The maiden flight is done and I can say I really like this plane. I had four flights tonight, 10 landings and 9 had a bounce, I need to come in slower and when wheel landing give a touch of down elevator once the mains are down. I wonder if softer tires would help with the bounce.
The manual calls for either a 13x8 or 14.8 prop, from what I found online it seems that at 14" prop is too much for the Rimfire .32 and Great Planes lists 12x6 to 13x8 as the prop range for this motor so I went with the 13x8.
I'm flying on a 3S 3300mAh Admiral battery, 6 minutes of flying at 3/4 throttle with some full throttle. I'm very happy with the performance but for fun I may try a 4S battery.
This plane really needs a pilot in the cockpit so I used a Hangar 9 1/9th scale pilot "Hank" with helmet & goggles (http://www.hangar-9.com/Products/Def...ProdID=HAN9104); Hank is 3" wide and 3" tall and I think is the perfect size for this plane.
As others have reported my windshield was a little foggy but nothing real bad and I also have the two thin white stripes on the belly going two the tail, I think it's been decided that these are two seams between the red & white covering. Speaking of covering I had to go over the whole plane with an iron to get all of the wrinkles out, not a big deal and it was easy to do.
I used the servos from a wrecked Freewing F-86 which means they didn't fit in the servo cutouts as the Freewing servos were too small. A couple of spruce rails took care of that problem. I used the recommended Rimfire .32 motor and while pricey it was a perfect fit. I'm not really skilled at making big changes so I felt it best for me to stick with the recommended motor.
I needed quite a bit of left aileron trim and quite a bit of down trim (CG is at 65mm); after trimming the plane flew very nicely, I find the high rates with 30% expo is very nice and not too sensitive. I need to recheck my horizontal stabilizer to make sure it is straight although there isn't anything I can do to fix it i it's a little crooked.
With the rudder centered the plane wants to track left, I tried bending the tail wheel to the tight to get to straighter but I didn't want to use too much force for fear of breaking something. What I was able to do helped a lot but it needs to be bent a little more to get it the plane tracking straight. I found the plane pretty squirrely on takeoff so jamming the throttle to full isn't a good idea, a nice steady advance from idle the full worked very well for me and I felt I had positive control, just remember to use the right rudder on takeoff.
In the air I think the plane flies very nice and it's maneuverable and has some vertical to it with the 3s battery. Loops, rolls, snap rolls and spins were predictable. If you've flown the e-Flight Commander mPd I'd say this plane has almost the same flight characteristics from what I've seen in four flights now.
Now having written all that I ask myself "am I happy with the plane and would I recommend it"? For $139 with free shipping (and any Tower discount codes) I say yes and yes. This is my first balsa ARF, all of my other planes are foamies. I found the build to be very easy and straight forward and the instructions are really well written. This is one of my planes that if I crash it I will replace it.
My maiden flight video.
The manual calls for either a 13x8 or 14.8 prop, from what I found online it seems that at 14" prop is too much for the Rimfire .32 and Great Planes lists 12x6 to 13x8 as the prop range for this motor so I went with the 13x8.
I'm flying on a 3S 3300mAh Admiral battery, 6 minutes of flying at 3/4 throttle with some full throttle. I'm very happy with the performance but for fun I may try a 4S battery.
This plane really needs a pilot in the cockpit so I used a Hangar 9 1/9th scale pilot "Hank" with helmet & goggles (http://www.hangar-9.com/Products/Def...ProdID=HAN9104); Hank is 3" wide and 3" tall and I think is the perfect size for this plane.
As others have reported my windshield was a little foggy but nothing real bad and I also have the two thin white stripes on the belly going two the tail, I think it's been decided that these are two seams between the red & white covering. Speaking of covering I had to go over the whole plane with an iron to get all of the wrinkles out, not a big deal and it was easy to do.
I used the servos from a wrecked Freewing F-86 which means they didn't fit in the servo cutouts as the Freewing servos were too small. A couple of spruce rails took care of that problem. I used the recommended Rimfire .32 motor and while pricey it was a perfect fit. I'm not really skilled at making big changes so I felt it best for me to stick with the recommended motor.
I needed quite a bit of left aileron trim and quite a bit of down trim (CG is at 65mm); after trimming the plane flew very nicely, I find the high rates with 30% expo is very nice and not too sensitive. I need to recheck my horizontal stabilizer to make sure it is straight although there isn't anything I can do to fix it i it's a little crooked.
With the rudder centered the plane wants to track left, I tried bending the tail wheel to the tight to get to straighter but I didn't want to use too much force for fear of breaking something. What I was able to do helped a lot but it needs to be bent a little more to get it the plane tracking straight. I found the plane pretty squirrely on takeoff so jamming the throttle to full isn't a good idea, a nice steady advance from idle the full worked very well for me and I felt I had positive control, just remember to use the right rudder on takeoff.
In the air I think the plane flies very nice and it's maneuverable and has some vertical to it with the 3s battery. Loops, rolls, snap rolls and spins were predictable. If you've flown the e-Flight Commander mPd I'd say this plane has almost the same flight characteristics from what I've seen in four flights now.
Now having written all that I ask myself "am I happy with the plane and would I recommend it"? For $139 with free shipping (and any Tower discount codes) I say yes and yes. This is my first balsa ARF, all of my other planes are foamies. I found the build to be very easy and straight forward and the instructions are really well written. This is one of my planes that if I crash it I will replace it.
My maiden flight video.
Attached Files