the push rod can pivot while the straight end can slide through the dual retainers on the servo arm. Here it's at about 45 degrees.		Here I've used a thin plate of CF with a screw to hold the servo down.
	When I was satisfied with the linkage and fit I inserted these kevlar threads at the leading edge. These will be glued to the top surface of the spoiler to keep the monokote hinge from lifting.		Here are the two wings ready top be covered... usually takes me about 3 hours per wing - I go slow but steady!
	The finished product - looks like some good stopping power!		Looking down the wing - pretty awesome looking.
	Here is the front view with the spoilers at around 80 degrees... I can't wait to try them!

OK, but how well do they work???!!!

My very first opportunity to try these out was at the Poway RES competition in San Diego... on a winch launch! I was very pleased to say the least, I only wish I had more practice time so I could have done better at the spot landing points. I was also amazed at the stiffness of these wings (with spar system) compared to the stock ones, again very nice!

Since then I have flown several times and I can tell you that I will probably hardly ever use my stock wings now... I've been "spoiled"!!! I now fly with much more confidence... I used to cringe when landing my SuperHawk (or stock Hobie for that matter) because of fear of over/under shooting the landings. Where I normally fly that would spell CRUNCH! Now I can truly really relax when I fly, before I was always concerned about my landings... well, no more!