Advice Choosing 2nd Plane

[doctormike]

I love my DX6!!!!! Untill you need more channels, you can't beat it! CG...CG...CG...CG!!!!!! Extremely important! 90% of my problems on maidens have been from incorrect CG's given in instructions. Always start a little on the nose heavy side. You can always move it back a tad... tail heavy...you probably won't have a plane left to adjust the CG on. Doc

[Grossman56]

Hey Dan, make sure all your control surfaces are at neutral.
Check CG.
Make sure your battery is fully charged!
Do a taxi test. bumping around will tell you if everything is on tight, better to find out on the ground than in the air!
When taking off with a tail dragger, EASE the throttle forward! T/G's have a tendency to pull to the left due to the Prop factor, be ready with right rudder!
Make sure that your trims are at neutral as well, there's nothing worse than finding you need some trim and its already maxed out, been there, done that!

Grossman56

[danloc78]

I love my DX6!!!!! Untill you need more channels, you can't beat it! CG...CG...CG...CG!!!!!! Extremely important! 90% of my problems on maidens have been from incorrect CG's given in instructions. Always start a little on the nose heavy side. You can always move it back a tad... tail heavy...you probably won't have a plane left to adjust the CG on. Doc

Roger that doctormike!

[danloc78]

Hey Dan, make sure all your control surfaces are at neutral.
Check CG.
Make sure your battery is fully charged!
Do a taxi test. bumping around will tell you if everything is on tight, better to find out on the ground than in the air!
When taking off with a tail dragger, EASE the throttle forward! T/G's have a tendency to pull to the left due to the Prop factor, be ready with right rudder!
Make sure that your trims are at neutral as well, there's nothing worse than finding you need some trim and its already maxed out, been there, done that!

Grossman56

Will do! Thanks for the tip on the rudder. I have heard of that happening but I wasn't sure which way it would pull. I'll have to remember that.

Trims are def neutral and all surfaces are pretty darn close to neutral as well. I'm sure a little trimming will be necessary but hopefully minimal.

I did install the optional flaps. If I take off using flaps I will not need to apply much, if any elevator on takeoff correct? If I apply too much, the plane will nose up, stall, and might crash...do I have that correct?

[Grossman56]

With this plane plus flaps, she'll take off at a pretty slow speed. Once the tail is up you can give it a touch (bump) of elevator then go to neutral again and she'll be airborne, increase throttle to a bit better than half. Get some altitude (three mistakes worth) and bring her around so she passes on a base leg in front of you, trim as needed. I find that if I'm trimmed at that speed, anything less will cause a descent and any more an ascent. Forget the aerobatics, get to know the plane, practice turns and fly the pattern until you can bring it out on final every time. Pick a land mark to turn over so that you come out on final, over the runway. Make level turns. With a slight amount of bank, you probably won't need any, if minimal elevator to make a level turn. The steeper the bank the more elevator you'll need to stay level.

Good luck, you'll love it its lots of fun, don't forget your timer!!

Grossman56

[wrongroad]

G'day Dan,
I can really back Grossman on the timer issue.
I do not believe that running a battery down to nothing constitutes a 'dead stick' landing.
I almost wrecked a perfectly good FMS F4U V3 when a new pilot arrived for a down wind landing completely unannounced right in front of me just as I was about to touch down.
My machine was steered into the long grass and flipped over. A better result than a head on. The other pilot then said he was dead stick only to tell me later that he flew until he no power left.
To me, poor flight management does not equal a dead stick.
I am not sure to the TX you have but my Futaba 8J has a dual timer set up and I find it invaluable. I set one to count up and then to beep at four minutes and then for the other timer to count down and beep at six minutes. I use one as a warning and one as a get on the ground now!
The best advice I can give you is to follow what Grossman has already said.
Use the timer!!!!!!

Regards and respect
Daryl

[danloc78]

Thx Grossman56...I will definitely not be performing any aerobatics first time out. All I want to do is complete successful take-offs and landings. As I get comfortable with the plane and how she handles, perhaps at some point I will throw in a few maneuvers.

Daryl/G56...I have a timer set up, but I like the idea of having one that counts up and one that counts down. I have a DX6 so I know this is possible, and I know that I can tell it to talk to me or beep when certain parameters are reached.

I'll report back Sunday if I'm able to get out to the field.

In other news, I was flying my Champ yesterday and completely lost control of it at over 100' and didn't get control back. With some amazing luck, it is unharmed. I tested the batteries and they are fine. So maybe it was a Tx issue (I was using the one that came with the Champ instead of the DX6).

Question about the Champ, when there is no throttle input the plane will dive and then pitch up, dive then pitch up, etc etc until it finally touches (or crashes, depending on where it is in the cycle) down. Is this normal? I'm thinking even with no throttle it should still descend pretty steadily? Perhaps this is a CG issue?

[Konrad]

No, it is not normal. You are carrying too much up, usually as a result of been too nose heavy. Has this bird been crashed and repaired. The relationship between the wing and the stab maybe out of alignment.

Photos are always a good thing to post when asking for remote troubleshooting advice.

[danloc78]

Yes indeed it has crashed quite a few times! I'll post pics later on.

[Konrad]

What I think you are describing is a phugoid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phugoid

Many modelers will tell you that a nose heavy ship is a better flying ship than a tail heavy ship. I actually like my C of G rather aft. Not so aft as to be divergent in pitch, but aft nonetheless. A nose heavy ship is very hard to control like you want to, as is always fighting you!

Now to be clear I start my flight tests at the recommended C of G as a "STARTING POINT". I then move it as part of my trimming of a model. As a beginner get some help from experienced, usually competition pilots, in setting up your model. And ask why they are doing what they are doing.

A few hours with a competent pilot will save you years of frustration trying to learn this stuff on your own, or even with guys like me on the internet forums. Travel to the next county if need be, but get the help of an experienced pilot.

[OV10]

What I think you are describing is a phugoid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phugoid

Many modelers will tell you that a nose heavy ship is a better flying ship than a tail heavy ship. I actually like my C of G rather aft. Not so aft as to be divergent in pitch but aft, nonetheless. A nose heavy ship is very hard to control like you want it as is always fighting you!

Now to be clear I start my flight tests at the recommended C of G as a "STARTING POINT". I then move it as part of my trimming of a model. As a beginner get some help from experienced, usually competition pilots, in setting up your model. And ask why they are doing what they are doing.

A few hours with a competent pilot will save you years of frustration trying to learn this stuff on your own, or even with guys like me on the internet forums. Travel to the next county if need be, but get the help of an experienced pilot.

Konrad,
I've always prided myself in being rather fluent in both the written and spoken form of our vernacular but you took me to school on phugoid.
In all my years that is the first time I have ever heard that word. I know it now!!
As a flight instructor at our club, your comment with regard to advising 'danl' into seeking experienced assistance as a beginner is spot on.

Best regards,

[Konrad]

Konrad,
I've always prided myself in being rather fluent in both the written and spoken form of our vernacular but you took me to school on phugoid.
In all my years that is the first time I have ever heard that word. I know it now!!
As a flight instructor at our club, your comment with regard to advising 'danl' into seeking experienced assistance as a beginner is spot on.

Best regards,

I’m glad you took the post in the spirit it was written. Some folks take my use of 25 cent words as an attempt to talk down to the membership. This couldn’t be further from the truth! I want to bring those that are willing up to a higher plane of understanding, and hopefully attain greater enjoyment of this great hobby. I’m even willing to drag Phd’'s/MD's along if need be.

Now many have made a legitimate knock on me in that my writing on these forums can lead some to think I’m illiterate and maybe ignorant, as my writing of english is atrocious. Fair enough that is why I like to link to outside references like Wikipedia.
Being part of a few transport flight test programs I can tell you that there have been more than a few program managers that gave me puzzled looks when I described some flight test using the term ‘phugoid’. So you are not a lone in having to look up the term.

Now I’m sure you were well aware of the phenomena, so I assume this was just a simple vocabulary exercise.

[danloc78]

That looks like exactly what is happening. Thanks! I'll do some research to try to solve the issue.

[apmech1]

It looks as though you are interested in warbirds. I would sugest the pandora because when you feel comfortable you can switch to a tail dragger. Because i was interested in warbirds, my second plane was a great planes escapade (low wing tail dragger) i had a few crashes with it. But it was a good plane after i learned how to fly it. That being said and hindsight being 20/20, if the pandora was available 10 years ago i would get it. High wing tricycle, to low wing tricycle, to low wing tail dragger. Now i fly almost exclusively warbirds. I am on my second edf jet also. And I applaud you asking questions in a forum (i wish i would have), there are alot of highly experienced rc pilots on here that are willing to share there experiences good or bad. Good luck with what you choose!

[danloc78]

Thanks apmech1. I went with the Parkzone Sport Cub. I am confident I will be able to fly her. After I master this plane I will probably move up to the warbirds.

[danloc78]

Happy to report that the maiden flight(s) were a big success! First landing was a bit rough. I had flaps all the way deployed and tried to flare the landing but instead the plane dug in a bit. No damage other than the little plastic piece that clips on to the landing gear. Easy to fix. Second landing was almost perfect.

I was a bit nervous the entire time and that 5 minutes went FAST. Seems to take longer while I'm watching the motion RC videos :)

My battery checker says I have 11.6V left on the battery...it's an 11.1V battery so that confuses me a bit. But I am pretty sure that means I could have kept on flying for a bit.

I never put the flaps all the way up and I kept it on low rates the whole time as well. Regarding the flaps, I was nervous it would pick up too much speed. I will put them all the way up next time if I am at a bigger field.

[OV10]

Hello danloc,
No need to be confused about the battery voltage, it is just a matter of getting an understanding of the basic principles of electric propulsion when using Lipos.
An 11.1V lipo is a 3S(3 cell) pack rating whereas the number is derived from the at rest storage voltage of an individual cell of 3.7V . Multiple that 3.7 by the S rating of the pack and there is in your case the 11.1 voltage. The basic practice which should be used by all modelers is to have their flight times end with the cell voltage(balanced) between 3.7 to 3.8. In the example you mention of 11.6V if all 3 cells are balanced, by the numbers you ended up with 3.86V per cell which is not bad at all. You probably have room to stretch your flight probably another 30 sec without much jeopardy. Flight time and cell voltage are interrelated. This battery capacity checker is probably the most commonly used by modelers and is an absolute basic tool you need in the flight box. http://www.motionrc.com/gt-power-dig...acity-checker/
The reason they are so popular is because they give capacity not only in volts total and per cell but also as a percentage so that the magic number of 'JUICE' to have remaining is 15-20%. Hope I've been able to help provide a clearer understanding.
Best regards,

[danloc78]

Extremely helpful, and very glad I asked! Thank you OV10!

[Grossman56]

Let me second what Charlie said. The first thing I bought was the Gt Power cap checker. I constantly use it. After charging, before installation in the plane, and afterwards to see how much the battery drained. Its undoubtedly the handiest little tool I have for my planes.

Grossman56

[Capt. Crunch]

I'll third what they both said, and I'll add that you never want to go under 3.7v ( "JUICE" ) per cell as its hard on the battery. The cost of batteries can add up fast. If you take care of them, they will last a long time.

I like buying airplanes not batteries:)