Calmato 60 Sports ARF
If you are just now moving up from a typical .40-size basic trainer, the Calmato Sport 60 is going to look big, because it is. Wingspan is 71 inches, fuselage length 63 1/4 inches and weight is 8 to 8 ¾ lbs. Kyosho suggests a .60-size engine. If you have a good grip on a trainer, and want a larger, more aerobatic capable airplane as a sport flyer, or aerobatic trainer, this is a good choice. It looks great on the ground and in the air. It’s an excellent second airplane. The low wing design and wide set main landing gear handles take off and landings in cross wind better than typical trainers. And, if you want to start learning aerobatics, the Calmato Sport 60 is ideal.
Photo 1
The airplane in this review uses a Magnum XLS 61A two-stroke glow engine. A basic 4-channel radio is required. Since there are separate servos for each aileron, you will need a fifth servo. Both aileron servos can be connected to the receiver aileron channel with a “Y” cord. Or, you can use a computer radio that has separate channels for each aileron. An Airtronics RDS8000FHSS 2.4GHz mid level computer radio was used in this model.
While a computer radio is not necessary for the Calmato Sport, the Airtronics RDS8000 has features that make setting up the controls easier, and can enhance some flight characteristics. For this review, all flying was done without using the computer functions.
Trainers are specifically designed to be very forgiving of pilot errors. While the Calmato Sport 60 does not have any “nasty” habits, it’s not a basic trainer. It is faster and has a heavier feel. What do I mean by “a heavier feel?” That is difficult to describe. It is more responsive and more stable. It stays on a line better than a trainer.
At moderate to low air speeds, such as on a landing approach, it reacts a little more slowly. These differences are partly due to design differences from a trainer to the Calmato Sport – the low wing, the sem-symmetrical airfoil of the wing, and less dihedral.
They are also partly due to the airplane’s larger size and heavier wing loading. These differences are quite noticeable, but not difficult to adapt to. As your piloting skills improve, you will find yourself enjoying these characteristics and, they make learning aerobatics easier.
Photo 2
That is me standing just behind the Calmato Sport 60. Great looking airplane and the pilot looks OK I guess. Anyway, just as you did with your basic trainer, have an experienced pilot take the airplane up on its first flight to trim it. If you’re graduating from a basic trainer to the Calmato Sport 60, I’d suggest making your first flight on a buddy box as you adapt your piloting technique to this higher performance airplane. Normal cruise flight is pleasant and steady. The Calmato Sport 60 is stable and holds a straight line nicely.
Photo 3 Photo 4
There is plenty of “Sport” in this Calmato. It’s more than ready for aerobatics. Loops and aileron rolls are easy to learn with the Calmato. So are Cuban Eights and Immelmann turns. Using “High Rate” control surface throws, the Calmato Sport 60 will spin. It recovers by releasing the spin controls and letting it drop into a dive. The aircraft will also snap roll using the “High Rate” control throws. The top and bottom color scheme is dramatically different; a great aid to maintaining pilot orientation while learning new maneuvers.
Photo 5 Photo 6
This is NOT the altitude to learn inverted flight!! But it does demonstrate the stable flight characteristics of the Calmato Sport whether upright or inverted. This is an honest airplane that has no tricks to play. Inverted flight does require holding “down” elevator; how much depends on where you put the Center of Gravity (CG)
Photo 6 shows a better place to try inverted flight. Get a couple of mistakes high for your first few adventures into this realm of the upside down. Your first tendency when something goes wrong, or you just get uncomfortable, is to pull up elevator; definitely bad to do while inverted and flying low. The Calmato Sport 60’s rugged construction will tolerate such stressful handling but give it at least a little altitude to work with before yanking in that “up” elevator.
Photo 7
You have probably heard that the number of take-offs and landings should be equal. The Calmato Sport will be pleased to help. A landing approach with the Calmato Sport is pleasant. Speed bleeds off reasonably quickly. You may find flying the final approach with 2 or 3 Throttle Clicks up from idle makes the approach easier.
Here is a hint on flying the landing approach with the Calmato Sport 60 (or any model for that matter). Do not allow the nose to come up high enough for you to see the bottom of the wing. If you’re seeing the bottom at low power and low speed, the airplane is slowing down, and will likely stall.
Did you sometimes make a poor landing approach to a landing with your trainer? Never mind, we’ve all been there and know the answer to than one. Some of the poor approaches could be saved by last second power and control application at low speeds. The Calmato Sport 60 will not be quite as forgiving as was your basic trainer. Touch and goes, and landings from a normal approach are not difficult, but don’t expect to make large corrections while low and slow.
Plan ahead, and make a Go-Around before things get too difficult. Dead stick landings are fine. Since the wing loading is heavier than typical trainers, the glide speed needs to be a little higher. And keep this in mind; don’t let the nose stay high during the glide.
If the gentle but exciting flight characteristics of the Calmato Sport 60suit you, then read on. We will go through the assembly steps. It’s not a long process.
Photo 8 Photo 9
Packing was good. All parts in my kit came out of the box in excellent condition. All the basic parts are built and covered. Most ARFs come out of the box with a few wrinkles in the covering that need ironing out. Not this one, there wasn’t a wrinkle to be seen. This is likely the best covering you will see on an ARF and is better than most of us do for ourselves.
The kit is very complete including fuel tank, engine mount, control linkage, and hardware. A plastic spinner is supplied, but I replaced it with a metal one that will stand up better to an electric starter. A lot of the assembly work other manufacturers often leave to you, is already done.
The ailerons and elevator control surfaces are installed and hinged. The fin and hinged rudder are already installed and glued onto the fuselage. The servo tray and elevator and rudder pushrod casings are installed. Casings for the nose wheel steering and throttle linkage are installed. Even the tank is already assembled, and in place.
There is a bit left for you to do: assemble the wings, add the main landing gear, and fit the wing to the fuselage. Install the stabilizer onto the fuselage. Install radio, control linkage, tank, and engine. The instruction manual is good and will guide you through the assembly process. Some of the written instructions are awkwardly translated, and there are a few minor errors. But the sequence of assembly steps and drawings of each step are quite good.
Photo 10
Installing the two aileron servos goes quickly. Aileron extension cords will be needed. Tape, or otherwise secure the connectors to the aileron servo leads. Strings are already in each wing to pull the aileron servos’ extension cords to the center.
A servo arm of medium to long length will be required to get the aileron servo arm to clear the surface of the wing. The aileron linkage is simple and effective. It’s just a 2-56 threaded wire with a 90 degree bend. The clevis supplied with this kit utilizes a separate pin to install between the clevis arms. The manual shows how to install it. Be sure to install the keeper on the pushrod at the servo end, and the shrink wrap on the clevis.
Assembling the two wing halves went easily using the instruction manual. I was pleased to find the plywood dihedral brace fit correctly. The wing aft hold down bolts also fit the mounting blocks in the fuselage. Installing the main landing gear in the wing is straight forward. Drill 1/16 inch holes for the mounting straps, and install with the provided screws.
There are a few things worthy of note in the fuselage. Most all of the pushrod casing ends should be trimmed to remove chips and scraps of the casing where it has been cut to length. A pointed hobby razor type knife blade will work. So, will a gentle dab with a 5/32 inch drill bit – go easy if you try that method.
The pushrods are 1/16th steel rod. The rods in my kit had a black coating of some kind on them which contributed to the rods being sticky in their casings. Sanding the coating off will be necessary. The rods need to be bent slightly at the exit from the fuselage to align with the rudder and elevator control horns. Diagrams in the manual show where to make the bends.
Photo 11
They will look like the photo 11. The throttle rod also gets a slight bend near the carburetor arm. Take whatever time is needed to adjust the bends to get a good alignment which will reduce pushrod friction in the casings. The rods as installed in my airplane were still pretty sticky. Not good.
The stickiness makes the battery and servos work harder, and may make it difficult to get pitch and rudder trim set in the air. A very slight bend of the elevator pushrod at the servo end helped line up the pushrod with the servo output arm and reduced stickiness a bit. Next, I tried putting some powered graphite (yep, same stuff used for locks) in the plastic casings. That helped even more, and the rods now moved OK.
Photo 12
Nose wheel strut installation required a slight modification. The provided nose gear control horn has arms on both sides. The right side arm will have to be clipped off, as it will hit the right engine mount beam. And, when I assembled the nose wheel strut, control arm, and wheel collar retainer, I found the combination did not fit properly. The control arm and its set screw did not match up with the flat on the nose gear strut. Using a couple of nylon washers as spacers fixed that.
The nose wheel pushrod action was sticky. Drilling out the inside diameter of the pushrod casing with a drill bit where the pushrod exits the firewall to the nose gear helped that. A slight bend to meet the nose strut arm also helped.
Plan on using the furthest hole from the nose gear strut on the steering arm when attaching the pushrod. And on the servo end, use the closest, or next to closest hole from the servo output shaft on the servo arm. This linkage set up gives less nose wheel steering travel, and makes for straighter takeoff rolls.
Photo 13 Photo 14
A new MAGNUM .XLS 61A was chosen to power the Calmato Sport. The engine comes with adaptors to mount the high speed needle valve conventionally in the carburetor, or at the rear of the engine for safer operation. Installation was easy using the mounts already attached to the firewall. Again, the excellent instruction manual diagram helped a lot. Down and right thrust are already built into the firewall. I chose to use the remote high speed needle valve adaptor. A four stroke engine could be easily accommodated as well.
Mount servos in the pre installed tray. In the photo, the throttle servo installation is not yet completed. Install the battery under the tank as far toward to the firewall as you can get it. It’s ok if you need to trim the hole in the former to fit the battery and foam padding. This muffler installation puts oil on the right fuselage side, so put the switch and battery charge jack on the left. Mount the receiver in padding.
Photo 15
An instrument panel is on the decal sheet. Its sticky back worked fine to apply it to the cockpit panel. Trim the edges of the canopy along the lines molded on it. Special curved tip scissors you can get at a local hobby shop are not necessary to trim the canopy, but they sure make the job at lot easier.
I chose to install the canopy with eight button head screws. I used DuBro button head metal #2 by 3/8 inch screws to hold the canopy. Larger #4 by ½ would also be fine. I like the appearance, and think the extra screws may be needed to withstand the air stream and a little hangar rash. The screws go through 3/32 inch holes drilled in the canopy, and 1/16 holes drilled in the model
Photo 16
The fuel tank is already installed, including fuel lines! But which one goes to the carburetor and which is the combination fuel tank overflow, and muffler pressure line? On my airplane, the line on the right side of the airplane goes to the carb, left side to muffler pressure. You might want to check yours to make sure. Try filling the tank. If it appears to fill almost immediately then you’re filling through the muffler pressure line. I marked the line that goes to the muffler with a ring of red fuel line to prevent mix ups. Just as depicted in the assembly manual, a small notch was required in the fuselage side to clear the rear mounted needle valve.
We’re close to done. Just a little more time is needed to finish some important details:
Control Surface Travel-
The manual provides specifications for setting the control surface travels as follows:
Aileron: 7mm up and down. Elevator: 9mm up and down. Rudder: 15mm left and right.
That didn’t seem like enough throw to me. I chose to set throws as follows:
Aileron: 13 mm up and down. Elevator: 20 mm up and down. Rudder: 30mm left and right.
Upon test flying, the higher rates proved about right. I also set up the recommended lower aileron and elevator rates on the dual rate switches, and tried them. As suspected they are way too slow for such an aerobatic airplane.
The airplane is flyable, but has a very lethargic feel, and takes a lot of room. I think most everyone will like this air airplane with control movements as I set them, or perhaps 3mm more or less. For those using a degree measuring device to set control throws, I’d recommend ailerons 13 degrees up and down, and elevator 20 degrees up and down.
Balance Point or Center of Gravity -
My Calmato came out a tiny bit tail heavy. I never like to add weight to a model, but it beats living with a tail heavy one. An ounce or so was required on the review model to balance within the specified range of 100 to 110mm from the leading edge of the wing. Since some nose weight was needed, I chose to install a heavier 5 cell 1400mah NiCad battery under the fuel tank, against the fire wall (With plenty of foam padding of course.) That resulted in the CG at about 100mm from the leading edge of the wing. Flight characteristics are stable, yet nicely aerobatic.
Including the added weight, the model weighs 8 lb 15 oz. While that’s 3 oz above the range of weights marked on the box, the airplane’s aerobatic and flight performance was quite acceptable; maybe even better than acceptable.
Engine or Mouse Squeak? -
Breaking in the Magnum XLS 61A was easy. The instructions are about the best I’ve seen on basic operation and break in. They are well worth your time to read. Upon getting ready to start the engine for the first time there was a surprise! As I turned the engine over by hand, there was a distinct “Squeak” as the piston passed through top dead center. A couple of near-by flyers were alarmed by the squeak and asked what was wrong with the engine.
Not a thing said I, with a grin. Though it’s been a while since I’ve had a new engine squeak at me, I was pleased. In an ABC or ABN type engine, a squeak is an indication of a tightly fit engine that is going to have good power and overall good running. The squeak lessened after the first run, and was gone by the third or so as the engine piston fits itself perfectly to the sleeve. The Magnum has great compression and runs strong. It hand starts easily, and runs great. It looks like it is on track to have a long life.
Let your test pilot know the Calmato is your second airplane, and ask for a thorough inspection before flight. Often, the most valuable thing a test pilot can do is catch a problem on the ground, before it becomes an emergency in the air.
Do a radio range check, and ensure the engine is reliable. Check batteries before the test flight. It’s easy to forget how much time may be on the batteries on the first day out for a new airplane, while doing engine checks, radio range checks, etc.
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Specifications Manufacturer: Kyosho Length: 63.25 in. Special Airframe Features: Semi-Symmetrical Wing, 3-Bladed |
| Notable Positives High quality pre-built & covered components. Pre fabrication is very complete – hinging done; tank, engine mount, and servo tray installed. This very complete kit included wheels, tank, engine mount, linkage, and hardware. Quick to assemble, excellent sport flying flight characteristics, great aerobatic trainer Notable Negatives Getting elevator and rudder pushrods to slide easily takes a bit of effort. |
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Aircraft Specifications Type: Sport Aerobatic |
A few last thoughts:
Photo 17
The flight comments were made using the Airtronics RDS8000 2.4 GHZ radio with a standard set up as would be done with a basic (no computer features) radio. This 2.4 GHZ radio is a full range radio with memory for 10 models. The receiver uses two short antennas, (about 1 3/16 inches) located at the end of 6 inch cables. They should be installed oriented at approximately 90 degrees from each other to maximize signal reception in all aircraft attitudes. The receiver is a svelte 1/2 ounce.
Throughout the break-in process, test flying, and sport flying, the radio was flawless. Flying without the need to take turns on the frequency, or to worry about potential radio interference is great. In addition to 2.4 GHZ benefits, the RDS8000 offers a wide variety of computer features. If you don’t want them, just leave the system in “Basic” mode as it comes out of the box. You can turn the “Basic” off, and have the use of computer features whenever you like in the future.
If you choose to utilize some computer features, the Calmato Sport (and similar airplanes) can be made to fly a bit sweeter and easier. Differences in the way the airplane responds to right versus left aileron, or up versus down elevator, or left versus left nose wheel/rudder can be adjusted to suit you with the servo individual end point adjustment feature.
Preventing the throttle servo from “stalling” if the carburetor arm travel, and servo arm travel don’t match, is a time consuming trial and error process of changing linkage points until you find a good combination. Again, the individual hi and low end point adjust feature makes this job easy.
Additional fine tuning of the control responsiveness of the model can be made with the exponential control feature. I’d suggest trying about 20 to 30% on aileron and elevator. These things make the airplane a bit easier and more pleasant to fly. If you want to play with flaps, you can use the Calmato’s strip ailerons to act as spoilers, or flaps. Also included are mixers for elevons, V-tail, dual elevator servos, crow, and much more.
The 61 is fine power for sport flying and learning aerobatics. But for those wanting more power, the airplane’s size and sturdiness could handle the power of a .75, and maybe a 90.
While the following discussion concerns the Calmato Sport, it applies to most any ARF.
By now, the Calmato Sport has some experience behind it. It has been to my local flying field several times. On the first trip, I broke in the new Magnum XLS 61A on the air airplane, getting the air airplane well coated with oil. The next several trips over a few weeks were flying sessions in weather as cool as 50 degrees, and as warm as 85.
Lately, on a routine high speed fly by, I thought I noticed a low pitch buzzing kind of noise. Or did I? Another slow fly by, no noise. Hmmm. Another faster fly by, a bit of buzz was heard for a second or so.
Thinking the noise might possibly be control surface flutter, I immediately landed to inspect the air airplane. All hinges were still good. Aileron, elevator, and rudder control horns were tight. All external linkages were still in place with keepers. Inside the fuselage, the receiver and battery were still in their proper places. Servo mounting screws OK, servo arms OK, and servo end of linkages still secure.
Muffler bolts were secure. One engine mounting bolt was a touch loose. The others were tight. Spinner and prop were tight. All seems OK, let’s try another flight. A bit of cautious flying- buzz is sometimes there, sometimes not. Landed again. So what’s going on here? Eventually I found the blue covering on the top of the wing, where it laps over the yellow bottom covering, was starting to come up a bit. The loose spot was on the right wing, where oil had probably gotten into the seam a little bit. This sort of problem is common to just about any film covered airplane.
I’d suggest you check your Calmato, and perhaps re-iron that leading edge seam as part of the assembly process. Since mine is oily, I cleaned the gap thoroughly with alcohol, painted it with model covering compound, and when it dried, ironed it back down. For a quicker fix, the seam could be stuck down with thick CA, though it’s a bit tricky to keep from gluing yourself to the seam. For an even quicker fix, Scotch tape would do.
Moral of this story – always use a model covering iron to re-seal all covering overlap areas. Make sure the seams are tight and will not come loose before flight.
Find out more about this super deal on a great sport airplane at: http://www.kyoshoamerica.com/airplanes/index.php?part_num=11216
Short URL: http://masportaviator.com/?p=894
Posted by Ron Lockhart
on Filed under Sport.
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