most unhappy with Highlander...

[fprintf]

Well I had a very frustrating day of "flying" yesterday. My Highlander would barely fly. It was the first day out since my last big crash where I bent the Dubro control horn connectors and introduced some slop into the control linkages once I fixed the bends.

So I went flying thinking the slop wasn't too bad. Apparently my decalage somehow is all messed up because the plane would barely fly even with a lot of up elevator, and the CG hasn't changed since my last day out! After fiddling around with the servos and linkages I decided to try one more time. The plane did a nice arc off the highstart, nose first right into the grassy field without any control inputs from me -- both the rudder and elevator control rods are bent badly at both the servo and control surface ends. I now am going to dig everything out of the foam and start over. Grrrrrr. Maybe not - I might just have to get a GP Spirit or another balsa plane that will at least build straight - or that Big Bird I have had my eye on.

[webguyjv]

Don't give up! If you want another plane, and that makes you happy, do that. But don't give up on this plane at the behest of those pushrods. I deal with those things all the time -- they're kind of a hassle.

I have been flying the DAW Schweizer 1-26 2-meter now for over a year, and Dave ships that kit with the Dubro pushrods. I originally liked them as they went together so quickly. My first plane (the Push-E Cat) had pushrods that were basically like bicylce brake cable and were soldered onto the clevises. I hated those darned things. They never broke -- but I went though servos like a camel goes through water.

I think the bending problem on the Dubro pushrods helps to keep the servos from stripping.

I have gotten to the point, where I leave some easy access "hatches" on my fuse, that are just covered with clear packing tape. Then, after a crash, if the surfaces are moving slowly, I peel back the tape, pull off the control arms, and pull the pushrods out and inspect them.

Most of the time, I just have to bend back the ends so they're straight. In the worst imapcts, the plastic tubes have bent (which ends the days flying unless I have brought extras). Another of the worst case scenarios is if I stripped some gears on the servo. I am now pretty handy at replacing gears -- it sure beats buying new servos.

These are indeed frustrations, and I can't speak for you at all inthat I've n3ever seen you fly. All I can say is that I KNOW that the source of my frustrations are not those Dubro pushrods, but rather my lack of flying skill that makes me do stupid panic maneuvers that usually result in a stall and a nose in.

I have only been flying for a bit more than two years now, but I can tell that I have a lot less of those bad crashes now. One of the important lessons for me, was to know when to dork it in, and when to turn and fly down into the canyon and let the lift work me back up. Often I would panic and punch it in so I wouldn't have to walk, but I sure would incur some damage :(

I continue to crash, but I think I'm getting a bit better at it. As I write to you, I'm epoxying on a CF ribbon to my spar. A 30-year veteran was trimming out my recently rebuilt plane the other day. I flew it for about 30 minutes with delightful results. I asked this guy to check it out for me, and he had some fun with it, then when showing me a maneuver he wanted me to learn, he accidentally spiraled it into the ground and broke the wing in half. OUCH!

So the moral is even the veteran piltos do dumb things once in a while. Don't get frustrated and look for the things that you find fun about this sport.

Happy Flying ;-)

webguyjv

[fprintf]

Webguy:

Thanks for the advice. I hadn't considered that the control rods would bend and bind. I'll straighten out the ends tonight and pull out the plastic. I bet that is my solution.

As for the decalage, I think that is somewhat fixable with my covering iron and a little bit o' muscle. I won't give up just yet - mostly cause my wife won't let me throw away that $78 piece of foam. ;)

[onlyfingers]

Hi, webguyjv.

So, can you provide any info about how to change gears in a servo? A couple of weeks ago, I stripped a gear in the servo on my HIghlander. It is a common Hitec servo, and I scooted down to the store, spent $10 or $15, and was on my way 24 hours later. I kept the old one. If I fix it, I'll have a backup for the next time I strip one.

I hear your suggestion about leaving ports to allow access. I don't to that, figuring that I want to leave the strapping tape in long, un-cut pieces.

With nose-dives, I've discovered some weak points in my plane. The curved part of the fuse where the leading edge of the wing fits in is pierced by the alignment pin. After catching the wing a few times, the strapping tape (and a good part of the foam) had disappered, having been gouged out by the alignment pin. A few more nose dives, and the fuse sort of hinged starting at that point. (As this thread implies, the fuse flexes, but the control rods don't. I've broken two.)

(I've also had to remove a great deal of covering to remove a snapped wing bolt from the bottom, since I couldn't get at it from the top. When I first built the plane, I glued the foam plug that covers the tow-hook/blind nut. I gouged it out and did not glue the replacement.)

Every time I fix the plane, I figure have a new plane to trim out. With pulling tape off and putting tape on, and glue, the CG is different. When I broke the servo, I had to remove two other tape-on-tape fixes and start from the foam, so the plane was lighter.

Of course, if you want such problems to occur less frequently, then crash less frequently, which, I am happy to say, has been the case. But I encourage my family to come with me when I fly, and I encourage them to take the control. That's the real benefit of having a plane that can bounce a lot before it will break.

Have fun.