My new ASW-20 ist there!

One of the other pilots we frequently encounter on our favourite slope is Christoph Mächler. Many of the building techniques we use for our self-built planes originate from him. For the past year he’s been flying a really cool (and fast!) ASW-20 that impressed me very much. The plane is built for him in the Ukraine, using old fuselage moulds he bought a while ago, using new wing profiles and layout that he designed himself. The building techniques are still very similar to ours – the wings are foam core, but with plenty of carbon, glassed and spray painted. Unlike our builds, the rudder is a very light balsa ribs with oracover. The wing joiner is full carbon.

I’ve always like the design of the ASW-20 and am also always on the lookout for good slope planes that are performant but also light enough to hand-start on the slope. Last summer he offered to have one built for me. The plane arrived last week. The build quality is excellent – better than my self-built planes. It’s a bit heavier than how we would build it on account of having way more carbon in the wings, but that’s a good think as I want to use this plane as a slope racer.

Wingspan is 3.8-4.1m (different wingtips). Flying weight should be around 5-5.5kg. The plane came with KST servos and IDS (RDS for the rudder) fully installed. All I need to do is install the FES and bungee hook, finish the electronics, program my transmitter and it should be good to go. I hope to maiden this before we head off to our annual club flying week in Hahnenmoos on 17 June.