Sugar Glider F5K 1m

I recently bought the Sugar Glider kit from Hyperflight and have now had the chance to build and fly it extensively. To stay below the UK customs threshold that now applies to purchases from the UK, I sourced the servos, motor and other components separately.

The kit is quick and straightforward to build and should also be manageable for less experienced model builders.

I did, however, make a few modifications:

- I did not glue the two wing halves together. Instead, I made them detachable, using a 3 mm carbon-fibre joiner running in brass tubes.
- The carbon-fibre tail boom is also not glued in place. It slides into the fuselage and is secured with a transverse pin.
- I added tiny MDF hooks to the two V-tail halves, which are then held in place with a rubber band.
- The rudder linkages are routed externally along the tail boom and, after assembly, are simply hooked into the small slots cut into the control horns.
- The Cha DS06 servos are mounted one above the other in a 3D-printed servo holder.

With a 2S 450 mAh battery, the finished model weighs 166 g. Thanks to the relatively deep wing, the 1 m span wing has an area of 15.6 dm², giving a wing loading of approximately 10.6 g/dm².

The packed size is barely larger than 50 cm. Together with the custom-cut transport box, the Sugar Glider and my RadioMaster Pocket fit easily into a backpack.

For such a small and lightweight electric glider, the flight characteristics are very good. It is precise and capable of tight turns, and it is quite easy to work a thermal. I initially programmed several flight modes, but eventually decided not to use them. Instead, I now fly with a generous amount of expo.

As you would expect, the Sugar Glider does not particularly like strong winds. It is also a little unsettled under power. I mixed in a small amount of down elevator and, with the T-Motor F1404, normally fly at only half throttle. This also gives excellent battery endurance. In good conditions, I have flown the model several times for almost 40 minutes, with only around 3 minutes of total motor run time. The battery was still not empty afterwards.

All in all, the Sugar Glider is a lovely little holiday glider. Of course, it cannot compete with larger models in terms of performance, but it is great fun to take this little model out and go searching for thermals. For travelling, it is a particularly enjoyable little glider.

I recently bought the Sugar Glider kit from Hyperflight and have now had the chance to build and fly it extensively. To stay below the UK customs threshold that now applies to purchases from the UK, I sourced the servos, motor and other components separately.

The kit is quick and straightforward to build and should also be manageable for less experienced model builders.

I did, however, make a few modifications:

- I did not glue the two wing halves together. Instead, I made them detachable, using a 3 mm carbon-fibre joiner running in brass tubes.
- The carbon-fibre tail boom is also not glued in place. It slides into the fuselage and is secured with a transverse pin.
- I added tiny MDF hooks to the two V-tail halves, which are then held in place with a rubber band.
- The rudder linkages are routed externally along the tail boom and, after assembly, are simply hooked into the small slots cut into the control horns.
- The Cha DS06 servos are mounted one above the other in a 3D-printed servo holder.

With a 2S 450 mAh battery, the finished model weighs 166 g. Thanks to the relatively deep wing, the 1 m span wing has an area of 15.6 dm², giving a wing loading of approximately 10.6 g/dm².

The packed size is barely larger than 50 cm. Together with the custom-cut transport box, the Sugar Glider and my RadioMaster Pocket fit easily into a backpack.

For such a small and lightweight electric glider, the flight characteristics are very good. It is precise and capable of tight turns, and it is quite easy to work a thermal. I initially programmed several flight modes, but eventually decided not to use them. Instead, I now fly with a generous amount of expo.

As you would expect, the Sugar Glider does not particularly like strong winds. It is also a little unsettled under power. I mixed in a small amount of down elevator and, with the T-Motor F1404, normally fly at only half throttle. This also gives excellent battery endurance. In good conditions, I have flown the model several times for almost 40 minutes, with only around 3 minutes of total motor run time. The battery was still not empty afterwards.

All in all, the Sugar Glider is a lovely little holiday glider. Of course, it cannot compete with larger models in terms of performance, but it is great fun to take this little model out and go searching for thermals. For travelling, it is a particularly enjoyable little glider.

Bought this kit as an intro to "V" tailers as I have a Ka 3 in the making....another great kit from Hyperflight and the usual fantastic service. Almost built and cant. wait to try it out.

Impressed with the shipping. Package came sooner from UK than packages ordered here in the US.

Unfortunately all UAVs here over 100g have to be registered and the code transmitted from the UAV in flight. I was looking for some time for a powered kit to challenge these rules and the Sugar Glider turned out to be the perfect candidate. At 100g the slow speed performance is really fun and forgiving while the airfoil still has plenty of headroom for speed and penetration.
The total structure came in about 25g lighter (60g) which meant a smaller motor (1104) and battery (2S 250) could be used.
It`s not going vertical but good enough for 5 - 7 decent climbs plus a safety margin.

I enjoyed building this model. Easy to follow video. However, I ran exterior servo rods and fiberglassed the fuselage. I ended up with adding a little tail weight but it's a solid controllable model. I did have to work out a warp in the wing due to improper covering. But it's a blast to fly and looks nice.

It seems to do everything well and turned out great. The kit is very nicely made but slightly more difficult to assemble than expected. The servo mount shown in the videos isn’t included in the kit so you have to fabricate your own, but this is easily accomplished using some of the spare stock. Make sure to use a lightweight covering to prevent over shrinking the wing since the trailing edge side can be fragile. The BMS-101DMG servos fit perfect barely clearing the bottom of the wing. Anything wider will require some additional planning. I wish it came with a full-size plan but that would probably just increase the price.

AUW came in at 123g. Instead of the recommended equipment, I used some leftover components in the build and was very happy with how it all works together. Here is my setup:
Motor EMAX 1106-KV4500 with Graupner CAM 4.7×2.3 prop & VM 25mm Spinner for 11xx Motors
Rcvr Lemon DSMX Diversity LM0034Z
ESC MX-12A
Servo 2 x Blue Bird BMS-101DMG
Batt 2S 350 HV (GNB3502S70AHV)