With an early onset of spring weather and easing up of the COVID restrictions I’ve been able to maiden my new Towplane, the Eco-Boomster from Hager CNC (see build report in the earlier blog entry below) last week. As I’d seen both the plane and the motor setup “at work”, it was no surprise that the maiden went well. I did two short flights to check all settings (no trim needed, just a bit more down elevator on full flaps, and reducing the full flap throw). It’s incredibly stable, very easy to fly and a breeze to land.

For the third flight my mate Georg offered his 4.8m Ventus 2cx as towcharge, with him as the pilot. I’d only ever done two aerotows as a towpilot before, but all went well. I’ve been doing quite a few tows since, getting used to the plane and especially learning how to tow correctly – which is harder than I expected. But it’s great fun. Yesterday we had a 2nd aerotow day – this’ll definitely become a regular feature as of now.

The motor setup is very powerful – gliders with a weight of up to 15kg are no problem, heavier should be possible as well. I do most tows with half to 2/3 throttle (depending on weight of the plane). But it’s great to have that extra power when needed. Depending on the weight of the towcharge I can do 3-5 tows to 300m with a single 2x6S 7000mAh battery charge.

We usually maiden our scale gliders in aerotow – we’ve found this to be the safest option. The availability of a tow plane has in the past however often been an issue. I’ve been considering building or buying one for a while already. Having seen the Eco-Boomster of a colleague in action in September, I decided to build one of these as well. The kit was ordered and delivered at the end of September.

Initially sold by the Himmlische Hoellein, the Eco-Boomster can now only be bought directly from the producer, Hager CNC. It’s by far the best kit I’ve built so far. It’s CNC milled, not lasered, and all parts are a perfect fit. It comes with plans and a booklet with very good building instructions (in German). The kit also comes with virtually all small parts and a well-made carbon landing gear. The design is also very well thought through, and should make a very reliable and robust tow plane. Impressive.

The electronics for the Eco-Boomster were provided by Leomotion, as usual. I’ve gone for a pretty powerful setup, with 12S (I’ll measure Ampere and Watts once I get the batteries). The motor is a Dualsky/Leomotion GA6000.9, with a Castle 160A ESC and 24×12 Prop (initially nylon, but to be replaced by a nice wooden one after the maiden flight). All servos are Futaba (3071,3072, 3470 and 9470). The two Futaba 7008 receivers are connected to a Dualsky S.BUS 18 Kanal HUB DUO and the electronics powered by a LiIon RX/TX Battery, 7.2V, 3000mAh. I covered the plane in Oratex – yellow up, red down.

With such a wonderful kit, the building went very fast. The plane is now sitting ready for its maiden flight in my workshop. I’m waiting for the batteries to arrive (2x 6S 7000mAh) and am hoping for suitable weather for a maiden flight in the next few weeks.