The new Eflite 1.5m Beech 18

[Tom Smith]

Thanks

[Wild Man]

She arrived on time and what a ginormous box. Glad shipping was free. I have a question if I may. I only have one other model with AS3X in it and that never needed any trimming but my question is, I read in the manual that you can trim an AS3X model in the air so long as you don't touch the controls for 3 seconds after doing the trimming. Question is, can those minor trim adjustments be left as is or do I need to make manual trims after landing and reset my trims to neutral on the transmitter ????

You can if you want to some do some do not. I know some just get carried away and fiddle with the linkage so all trims are centered and control surfaces are adjusted for straight and level flight

[Wild Man]

Great flying little twin Beechcraft D-18 I love getting crazy with the reverse thrust. Climb out A couple accidents High cut throttle do a stall turn and hit the reverse thrust. it just gets crazy in the air and I can almost stop it nose down full throttle reverse. LOL!!! try it you may like it

[Crazystick]

Price is now $319.95 until 4/30/24. Get one now !

[Tom Smith]

She arrived on time and what a ginormous box. Glad shipping was free. I have a question if I may. I only have one other model with AS3X in it and that never needed any trimming but my question is, I read in the manual that you can trim an AS3X model in the air so long as you don't touch the controls for 3 seconds after doing the trimming. Question is, can those minor trim adjustments be left as is or do I need to make manual trims after landing and reset my trims to neutral on the transmitter ????

[Tom Smith]

Great info here. Mine will arrive here in a few days. Can't wait. My flying buddy has 5,000 hours in the Beech D18. He was a cargo pilot back in the day. Looped and rolled the darn thing at the age of 21.

[tab28682]

Still really enjoying the Beech 18. My only (and minor) issue so far has been the white plastic fittings on the wing roots for the servo and lights auto connect (also includes the wing pins).

My outer units came loose from the foam at about flight 4. The inners came loose at about flight 8. Was due to lack of glue. I CAed them back onto place, being sure to get them all the way down into the recess. No more trouble.

Based on the extensive discussions on RCG and the discussion on here, this has to be one of the most trouble free and complaint free models releases from HH ever.

[xviper]

I don't think Horizon will run out of these planes just yet and I doubt they will discontinue it before you're ready to buy, assuming you do it before the spring flying season arrives.

[airotroy]

Thanks for your quick response. Waiting to sell my Nexa Junkers before I lay down 450 dollars for another plane I don't really need - although being from Wichita and seeing these as a kid makes it difficult not to buy now. Thanks again.
Russ

[xviper]

Having probably the worst luck with retracts on different planes of mine - was curious as to how these perform and hold up ? Havn't seen too many people complaining or upgrading.
Also I think I'v read that the motors are programmed with the Diff thrust from the factory but the reverse isn't ..
Thanks
Russ

Retracts have so far held up really well - no complaints here. Eventually, I will put on some softer tires to help with the bouncy landings but having said that, I'm getting much better at it, so I'd say 10% of my landings are a little bouncy but manageable. I fly off GeoTex, so if you have grass, I'm not sure how they would hold up if there's a lot of lumps and bumps. (My old Dynam C-47 was the same way and softer tires eliminated the bounce.)

Yes, differential thrust is programmed in. Reverse is NOT and you have to have the ESC programmer from Eflite to do it. It's a neat feature but even though a friend has the programmer, I've decided not to bother with reverse. It doesn't need reverse to reduce the landing roll as it comes in so slow, it comes to a stop in a very short distance. The only thing reverse might be good for is to back up to please onlookers and I've got my jets that do that so not needed for this plane.

[airotroy]

What kind of info were you looking for? I flew mine many times before winter hit.

Having probably the worst luck with retracts on different planes of mine - was curious as to how these perform and hold up ? Havn't seen too many people complaining or upgrading.
Also I think I'v read that the motors are programmed with the Diff thrust from the factory but the reverse isn't ..
Thanks
Russ

[xviper]

Hope you got yours by now and can relay some info.

What kind of info were you looking for? I flew mine many times before winter hit.

[Elbee]

Born raised in the yellow brick road city and like you havn't pushed the button yet - but ..... just a matter of time. Mostly solid reviews and lots of mods make this an interesting purchase. Now located in North Carolina where the Lake Afton winds aren't quite as severe. Hope you got yours by now and can relay some info.
Best - Russ

Russ, I'm a Eastsider and as a kid worked at Rawden Field located East of Webb on Central which was the Beechcraft Service Center and had it's own runway and tarmac separated by Central from the large runway that stretched to Kellogg. Anyway, I was a flight line boy at Rawden and had the privilege of washing down, compound polishing, and waxing Walter Beach's Corporate Model 18 when it was put up for sale in '70/'71? Though not fun at the time, I have fond memories of my aviation experiences there and have had that story to tell for decades. I'd own the model now if it were just a bit larger; but we'll see. Glad to have you here at the Squawk, Russ. Best to you and yours, Steve

[airotroy]

XV, acknowledged and agreed with respect to size. Frankly, that is the only reason I have not pressed the "Buy Now" button, though I will consider it still. Wind is an issue here in 'yellow brick road' country and I cannot choose my flying days very often, so bigger is definitely better for me. It is a beautiful looking airframe. Best, Steve

Born raised in the yellow brick road city and like you havn't pushed the button yet - but ..... just a matter of time. Mostly solid reviews and lots of mods make this an interesting purchase. Now located in North Carolina where the Lake Afton winds aren't quite as severe. Hope you got yours by now and can relay some info.
Best - Russ

[Wild Man]

GT, nice looking D-18 livery on the plane. I am still searching for one I like. To cold and windy here only 8 degree's here this morning . So I am going to finish ro;;ing in the rivets and might do a little weathering today on mine. How did you find the landings ? did you use full flap(landing flaps) and take off flaps on any of your landings ? I have made many, many landings with mine. I have found with full, (landings flaps you will want to use some throttle to make the landing and not bounce the D-18. Once you get this one to slow on approach near the stall speed it will bounce. The tires are just fine and do not cause this plane to bounce it is called practice. On a test flight I always come in fast to keep any plane from bouncing trim the plane for level flight adjust the elevator mix OTF so it stays level in flight then the next few flights are nothing but touch and go, touch and gotouch and go an , no flaps on landing. Take off flaps on landing and full, (landings flaps) each one take a different amount of throttle with each configuration used when landing I have made over 40 landings with mine in the last 3 weeks,Syre I have bounced the plane while getting this all figures out. I can tell you changing tires does not correct bouncing on landing. I fly off hard surfaced runways 90% of the time and making landings on a grass field is a no Brainer much easier then flying off asphalt or concrete. I did take it out to one of the clubs in this area and flew it off grass the guys were very impressed when I backed out to the center of the runway and took off. They also loved how easy it will turn around while taxiing. The differential thrust ( throttle rpm changes mixed with rudder) Give it left rudder the left engine rpm decreases , and the right engine increases. and just the opposite in a right turn. be careful when using rudder on your landings the mix of throttle and rudder will make throttle changes to so try nay to use much rudder when landing. Now back to installing rivets and a little weathering.

[Elbee]

Maidened mine yesterday. Flew like a dream. All the markings are water slide decals I made. There were some high thin clouds and the plane was surprisingly hard to see at times, but when she came down for a low pass… oh my did she look good.

GT, very nicely done. She is a beauty. Best, LB

[Gilatrout]

Maidened mine yesterday. Flew like a dream. All the markings are water slide decals I made. There were some high thin clouds and the plane was surprisingly hard to see at times, but when she came down for a low pass… oh my did she look good.

[Wild Man]

One item I did change to make elevator adjustment easier, after going over the assembly instructions. I decided to reverse the elevator wire in the tube. This puts the Z bend in the horn on the elevator, and the clevis hooked to the servo arm making it easy to bring the trim back to zero after the first few flights

[Wild Man]

Cold and snowing here the Back Hills temps in the teens, right now 22 degrees. So I decided to start rolling on some rivets I had already painted the antennas and the Nose Black. Later I am going to do some weathering. here are a few pictures

[Wild Man]

[QUOTE=xviper;n359259]Had a beautiful tandem flight this morning. I still need to get used to the ground handling. It's a bit squirrelly. Also, the landings require lots of practice to get right. Still a lot of bouncing around. I also noticed that the ELE compensation for flap as stated in the book is backwards. It shows a negative figure. When I changed it to a positive figure, the plane flew find when flaps deployed. Before correction, it would balloon like crazy. The book gives UP elevator when it should have given DOWN elevator.

The Manual is not wrong flap to elevator mix shows Elevator mix down -4 and a -7 I did have to add more down to the elevator, I ended up with these settings with takeoff flaps -7 on the elevator and with landing flaps a -11 which stop any ballooning of the plane. so with the only channel reversed is the GEAR, and the elevator set as normal, a - number for the elevator to flap mix the elevator goes down and when setting up thrust reverse Aux 2 is normal and Aux 3 is reversed, I find that the tires on this plane are just fine. Flying off grass is very forgiven I fly off pavement, hard surfaces which is not as forgiving as far as bouncing the plane on landing I have bounced the D18 but that was due to getting it to slow on landing landing with some power elimanted any bounce. I love the OTF function, I used one of the extra digital trims to adjust the elevator setting in the flap mix to adjust up or down while flying
what a great feature. The file I used also has all the Voice commands already loaded in to the programming for this plane. such as low and high rates. throttle cut on, throttle cut off, Flaps normal, take off flaps, landing flaps. Flap position is also displayed on the screen just above the picture I took of the D-18