Originally Posted by builderdude

So if you wanted to consider an Easy Star II (has ailerons), it should do well in wind...

I also am a noob and have been lurking around this forum for some time picking up useful advice and tips (as well as a few ambitions along the way ) and having been there I completely understand your frustrations.

On the recommendation of my LHS I went the "radio ready" Easystar 2 route and have found this to be the perfect trainer for me. I initially used it as a 3-channel trainer while I got used to flying, orientation and (for the sake of my ego lets call them) landings. When I felt ready for the next step I then bought a couple of servo's and upgraded to 4 channel by activating the optional ailerons.

My Easystar 2 is mostly held together by glue and tape but still flies very well.

Due to my own impatience and/or stupidity, I have recently launched it in winds that I knew someone with my limited experience really shouldn't have - but as testiment to the abilities of the ES2 I still managed to get it back safely and learned a lot in on those difficult if somewhat short flights.

I am well aware that plans have a habit of changing but when I am ready to move onto more scale-like planes I intend buying an ES2 kit (which is not a lot of cash) and transfering all of the gear to a shiny new airframe as I believe she is a keeper.

Bob -
It's not necessary to crash so much when learning to fly. Go to the thread titled How to Find an Instructor, and get some help. At the very least, you will find out which problems are due to the planes you have, and which problems are due to your flying ability.

Originally Posted by Bob6831

John, it isn't pride........ I just am enticed by advertisements I see for these other planes. I want to be able to fly the planes I have now...... but seem to be having to do too much repair on them, so I look at new planes with hope that they will be more durable and maybe handle wind and minor crashes better. I am NOT looking for big 8 foot airplanes. I am inclined to go for the ~30 inch plane next..., one that I can see in the sky better, one that maybe won't be as fragile as my Champ and my SU-26. And my local park would not be suitable for anything big.
So would appreciate any help in repairs and flying my Wild Hawk.

The 1-meter park plane is generally the smallest I would consider appropriate for flying outside. The little micros can be flown outside, but it's a battle sometimes, and the micros don't really fly right - they help you learn orientation, but they won't help you learn to feel the air. Planes in the 1-meter class generally handle the weather pretty well, and if you get a nice trainer that stays on the wing, it will be much better in the wind. However, it's not just about the plane - it's about you too. With proper skills, you can deal with wind better - but I think the planes you have now are not suited to learning those skills.

Also yes, get some instruction, even if you have to drive a long way, it's worth it. An instructor will be able to make sure your planes are working right - that is not as simple as it sounds.

I also have bent my fuselage enough where it is definitely not 100% straight, but I don't know if that should make any difference or not.

This needs to be fixed first. Hold the plane so that the horizontal stab in the tail is, well, horizontal (parallel to the floor). Do not look at the main wing - look at the tail. Imagine a line that runs along the center of fuselage from nose to tail and make sure the fuselage is not so warped that this line doesn't stay in the center.

Then look at the fuse from the top and bottom. Imagine a straight line down the center of the fuse from nose to tail and make sure this line remains in the center the length of the fuse. If the fuse curves or bows, you need to fix that.

Some people use hot water to soften the foam but I've never tired it. Just to be done with it, what I would do is find any places in the fuse where it bows, bends, or curves and make enough of a cut into the foam that it can be straightened out. Then cut a small piece of foam from Dollar Tree poasterboard or a grocery store meat tray and insert into the cut until it straightens the fuse. Then glue in place.

But, yes, if the fuse is not straight then the motor shaft will likely be pointing in a direction that severly affects flight when under power. If just the nose is out of line then it will not affect unpowered flight significantly, if at all.

Also, the main wing should be horizontally perpendicular to the fuse. If the fuse is not straight from the tail to the main wing this will affect flight (powered or not).

To check the CG, measure 2.5" using a ruler placed under the main wing but against the fuselage. Mark this point on the underside of each wing. 7 quarters is a lot of weight, but you may be using a lighter battery than everyone else. I saw lots of folks saying to dig out the nose to move the battery forward but I would have suggested buying a slightly larger. heavier battery.

By now, with your additions of foam to the tail, the rudder repair, and possibly weakening the nose area, I'd suggest getting a whole new WildHawk kit from NitroPlanes and moving the electronics into it. Or, even better, getting a Hobbyzone firebird Stratos and moving on. At least you can get any repalacment part you need for the Stratos.

Also got contrary (see my other thread on Wild Hawk) on whether my motor is good (sounds good) after it or the receiver smoked after 1 landing with Throttle left on.

Normally when people see the word "smoke" they jump to the conclusion that the ESC fried and let out the "magic smoke". The fact that you have since had other unsuccessful flights indicates that both the motor and ESC are still functioning. I wouldn't spend another dime repairing your WildHawk though. Continue with what you have while you can and then move on.

Note that I am leering at a couple of new planes like the Aerosky Cap 6 Channel, the Dynam "I Can Fly", the Sbach 342, The T-28 (Dynam or Parkzone or FMS ???? please help me decide!), the Yak 54......

Since I've already broached the subject, let me remind you that the Dynam/FMS/Mini-Air planes are disposable. Here you have two of the three already and both are broken with no easy way for you to repair them on your own. Mainly because you can't just go get a spare prop shaft for the Mini air or a bare fuse for your WildHawk.

YOU need experience in ZERO wind FIRST, not another plane.

Yes, fixing the Champ's tail is going to be the easiest and quickest way to get flying again. That's the best one out of the three you have to learn with anyways.

I agree that you need to learn to fly first. Try the Ares Gamma 370. It has a 38" wing and can easily be upgraded to a full aileron wing and brushless system as you progress. Hobby Town carries all the parts the plane costs $79.99 as a Rx-R plane or $129.00 RTF. Did you build the WildHawk yourself or was the plane RTF when you bought it? I fly with two people that fly the WildHawk and it is indeed an easy plane to fly; just this weekend I saw a father and son who had no flying experience fly one of their's successfully.

Chuck, I bought the RTF version from Harbor Freight for about $65.
I just glued it back together today..... so hopefully will get another chance to try to fly it before the snow and winter comes.
Goober, I took the foam I had added to the rudder and elevator off.
I also glued back together the tail feathers for my Champ - even though I have another set ordered. Couple of questions on my Champ repairs that indirectly impact my other planes as well:
1) One of my wings on the Champ had broke at the cabin edge a while back. I had tried to glue and tape it back on but it still seemed too weak. So, I added a couple of popsicle sticks to the wings, positioned over the cabin and parallel to the wings. How will this effect the plane's aerodynamics and performance? How much glue/tape/other weight can it handle?
2) When I look from the wings back to the Stabilizer, it looks like the Stab may be a little tilted to the left. Same question as above. Is this the dihedral?
3) When I glued the Stabilizer on, I found that because of the toothpicks I had glued on to firm parts up, the back side of the Stab is kind of tilted up. I would expect it to be more inclined to climb now, but what other aerodynamics/performance would be impacted?
Thx for all the help.

1) One of my wings on the Champ had broke at the cabin edge a while back. I had tried to glue and tape it back on but it still seemed too weak. So, I added a couple of popsicle sticks to the wings, positioned over the cabin and parallel to the wings. How will this effect the plane's aerodynamics and performance? How much glue/tape/other weight can it handle?

I can only imagine how you did this and if I'm correct, it will fly terribly. I have broken a few wings on my champ while flying in a gym. The way to fix it is to use hot glue. Run a bead (hot glue is heavy) along the break on the wing and very quickly push it against the wing saddle so it fits perfectly. The wing needs to keep the same dihedral that it had so make absolutely sure that the tip of the broken wing is not higher or lower than the tip of the wing that did not break.

If you glued a popsicle stick across the wing then you probably straightened it at the break. If it looks even a little lopsided then, yeah, that will effect it allright.

Not to mention that popsicle sticks are heavy. The weight of the sticks, glue, and tape will probably be a weight increase of over 25%.

2) When I look from the wings back to the Stabilizer, it looks like the Stab may be a little tilted to the left. Same question as above. Is this the dihedral?

That's not so important but are you sure the horizontal stab is tilted and not the main wing? If the wing is lopsided due to popsicle sticks and you are using it as a reference point then everything else will look unlevel. Just sit the champ on a table and look at the tail only. Look at the tips of the horizontal stab and make sure they are both the same distance from the table.

3) When I glued the Stabilizer on, I found that because of the toothpicks I had glued on to firm parts up, the back side of the Stab is kind of tilted up. I would expect it to be more inclined to climb now, but what other aerodynamics/performance would be impacted?

Yes, it will be more inclined to climb. If it's just a little you can trim in some down elevator to correct it.

If I were you though, I would just wait for the new tail to come in and not fool around trying to make a bad repair less bad. I'm just being honest here. If you had someone at your LHS or another hobbiest helping you with these repairs they would have said the same thing. You may want to go ahead a get a new main wing too.

A word of caution - be very careful removing the old tail from the fuselage. Do not just pull it off. If you do, you will mess up the flat surface and guide holes that are very important to installing the new tail. If these get messed up, your horizontal stab will need lots of adjusting while the glue sets and your vertical stab will not be vertical. If you have already covered this area with glue when you did your tail repair then you should sand/scrape/cut away all of it and get that surface flat and level again.

I was going to remove those popsicle sticks and hot glue the wing back on when I decided to check my plane weight.
It is now 59g with the tape and popsicle sticks and toothpicks and hot glue added and a quarter taped to the front (to correct CG to 1.1inch from LE).
I see that the natural weight of the Champ is 38g.
Should my Champ be ok with 21 additional grams of weight? (I mean if all other things were good)
Note that this is with the battery installed.
Also note that the 2 popsicle sticks only weighed 3g and the quarter was about 6g, so if I remove all s/b maybe ~10g less. Should that make a big difference in overall performance?
Note that my short flights with plane as is (in front yard) had the plane dropping and veering right. Really did not get to really test it out.

Originally Posted by Bob6831

Should my Champ be ok with 21 additional grams of weight? (I mean if all other things were good)

NO... that's a 55% weight increase, which is WAY over the limit. Most of the time, you can make a 10% increase and you'll only see a little bit of performance drop, but anything over that will usually cause problems. So, you can add 3-4 grams and probably be ok, but you will have to fly a little faster.

That's the main problem with the 55% weight increase - the plane probably won't be able to go fast enough to lift its own weight.

Sounds to me like you need to buy a sim....or join a club. If you can't get off the ground for more than 30 seconds you will not ever be able to learn anything. You could also use some repair advice that can actually look at your models because right now there is no way for us to tell if its actually your model or just inexperience. Don't buy more planes especially ones like the Sbach that type plane is for experienced pilots and you would be really disappointed.

Bob6831,

With all due respect, you need to find someone, in you area with experience, that can help you. Your wasting your time and money and having no fun. I feel bad for you, because you should be enjoying yourself.

99% of the rc fliers out there are more than happy to help someone. You need to find one of these people.

I feel for you
Good luck

Just to clarify..... I have flown the Champ and some helicopters successfully.

Originally Posted by RcAirplaneNoob

I crashed all 6 planes yesterday

If i crash one plane on any given day,the rest get put away until the next trip. sometimes it is a guy just not feeling well or has other things on his mind.So bag it and start over another day