Slope it, Discus launch it, tow it, winch it, it doesn't care!
The bow is a very agile aircraft, fun to fly and tough enough to last. The BOW's are designed by a dedicated pair of crazy wing guys in Austria, David and Franz. They have refined these wings over many different designs and they range in size from 900mm to 2800mm spans. The BOW 110 kit is 1100mm span.
Describing the flying characteristics of an aircraft can be a wordy endeavor, so have a look at these videos of the BOW doing its thing. After that we can talk about the kit.
In addition to its very good (uncomplicated) flight characteristics, the BOW110 also has very compact dimensions. In order to further reduce the pack size, the tail tube can be made removable. All of this makes the BOW110 a great candidate for an “always have with you” aircraft.
After a few development steps, the number of components has been reduced to the bare minimum. This leads to a very short construction time.
The BOW110 can be used in a very wide range of flying. Typical uses include searching for thermals or playing on the slope, it does very well for both!
The BOW110 can be launched into the air as follows:
- Relaxed DLG style (The BOW110 is not designed/intended for FULL power launches as is common in the F3K competition class, but does fine with spirited throws.)
- Bungee (for standard spars): Simply attach the rubber to the tow hook and off you go. Heights of 90m+ have already been logged in parallel with 2 x RES rubbers.
- Bungee (for optional light weight spars): Bungee starts are only possible to a very limited extent with the light spars (maximum 1 x RES rubber). If at all, please approach it very carefully!
Now onto the kit description.
So this is a build on the plans kind of kit. We include a basic build guide with important details, but the actual build manual is via our build thread on the Aloft Forum. (<<--Click to see)
Carbon fiber tubes do the heavy lifting on this design. The tubes are laid out in a triangle design similar to a kite. I know those tube miters look like a pain, no worries we include a miter gauge block to make this process easier.
As you can see from the above picture, the carbon tubes reach out to the wing tips and are eventually glued into the wing tip blocks. The very end of the tube is glued into a piece of ply that has a hole in it. That hole is where the carbon tube goes for the Discus Launching peg.
In the next photo we see more progress adding the ribs.
Now we can see the leading edges have been added.
I think you have a pretty good idea of what's going on here, so we can move onto the specifications of the plane.
Basic specs for the 110
- Wingspan: 1100mm (43.3”)
- Wing area: 19.1dm2 (296in2)
- Length: approx. 526mm (20.7”)
- AUW: approx. 310 gr (10.9 oz)
What's included:
- Material & Laser cut parts set (Includes balsa, plywood, spars, leading edge, control horns and linkage materials)
- Standard weight carbon tubes
- Bungee (slope) and DLG tails
- Ballast chamber
- Spar cutting guide
- Full scale plans
- Well packaged for shipping protection.
What's needed?
- Glues - CA, Epoxy
- Covering materials - We like Flying Film!
- basic tools like a hobby knife, sand paper, screw drivers, etc.
- Your radio gear with 2 high quality 8mm servos
The throwing peg can be configured for either left-handed or right-handed pilots.
She is great as a thermal hunter and a blast on lower lift slopes.
A note from Wayne- I need to say this is a FUN plane to build. Nothing hard, and things fit wonderfully. I am simply blown away with the flight performance on our maiden flight. We had been flying some other DLG like models and I didn't think the BOW was going to do very well as we had very little lift and she was not going to be tuned in. I was so happy to see it excelling in the conditions. She carried energy very well, was flying where the others didn't dare, and was really fun. I am very impressed with her and looking forward to future flights. I can't wait to see what she delivers once fully tuned in.