Some years ago, I had an electro-glider, a 2.0 metre wingspan "Silent Dream", from FVK models. A molded fiberglass fuselage was complemented with built up wing and (V) tail surfaces, covered in, what else but, transparent OraCover. It was a fairly docile model, with good soaring ability, but only mediocre climb performance form the 400 size brushed motor. The approach could sometimes be tricky, as the model had no "approach control", so it would tend to float a lot in ground effect. However, it was not a model that could be hammered hard on the slope, an activity which I had also become addicted to. Additionally, it was not user friendly landing in the sometimes restricted landing areas of some slope sites.

So I was now in the market for a model that had outstanding all-round performance.......excellent rate of climb, good soaring and glide performance, and the ability to land in more "restricted" areas of some slope sites.

At this point in time, I did not have a lot of experience to refer to, and I was quite impressed overall with the Silent Dream. It really did present very well. I have always believed that the best information comes from the source, in this case, the manufacturer. So a call direct to FVK models in Germany, and I was soon discussing my requirements with Vasily, one of the owners. After a rather short discourse, Vasiy recommended that what I should purchase was a 2.5 metre Organic Electro. He said that the Organic was designed from the ground up as a high performance 2 metre thermal aircraft, which could withstand the most vigorous of winch launches, and was virtually impossible to overstress in the air. The 2.5 metre version was a logical development for the European electro-slot limited motor run competition, which hitherto had been dominated by the Silent Dream. He also said that the only limit to the climb performance was budget and imagination as to what power train you could shoehorn in to the Organics nose. The nose section was designed for the 40 sized brushless motors.....(What the @#+** was a brushless motor????) Anyway, I was sold, and I had not even sighted a picture of the Organic!! But if it was upmarket from the Silent Dream, then it had to be OK! So an order was placed, and in due course, a medium sized package arrived from Germany, which I presumed was the Organic, though I thought that the package would have been somewhat larger. However, on eagerly but carefully opening the box, I was not disappointed. I was however, very presently surprised. I mentioned before that the Silent Dream presented well, however the Organic presented SUPERBLY!!

Firstly, the fuselage was finished in a brilliant white gel coat. On closer inspection, the construction was of a carbon-kevlar matrix material, so I began to understand what Vasily was getting at regarding the strength of this model. The nose cone was the slip on type, and was held in place by a single 2mm screw. My first thought that was the attachment was a little rudimentary, but no problem has arisen thus far. To the flying surfaces……the wing was in three pieces, centre section which housed the flaps, and would be operated by a single servo.. The outer panels housed the pre hinged ailerons with provision for individual servos of course. The construction of the wing was nothing short of magnificent! It was completely fabricated... (Built up) The structure apart from the leading edge and main spar was of balsa…… but every balsa surface had been capped with carbon the main spar was a carbon box, and the entire leading edge from the spar forward was of the same carbon-kevlar material used for the fuselage. In this case however, the matrix was left “in the raw”, and this effect combined with the two tone transparent OraCover produced a quite stunning looking wing. All of the hinging was complete, and was completely internal. The flap hinges allowed a 90 degree movement. The outer panels had pre installed carbon joining rods, and merely slid into the main wing panel and mated with steel locating pins. The join was a perfect fit. I used clear tape over the joint, but I think that this could be dispensed with. The wing was then simply placed onto the wing saddle on the fuselage, and bolted with three 3mm steel bolts…in this case a bit of an overkill I thought…. But the wing would certainly never part from the fuselage, even in a totalling crash!! Mounting the wing servos was fairly straightforward. I used JR 331 servos for the ailerons, and these fitted nicely into the installed servo wells and covered with a carbon fibre servo cover. The single flap servo was a little more complicated to install. I used a JR331MG here. It took a little work to fit it into the wing centre section and get it aligned correctly. All that was needed then was to connect the servo to the clever flap joiner control arm arrangement. German engineering at its best!! They have ways of doing things that work!! The flaps were capable of 90 degrees of downward movement, which placed the trailing edge of the flaps lower than the bottom of the fuselage. So it seemed that the flaps would have to raise some on landing to prevent the flaps scraping the ground. However, the flaps did not need anywhere near this amount of movement. It also proved quite unnecessary to employ crow braking, flap movement alone provided more than adequate glide path control.

Now the servo and receiver installation in the fuselage had me scratching my head due to the limited room available. The fuselage was quite narrow rearwards of the motor pod, and a lot of room would be taken up immediately behind the motor with the ESC and the 10 cell NiCad pack I was planning to use.

My solution was to attach the V tail servos and the receiver to a plywood floor, which was slid in from the front of the rear fuselage. The servo arms were accessible through the cut out in the wing saddle. All that was necessary then was to provide a quick connect for the wing wiring loom and to fit an arming switch the nose cone with the motor, ESC and battery were then attached with the appropriate connections being made. I am using a Kontronik BL40XX XX geared motor and a Kontronik 40 amp ESC. The motor was set up on a three position switch for two different speeds and OFF. It proved to be a simple exercise to install the battery and connect the ESC, as it did to install the three piece wing and V tail. So I now had a model that was easy to assemble for flight, really did look quite stunning, as well as looking like it was going to be a great performer.

The first flight was conducted on the southern face of Mount Hollowback, in what I estimated to be a 10-12 knot breeze. The motor was test run, and in the low speed position, the power was nothing to talk about. However I was totally amazed when the high position was selected. I had never experienced this sort of thrust from previous electric models. The Organic was launched as a glider for the first flight. It was immediately evident that this was going to be one great performing “glider”. It really was several steps ahead of the Silent Dream. It tracked straight as an arrow, and reacted appropriately to indicate lift. Hollowback is well known for its good slope lift in the right conditions, and also for excellent thermals. And the Organic was right at home in both areas. It certainly was designed for thermalling, and I was soon thinking if I would ever get it down! And I cannot take credit for the outstanding climb. It seemed that the model just knew what to do! I pondered momentarily about how this model would perform in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing…….out of the thermal , the model picked up speed rapidly, and covered ground really quickly for what seemed to me to be minimal height loss. This was fun! I deployed the flaps to lose height. As mentioned previously, no crow braking was employed, and certainly was not needed. Now for some slope runs, and here the Organic continued to impress me. For a thermal design, it maintained energy in the turns surprisingly well, quite unlike my other models. Not like an F3B model, but nonetheless, I was impressed.

So much for the glide performance, time to see how it climbed under power. First position, ho-hum, so what? To full power, and S**T… it’s almost on its back!! Power off and back to square one. Try again, this time try to anticipate any unwanted gyrations with the appropriate control inputs. Why didn’t I put the motor on the throttle stick??? Under control this time, I was absolutely gob-smacked by the way the Organic was heading skywards! Only a few seconds of motor run had the Organic at a very respectable altitude. I was amazed. And on reflection later, what “limited motor run” was all about finally dawned on me. It was also evident to me that if the Organic had any more performance under power, then it would definitely be outside my capability to control it, as I was teetering on the brink as it was.. I subsequently put the motor on to the throttle stick, and so had proportional control of the motor. This proved to be much better for my ability. Well for now, the only thing left was to “get this baby on the ground”. This proved to pretty much a non event. The flaps were very effective indeed, and made for accurate approaches, and roll control was not affected, and no tendency to tip stall was detected.

To say I was pleased with this model is an understatement. As I became more familiar with the model, I became to enjoy it more and more. Besides my very battered and tired Mini Ellipse, the Organic is my longest surviving model, and besides my very battered and tired Mini Ellipse, is my all time favourite. I guess most of us have a model that we say we will not part with. And this, as well as my very battered and tired Mini Ellipse, will remain with me as long as it is in one piece. (When assembled, that is) It is just one fantastic model.