I've had my Ta 152 out several times now and one of the members in the club I belong too liked the looks of the plane so much he called up Motion and ordered one with a battery. He's only put two flights on it but his far his impression is very favorable. I was surprised because this guy flies by 80"+ gassers, small electric foam planes are not his thing. It's neat to see some of these guys embrace the newer stuff and enjoy it.
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I'm getting really frustrated with my Ta-152... grass field operations. This thing is so light in the tail that I can hardly keep it from nosing over long enough to get it into the air. I fly mostly tail-draggers and know how to the manage the tail for good, scale-like takeoffs, but I can't do it with this Ta. When I do get it moving, I'm having to hold so much back pressure that it leaves the ground before it's flying fast enough, and wants to torque roll on me. I can usually recover from the torque roll, but a couple times, I have not. I'd appreciate some sage words of wisdom from any of you guys who are successfully flying this plane on grass fields. Here's what I've done to my Ta so far.
- Raked the gear forward a few degrees.
- Battery pushed back as far as it'll go.
- Greatly reduced the elevator throw, because this plane is prone to accelerated stalls. I/m coming to the realization that maybe I have reduced my elevator authority too much. It flies great, but the small elevator throw probably makes it too hard to the manage the tail properly, while moving on the ground. You can definitely see in the video how easily the tail comes up. Propwash alone seems to make the tail want to rise.
Here's the video from yesterday's flight. I've bleeped out my colorful, frustrated language. I think it took me 5 attempts before I finally got the plane off the ground (narrowly averting a torque-roll-induced crash).
Thoughts (other than throwing the plane in the never-to-be-flown-again pile, or me finding a new hobby)?:Confused:
[edit] I was using a new hatcam, with a narrower field of view, and had it set a little too low. Most of my flying was out of frame. My apologies. I've cut out almost all of the actual flying because of that.---
WarbirderComment
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..Nevermind.. Didn't read your entire post...Comment
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Noxotnik. I dont have the TA152 yet but hope to soon
observations from your video showed that you were takeing off with the wind. I noticed that when you turned your head to the people at the shelter to speak the flag was blowing in the direction you were taking off. I have a few birds that are really prone to noseing over on take off and i get somewhat frustrated myself. What i do is always take off into the wind (not with the wind) no matter how soft it seems to be. I also have my throws on my elevator on a switch for as high a rate as i can get for take off. Once i get the plane rolling i advance the throttle smoothly and work the rudder to control tourqe roll and keep the plane straight. While advancing the throttle i also start backing off the elevator as the plane gains a significant amount of speed. At this point ive gained pretty good speed and almost flying on the ground. When airspeed for takeoff has been reached then i gently ease back on the elevator again to take off and then switch to my normal flying rates. The field you fly off of really looks cuts nicely. I wish ours was. Just two days of growth and you have to nug a plane to even get it moving. But it always seems once i get my speed up over a certain point i have to impart very little elevator to prevent nose overs. Takes a little practice haveing to worrie with elevator,rudder and throttle but i can tell by your flying you will handle it quickly
i hope this helps. Just remember into the wind,alot of up elevator to start decreasing slowly and rudder to keep it straight until take off. And if at all possible forget any flaps for take off. I have a Hellcat that any flaps at all and with all the elevator i give it it will nose over. I can leave the flaps alone and it is pretty reasonable then. On landing if i use flaps i have to dump them as soon as my wheels touch or it will nose over. Sorry for the book iwas just giving you a rundown on my nose sensitive birds. Happy Flights:Cool::)
Dewey lComment
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Dewey,
Thanks for your comments. It was a bit of a crosswind day. The trees make the wind do crazy things. We have wind socks on both sides of the runway, and they often point different directions, on low wind days, like yesterday was. We commonly get thermals passing across the field, that'll make one sock point north and the other south. That's probably what was going on with the wind sock you saw. The wind was SSW to SW all day, and I was taking off to the south. A little later in the video, the wind sock on the left side of the runway can be seen, and it is indicating a nose wind.
I'm pretty experienced with tail draggers. I flew a bunch of warbirds yesterday and didn't have any problems. And, I've been flying this plane since it was first released. I'm just having problems with this Ta now, more than when I first started flying it. I was hoping to get some advice from guys who've flown this plane on grass and have overcome its nose-over tendency. I'm pretty well convinced that I've got to add some weight to the tail and/or increase the elevator authority. I'm thinking that lack of elevator authority is my main problem now.---
WarbirderComment
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I am sure that you are correct there. Keep me posted on what you do. The only reason i dont have one yet is because im waitng on the 1600mm Spitfire to go preorder. Goodluck and happy flights
:)Dewey lComment
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Just don't get the last 1.6M Spitty before me!!! I'm definitely going to give the Ta back some elevator throw. Hopefully, that'll solve my take-off/taxi problems. Will report back after my next flight.---
WarbirderComment
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Goodluck.Dewey lComment
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I am considering buying the TA152. But I am wondering what receiver to buy if I am going to buy a Spektrum 8 channel radio.Comment
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Lately I've been going exclusively lemon Rx. They are a solid receiver with really good rangeOriginally posted by krg View PostComment
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Same here. I'm a fan of LemonRX. I fly them in almost all of my PNPs.---
WarbirderComment
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Welcome to Hobby Squawk KRG, I echo what the others say about the Lemon receivers.Originally posted by krg View PostComment
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One word of caution about LemonRX receivers... If you choose the Stabilized LemonRX, be aware that Channel 5 (typically, the gear channel) is dedicated to the Stabilizer ON/OFF switch. So, gear has to be moved to another channel.---
WarbirderComment
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AgreedComment
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Can someone please show how they have the receiver, ESC and battery placed? Planning on using 3 2200 and 4s 3000 admiralsComment
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Does anyone know if this bird will be restocked at MRC? It was on my list and now ita sold out :(Comment
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If you ask Motion then will tell you when they expect more in. I just did an online chat with Ed and he said they were 3 - 5 weeks out.Comment
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3 to 5 weeks for the TA or for shipment in general?Comment
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Shipments in general that will include the TA.Comment
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I just ordered a TA-152 and expect it to be a great flyer. It looks awesome! What a beautiful and unusual model. Thank you MRC, discovering these "oddball" warbirds really does it for me (I picked up an LA-7 as well). It looks like the landing gear stance is not scale but that may be a good thing, my well worn PZ FW-190 has a very scale gear and it is miserable on the ground!
What size 4s battery can give me 6 min flights with a lot of part throttle flying? I'll add weight in the tail to balance. Better 1oz in the tail than 4oz in the nose to keep it reasonably light.Comment
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