Getting started, questions

[knight500]

Hello all,
Just picked up a Freewing Pandora 4 in 1 and will probably be taking it out for its maiden in a week or so. This'll be my first powered plane and the first time flying in about 20 years.
We did the initial assembly last night and got to the point where we needed to determine deflection/rate of control surfaces. I'll be flying with my brother who has about a year of experience flying. He has a ROC Hobby MXS and said that the assembly instructions that came with that plane had a section that showed how to set deflection of control surfaces. The Pandora does not have instructions on how to do this. My bro said that if you set your control surfaces to deflect at maximum for the full travel/swing of the gimbals in the transmitter the plane might respond too much or too quickly and be difficult to control for a beginner.
Now the MXS is a sport/stunt plane and has ailerons the full length of the wing which makes them very responsive. The Pandora only has ailerons half that length so maybe setting deflection of the ailerons is so critical.
Does anyone have experience with setting up a Pandora prior to initial flight? Is it important to set up deflection on this plane or should I just run it at maximum?
Also my radio is a FlySky FS-i6. This adjustment on the radio is called rate.

Thanks for any input

[OV10]

Hello knight500 and welcome to the Squawk.

It IS IMPORTANT to set control deflection on ANY plane. You will most likely never have maximum deflection unless you are in control of a 3D type airframe.
I never set my birds deflection in linear measurements of inch/mm but by degrees. All my warbirds have a max AIL and ELE of 15 degrees and the FLAP at 25/45 for Takeoff/Landing.
Have used these same figures on setting up other club members trainer/intermediate aircraft (including a Pandora) when I was a flight instructor.
The above is in regards to mechanical on the plane. The Tx should be full deflection in regards to those mechanical sets.
Best Regards,

[knight500]

This is very helpful. I appreciate the input and will use your numbers as a starting point. There should be some good weather coming up this week so we're keeping our fingers crossed. I've spent the last month on the RF8 simulator so I'm really looking forward to actually flying. I'll be starting out with the Pandora in high wing/tail dragger setup. We also need to balance it and the instructions fail again to provide a point of reference. We'll use the wing spar as a starting point for now.

Thanks again

[xviper]

We also need to balance it and the instructions fail again to provide a point of reference. We'll use the wing spar as a starting point for now.

Thanks again

As this is your “trainer” plane, it is very important to read the manual carefully and thoroughly. Why? On page 15 of the manual, it clearly states that the CG is 70mm to 80mm from the leading edge of the wing. This may or may not coincide with the wing spar. Since you have built it as a high wing, you will balance it (with battery installed) right side up. If you configure it as a low wing plane, then you will balance it upside down.

[knight500]

As this is your “trainer” plane, it is very important to read the manual carefully and thoroughly. Why? On page 15 of the manual, it clearly states that the CG is 70mm to 80mm from the leading edge of the wing. This may or may not coincide with the wing spar. Since you have built it as a high wing, you will balance it (with battery installed) right side up. If you configure it as a low wing plane, then you will balance it upside down.

Thanks very much for pointing this out. My bro said he saw nothing about balancing. He didn't look closely enough I guess.
Looks like the maiden will be tomorrow morning. The ambient temp will be in the low 30's and wind is supposed to be around 3mph.

Thanks again

[SloMoe]

I would set up a Dual Rate switch on your Tx, and use 50% for low rate and 70% for the high rate, too much control deflection can be difficult to deal with on your first flights.
Makes things happen real fast and you might end up over compensating, my first plane I thought it would need max control, on take off the plane did a ground loop making the fuselage about an inch shorter,,,,,,,