Horizon Hobby’s new EFlite Radian XL electric-assisted-launch
sailplane is firmly in the tradition of those that preceded it: it performs well at its intended tasks, it’s
evident that design problems with earlier models have been addressed, and it
leaves a bit to be desired. Here’s a
first-look review of the design and its implementation, the packaging, and
initial flight tests.
Overview

All-up weight on my XL was 2518g, as opposed to 816g for my 2m; that’s a factor of 3.1! The XL is powered by a 1250Kv outrunner brushless motor driving a 12x4 propeller. That’s quite a bit more pulling power than the 480-type motor driving a 9.75x7.5 prop in the 2m – and the XL needs that additional power, and then some. I’ve been told that the 480 is rated at 920-960 Kv. Given the weight difference, that makes the XL look somewhat underpowered.
Packaging


Plane Features and Assembly
The canopy is molded foam, like the plane, about a half inch
thick. It is secured with a forward tab
and an aft pushbutton latch, rather than with magnets. It should be much less likely to come off on
hard landings. There is plenty of room
in both the cockpit and the servo area for additional instrumentation. The receiver, like the servos, is fastened
securely in place. If you need to rearrange
the servo connections to the receiver, use small fingers.
With the recommended 3200mAh EFlite 3-cell LiPo battery,
which weighs 260g (as opposed to the 100g of the standard 1300mAh battery on
the 2m), the plane balances as recommended in the manual, if the battery is
placed in its rearmost position. Sherman
recommends trying a lighter battery.
More on this below. A Velcro-type strap secures the battery side-to-side. A
small piece of sticky-back Velcro is provided with the kit, to prevent the
battery from sliding fore and aft; usage is highly recommended.
The receiver includes AS3X stabilization, which is effective
but may be turned off. More on this
below, also.
The rudder linkage, as on the 2m, runs along the outside of
the fuselage. As the elevator mechanism
is embedded inside the vertical stab, the elevator linkage is entirely inside
the fuselage. Note in the photo above that it runs inside a
very substantial carbon tube that extends most of the length of the aft
fuselage and about 2” into the servo compartment. That tube makes the fuselage very stiff, and
removes the tendency of the control tubes, in the 2m, to come unglued from the
fuselage.


Note also that some assembly is required: as packed, the rudder is not attached to the
vertical stab. The rudder has three
flexible plastic hinges, which you must slip into corresponding slots in the
stab, and secure with a few drops of thin CA.
Unfortunately, once you’ve done this, you can’t really get the plane
back into the box: you run the risk of damaging the trailing edge of the rudder
or of introducing a set into the hinges.
One way around this would be to cut the rudder back off and trim the hinges
flush with the foam; then install a hinge with a removable pin. You could also perform surgery on the foam
box and extend it a few inches, using foam from one of your many boxes from
previous Radians.




For the size of the wing, the spoilers look undersized. They’re effective, but I think that another couple of inches could have enhanced their effectiveness.
Initial Flight
Testing
If you’ve flown a UMX Radian, you’ve noticed that it doesn’t
really fly like a 2m Radian. Likewise, don’t
expect the 2m and the XL to be on equal footing in a contest.
I fly Hitec Aurora.
For testing the XL with the built-in Spektrum receiver, I used a DX5 that
I had lying around. It was a nuisance to set up the channels – I sure missed
the programmability. Oh, well – at least
I didn’t have to worry about escapements and mechanical mixing.
You’ll want to put the spoilers on either the left stick or
a slider, so that you can accurately control your glide path on final
approach. The DX5 doesn’t have sliders,
so I had to put the motor on a toggle.
If you need to do that, I recommend configuring the ESC for a one-second
startup to avoid strain, both on the drive system and on your grip on the
plane. There’s also a .25-second startup
option; but I like the longer one.
There are small indentations on the bottom surface of the
wing, next to the fuselage, that indicate the recommended CG point. Hand tosses indicated that the plane with the
recommended 3200mAh battery was reasonably well balanced. So I went ahead with a powered launch. The
launch can be most accurately described as stately. I could almost hang the plane on the prop,
but altitude gain was minimal. So there
was the first difference between the 2m and the XL. I found best practice to be a flat launch of
50’ or so before allowing a climbout of somewhere between 10° and 20°. Too steep an angle results in mushing and
waste of battery. So don’t expect any
kind of advantage in timed-launch rounds. With
altitude-limited (ALES) launches, it will be a bit nerve-wracking, trying to
hit max height in the typical 30-second period before automatic motor cutoff.
Once the plane reached altitude, it performed very
well. Given the airfoil and weight, I expected a
lumbering behemoth. But it thermalled
well and was pretty good at indicating updrafts, although not as bobbly as the
2m. After a little tweaking by Sherman,
it performed well in the dive test, although he thought that it would perform
better with a smaller (lighter) battery which could also shift the CG back a
little. (The recommended 3200mAh
battery, at recommended CG, is against the aft bulkhead, so cannot be shifted
back any further.) I tried using one of the 1300 mAh batteries, but it was too light to make the plane balance. So I strapped in two side-by-side. The
plane flew just fine, but I don't think lowering the weight by 60g made a
perceptible difference in handling.
The AS3X stabilization may (or may not) affect the plane’s
ability to read the air. I haven’t flown
it enough to get a handle on that. It is
possible to reprogram the receiver (at least, on the
UMX Radian) to allow stabilization to be selected via a transmitter toggle. I will be installing an Aurora receiver, so
will soon find out how much difference stabilization (or the lack of it) makes.
Glide ratio appears to be every bit as good as the 2m. So if you could max out a 10-minute round
with the 2m, you shouldn’t have any problem doing it with the XL. With the added benefit of spoilers, it’s the
landing portion of the round where the XL should shine. The spoilers were quite effective at
steepening the descent – although, as I mentioned above, it would be
interesting to try spoilers that were a little larger. In many planes, the loss of lift triggered by
the spoilers must be compensated for with some up elevator. But this effect has apparently been minimized
by the overall plane design: only slight
elevator correction was needed. Note,
however, that the spoilers do not reduce landing speed: you’ll need to use elevator to keep speed
under control.
After flying a Radian 2m for years, I felt that it was
somehow cheating to use spoilers to control the glide path: no more (well, not nearly as much, anyway) zigzagging back and forth to make those
pinpoint landings. But you’ll still want
to have good control over both your speed and your rate of descent: dork landings are not recommended, and the
XL, with its much greater mass, has a much longer slide path over the grass.
Price and
Availability
The Radian XL started shipping in early- to mid-June. Demand
seems to be high, as it quickly went to back-order at Horizon Hobby. I ordered
mine at just the right time, and there was no wait. Not to mention a good price: list was $270, but Horizon Hobby had two
different coupon offers going, which lowered the price to $189 – not much more
than the cost of the 2m. As
of 6/30/2016, Horizon had the XL on sale for $230, with an additional $20 off,
it appears, if you use coupon code FOAM. I
also used coupon code FL32-GXNF-GD3U, found
on RCGroups, for an additional discount, but don’t know if it’s still
active.
Service Bulletins
On July 6, Horizon Hobby issued two service bulletins (linked below) dealing with apparent failure, in the early manufacturing process, to adequately secure stiffeners in the fuselage under the vertical stabilizer and the doublers that join the halves of the wing spars in the center section. It is the work of a half hour to correct this oversight with some thin CA. Subsequent models, identified with a sticker on the box or near the affected areas, will have had the defect corrected at the factory.
Service bulletin: fuselage/vertical stabilizer
Service bulletin: wing center section
Service Bulletins
On July 6, Horizon Hobby issued two service bulletins (linked below) dealing with apparent failure, in the early manufacturing process, to adequately secure stiffeners in the fuselage under the vertical stabilizer and the doublers that join the halves of the wing spars in the center section. It is the work of a half hour to correct this oversight with some thin CA. Subsequent models, identified with a sticker on the box or near the affected areas, will have had the defect corrected at the factory.
Service bulletin: fuselage/vertical stabilizer
Service bulletin: wing center section