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Circle Dancer 3600 Electric 3.6m

Product Code: CD3600E
 (14 reviews)

Price: $951.10

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Description

The Circle Dancer 3600 Electric is a beautifully constructed 3.6m span balsa and carbon almost ready to fly version of the Bubble Dancer by Dr Mark Drela. This 3.6m version is an all new structural design, with stronger and stiffer carbon Dbox wings and other strength improvements, but with the same excellent quality of manufacture that makes this model so special. Note we are importing both "full house" (rudder, elevator, aileron, flap) and REF (rudder, elevator, flap) versions of this model. The REF version has increased dihedral, making for a more stable and easier to fly model. In comparison the full house version has flaps and ailerons to allow better roll control and wing camber changes to give the model a wider speed range.

Although the structure is simplified in comparison to the original Bubble Dancer design, the aerodynamics are very similar, and the Circle Dancer 3600 is a stable and easy to fly model with impeccable thermal performance, and a good speed range.

The fine fuselage consists of a lightweight Kevlar, glass, and carbon pod molding with a small pylon for mounting the wing above the fuselage, to reduce interference drag. The fuselage nose incorporates a large (18 cm long) hatch to allow easy access to the motor, battery, and rudder and elevator servos. The hatch is very nicely molded from carbon fibre and incorporates a positive attachment system. The fuselage has been updated to use a molded carbon tailboom incorporating a small pylon for the tailplane/horizontal stabiliser. All pushrods are supplied, along with a complete set of tail hardware.

The tailplane is a feather weight built-up balsa and carbon construction, covered with lightweight transparent film and is supplied ready to bolt onto the rear pylon mount. The tailplane is of improved construction and includes a separate ready hinged elevator for faster pitch response.

The wing is expertly constructed from balsa and carbon, with a strong carbon DBox front part and beautifully applied transparent film covering, in contrasting colours. Unlike the BD, the Circle Dancer 3600 has flaps built into the centre panel and the full house version has ailerons in the tip panels. This gives better control authority (especially when landing in gusty conditions), good landing approach control, and the ability to control the airfoil's camber to optimise the wing for cruising, thermalling, or flying faster against the wind. The standard of construction is excellent, and the prefabrication is very complete. The only things left to do are gluing the tailboom to the pod, gluing the fin, installing the control surface control horns, fabricating linkages for the flaps and ailerons, and fitting the RC and powertrain.

Check out this useful RCGroups build thread.


Circle Dancer 3600 Electric Specifications
Wing span 3.6 m 143 in
Wing area 79.1 dm2 1226 sq in
Length 175 cm 68.9 in
Flying weight from 1500 g 52.9 oz
Wing loading 19.0 g/dm2 6.2 oz/sq ft
Aspect ratio 16.6
Wing airfoil AG35/36/37
Dihedral (EDA) 6.0º
Spinner Diameter 32 mm
Centre of Gravity 102 - 106 mm from wing leading edge
Controls Rudder, elevator, ailerons, flaps, motor


Circle Dancer 3600 Electric Typical Weights
Fuselage 235 g 8.3 oz
Centre panel 473 g 16.7 oz
Wing tips 364 g 12.8 oz
Tailplane 33 g 1.2 oz
Rudder 10 g 0.4 oz
Pushrods, joiners, accessories 83 g 2.9 oz
Total structure 1198 g 42.3 oz
Glue etc 5 g 0.2 oz
Wiring 24 g 0.8 oz
Receiver 8 g 0.3 oz
Rudder & elevator servos 20 g 0.7 oz
Flap servos 20 g 0.7 oz
Aileron servos 20 g 0.7 oz
Speed control 45 g 1.6 oz
Motor 135 g 4.8 oz
Prop & spinner 25 g 0.9 oz
Battery 120 g 4.2 oz
Flying weight 1500 g 52.9 oz


Circle Dancer 3600 Recommended Servos
Elevator & rudder MKS DS6100, MKS HV6100, KST X08, Blue Bird BMS-125WV, KST DS145, KST X10-710
Flap MKS DS6100, MKS HV6100, MKS HV6110, Blue Bird BMS-125WV, KST DS135, KST X10 Mini
Aileron MKS DS6100, MKS HV6100, MKS HV6110, KST X08H, Blue Bird BMS-125WV


Circle Dancer 3600 Control Movements
Rudder 35 mm each way
Elevator 11 mm up, 11 mm down
Ailerons 12 mm up, 10 mm down
Flap 80 degrees down
Thermal camber flap 5 mm down, aileron aligned with flap
Speed camber flap 1.5 mm up, aileron aligned with flap


Powertrain Recommendations
Powerline Micro 1025/10 3S 1Ah LiPo, 16x8 prop
Leomotion L3013-4550 3S 1.2Ah LiPo, 15x9 prop
Leomotion L3025-4550 3S 1.2Ah LiPo, 15x8 prop
XPower F2925/8 Windy 3S 1.5Ah LiPo, 12x6 prop
Hacker A20-6XL geared 4.4:1 3S 1.5Ah LiPo, 16x9 Aeronaut prop
Mega 16/25/3 direct drive, 3S 1.2Ah LiPo, 11x6 prop
Axi 2220/12 V2 direct drive, 3S 1.5Ah LiPi, 12x6 prop
More details

Reviews 14  


 Review by:

FULL-HOUSE VERSION

Great thermal soarer (have now had several dozen flights since completing it) but when assembling and fitting out the model I had to deal with a few manufacturing and/or quality-control errors, which were soluble with thought and care but frustrated the build process and doubled the time taken.

The published weights are either out of date or over-optimistic: on delivery my component parts weighed 100g more (1300g) than the figures given above (1200g) and the flying weight came out at 1785g (which is within the typical range of 1625 to 1820g for this model) so 1500g is clearly unrealistic.

My powertrain is just right: XPower F2925/8 Windy with a GM 10x6 prop, a YGE 65LVT ESC and a 1300mAh 3s, which takes the model to 225-250m in 30 secs. (A larger prop, say 12x6, would improve this climb rate but cost more mAh per launch etc.)

Finally, the spec control movement given for AILERON is far too low: this is a large and relatively stately model so for properly responsive roll-control (and safety closer to ground-level!) it needs an up-aileron throw of at least 18-21mm (plus 50% flap mix in Cruise and Speed modes) and co-ordinated rudder input. My RUDDER throws are also greater at +/-45mm (spec 35mm). These larger throws are all tameable at smaller stick deflections by generous use of expo. Spec ELEVATOR throws are fine but when setting up allow for extra down compensation with crow.

Allowing for my criticisms above, I am however very happy with the flying and thermalling performance of this model.


 Review by:

Circle Dancer 3600.

Top Class and came well packed


 Review by:

Circle Dancer F5J ship

I've been eye-balling this thing for a while, when they were back in stock I snapped up a blue and yellow ship....got here in Orange County, CA in 5 days.....a beautiful airplane!!!


 Review by:

Circle Dancer 3600

I write to you from Argentina. I bought this beautiful Circle Dancer 3600, and received it in perfect condition at home days ago!! I am very happy to have it, and I am already working on its assembly to be able to fly it as soon as possible! I want to thank the good service provided by Neil. Highly recommend your attention!


 Review by:

Cercle Dancer3600 FullHouse Electric 3.6m

I am satisfied with the careful packaging that I received the product in Japan in about a week. The aircraft is very beautiful and advanced and very fun. Thank you hyperflite


 Review by:

Circle Dancer 3600 Full House E

Now flying and loving it what a model this is best one yet 840 meters from 75 meters and one hour 4 min flying time. Awesome


 Review by:

Circle Dancer 3600 Full House Electric

Eventually got a gap to get mine in the air. And it didnt come down!

Awesome glider!!!


 Review by:

Circle Dancer 3600 Full House Electric

This model is beautifully made strong and looks great looking forward to flying it
10 out of 10


 Review by:

Circle Dancer 3600 Electric

This kit is worth every penny! It is so beautifully made, strong and flys so well. I've fitted a variometer in mine and am amazed how she looses so little height in 'dead' air.

I've installed one of the recommended motors a Powerline Micro 1025/F5J and a GM 16x8 carbon folding prop.

Have a look at a very short video of one of my launches. The throttle was set at only around 70% but she has a phenomenal rate of climb.

Circle Dancer 3600 Electric climbout video

With a 3s 1300ma lipo I have had to add a little tail weight but I am hoping a change to a smaller 1000ma lipo and repositioning I should be able to remove the tail weight.


 Review by:

This is an excellent aircraft. The construction is beautiful throughout. I have the White/Red full-house glider variant, which I have converted to electric. Visibility at height and distance is excellent. Converting from glider to electric has cost a few grams, so my AUW is about 1.8Kg. I used a direct drive brushless setup on a 10x6 the climb is near vertical at about 9.5m/s.

Further details here:
http://blog.engineering.selfip.org/building-the-circle-dancer-1
http://blog.engineering.selfip.org/building-the-circle-dancer-2
http://blog.engineering.selfip.org/flying-the-circle-dancer


 Review by:

Circle dancer

Great looking sailplane (arf kit) from a designer with an excellent reputation at an affordable price.
And thanks to Hyperflight for their excellent communication and prompt shipping.


 Review by:

Circle Dancer 3600

I can't comment on the flying abilities of this E/S because I decided not to buy it after inspecting the parts.

All the moulding were of a very high quality, the fuselage being excellent.

However the tail plane and rudder were not as well made as the wing, and I thought rather too flexible. The wing was 42 gms heavier than advertised.

Probably quite a good model for sport flying but not of the same quality of detail design or construction as say an Ava or Pulsar. But the price reflects that.

First class service as usual from Hyperflight, with no quibbling about me cancelling the order.


 Review by:

flying the circle dancer

The first flying trials were disappointing due to the lack of power from the motor, about 320W. I recommend about 400 Watts for good f5j or ALES climb rate. I put in a more powerful motor and because of a heavier motor/gearbox I needed to add 1oz to the tail to maintain a 102mm cg. I also increased the rudder throw to 45mm each way. The model now performs the way I was expecting and the fine tuning is in process.
Flying weight is now about 58oz.


 Review by:

Beautiful e-sailplane

I purchased this model from Neil for several reasons: I have always like Drela's design philosopy. It is the right size for ALES/F5J. It has the control surface configuration I prefer, REF, and the price is very reasonable for the size and type of model.
I bought this model in the UK and carried it back home to the USA on a comercial flight. With correct packing it survived the baggage handling process!!
When I examined the model it became obvious the this is a very well designed and executed model. All parts fit well, the wing joiners are MASSIVE but not heavy. The fiberglass work is superb and the covering is very well done. Such items as threaded inserts for wing, horizontal and vertical tails are all in place and my only comment here is that the bolts for the wing are too long! (Easy to fix).
It is refreshing to have servo covers for the flaps which auctally clear the servo arms easily.
I located the servos for Rudder and elevator under the canopy, and installed a geared Redfox Eco 400 motor with a 13X7 A-M folding prop, but the CG is 10mm too far forward. ( how often does that happen?) I am using a Hyperion 3S 1400mAh HV battery and I don't think I can go much lighter here.
I hope I do not need to add weight to the tail.
I intend to fly with the slightly forward CG and see how it handles to begin with.

AUW is 55oz.

Flight report to follow.

IG


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