Originally Posted by TacHelo

Hi all,
New to the forum so forgive me if this has been asked before..any suggestions on good DR/Expo rates for keeping my extra a little tame. I am going to use it as my aileron trainer and progress my skills with it so I wanted to tame it down a bit...perhaps even more than the manual settings!
thanks!

aileron trainer is something like a Bixler... or if you prefer scale, try a cessna 182/185
an extra will no doubt, end in tears
ask me how i know...

Originally Posted by SilentPilot

That setup sounds more suited for extreme movement
Surely to limit elevator throw using the linkages then it would be better to use the holes closer in on the servo and further out on the control surface, this would allow the full resolution of the servo for better control without big movements...
Tony

+1
leverage advantage/disadvantage

Absolute favorite bar none aileron trainer in my area is the Parkzone T28. Everybody has one and they actually keep flying it long past the learning stage. Just keep cranking up the movement and rates and if you want upgrade the motor. No bad habits and covers from learning through relaxing to midway into wild with upgrades. After they learn on it, if it's bad weather, windy, bad thumbs day, first flight after a layoff, whatever, they put up the T28 first, then after that get out the Extra or something even more tricky if things went well with the Trojan.

Silent, you are correct, but I wasn't suggesting anyone else try this just explaining what worked for me. 9 mm of up and down throw sounds terribly small for an aerobatic plane but it works great for me and almost completely eliminates the dreaded roll while looping. I'm looking at the manual and it recommends 10 mm of travel on low rate and for high the picture shows 13 mm but the text right next to it says 37 mm for high rate ? What is up with this?

Just got back from 3 very cold and windy flights, 33 degrees and 12 mph of wind. Was not too bad until the sun went behind the clouds for good. After that even with my gloves with the finger tips cut off it was not enjoyable so I packed up and came home.

Oh and a bit of news I went to LHS yesterday just to look around and ended up putting my first 3D plane on layaway. A 'crunchie' Thunder Tiger Yak 54 45". I had read about some problems with the horizontal stab breaking on some early ones so to put my mind at ease the owner gave me a demo with his personal one in the parking lot. Very nice flying plane and great looking too. To sweeten the deal he took 15% off the sticker price and I caved in.

Mark,

A Parkmaster (Multiplex) is my 3D trainer. Started flying it late fall. Just getting comfortable flying inverted (as I have with the Extra.)

Checked my Tx D/R and Expo settings. My elevator low rate is set at 60% w/45% expo. Usually fly it at 75% and 65% after the first battery each session. Not uncommon for me to fly it at the high rate, 100% and 75%, (I forget to tame it down for a landing.) The pushrod is at the 2nd hole in from the outer most hole.

Thanks for the advice!! I took what you all suggested and ordered a t-28 and a new dx7s to be picked up tomorrow. The Edge will have to wait a little longer before getting into the air.

Tac,
It would be hard to go wrong with the T-28, friend of mine has one with over 200 flights on it, great plane.

I have been flying the same T-28 since the spring of 09 I think. Starting to loose track of when I started. Still gets out more than any of my planes. Hundreds of flight's, lost track a long time ago. It is just a good plane that flies extremely well.

Went out for a few flights with the Extra yesterday. 28 degrees and only 3 mph of wind, the sun was out so it made it feel warmer. During flight 4 old girl started handling kind of weird as in not tracking very straight. When I landed I noticed right away that the vert stabilizer was cracked to the point of nearly being broken in two. No recent crashes or even hard landings. Perhaps the cold made the foam brittle? Something for you all to watch out for. My original Extra developed a crack in the same place but that was summer time and it had been well used and abused. Nothing CA or Gorilla Glue won't fix, and I may try to reinforce with a toothpick or something.

Originally Posted by MARCOELDRAGON

Went out for a few flights with the Extra yesterday. 28 degrees and only 3 mph of wind, the sun was out so it made it feel warmer. During flight 4 old girl started handling kind of weird as in not tracking very straight. When I landed I noticed right away that the vert stabilizer was cracked to the point of nearly being broken in two. No recent crashes or even hard landings. Perhaps the cold made the foam brittle? Something for you all to watch out for. My original Extra developed a crack in the same place but that was summer time and it had been well used and abused. Nothing CA or Gorilla Glue won't fix, and I may try to reinforce with a toothpick or something.

It will crack there eventually with enough hard spins, the cold might make it worse, but mine cracked in the summer after I got the plane. The V-stab flexes a lot anyway, and probably just fatigues the foam. To fix it for good, and make the plane fly better, push a couple CF rods into the stab from the top, glue them with epoxy or UHU por, CA dries too quick, sharpen the tip of the rod, and push them through the v-stab and elevator, cut them flush with the top of the stab under the counterbalance. If you haven't already, straighten the trailing edge of the rudder with a hairdryer, glue a strip of .5X3mm flat CF on it, then wrap a strip of clear packing tape around the length of the edge to stiffen and protect it. After this mod, the V-stab won't move, and the rudder moves without flexing, it's a good of a mod as stiffening the elevator. The plane will be far more stable in knife edge flight, usually with less stick input needed(due to the rudder not flexing away from it's intended direction), and spins will be more dramatic and controllable. It will also never crack the V-stab again.

my v-stab cracked same place last fall. ca'd it but now is a great time to fix all 3 surfaces for good. thanks for the reminder!!

V-stab fixed. 1 CF rod in from the top as suggested by Alucard. Also jammed 2 plastic toothpicks in one from either side going down at a slight angle, Gorilla Glue and vinyl tape. Not pretty but much stiffer than stock. Also re-glued the stiffener in the rudder with thin CA, then a strip of more tape all the way up the leading edge of the V-stab and trailing edge of the rudder.

V-stab, elevator and rudder re-enforced. Winter has arrived in Oregon. Doesn't look good for test flight for the next week or so.

Continued crappy weather has delayed testing my repairs. Wind is supposed to be 20-30 later on today, rain the last two days and more expected this weekend! Yuck! Guess I still have the Sim to practice on. Anyone know of a decently accurate Extra for Clearview? I have an Extra that I repainted in PhotoShop and tweeked a bit that is kind of close but not really close enough.

OK I managed to get in 2 flights before the wind got too crazy. I almost crashed right after takeoff when I forgot that I had made an adjustment to the elevator push-rod when I fixed the V-stab. It is so fun to be getting old and forgetful. The repair and the adjustment of the elevator were very successful as I was able to get the trim on the transmitter for rudder and elevator almost back to center. No more strange handling like showed up on the previous flight.

Watched a very informative video on Youtube today

How To Do 3D - Knife Edge Coupling Issues - Programming Radio (21 min 9 sec)

that really explained setting up the mixes properly to eliminate coupling. Will have to loose the flaperon mixes since my DX6i only has 2 but I have not used them in almost 2 months now so no big deal. I remember Alucard talking about this several months ago but at the time it was all Greek to me. Probably should have tried to learn this about 100 flights ago! Better late than never I suppose.

Marco,

thanks for the link ke mixes video....easy to follow recipe for programming the DX8

Hi guys , im a newbie to the hobby, i have bought and built the Precision Aerobatics extra 260 ( no im not going to attempt to fly this yet) although this model sold me on the idea of flying rc planes.
Like most newbies i learnt to fly on the Supercub lp, wich i would like to think i have it pretty much down , so i have flattened the wings and added ailerons, im going to get this in the air this weekend.
So on to my question, i Have just purchased the Extra 300 pnp wich i will bind to a dx6i .
I know many of you are thinking dont even bother trying to fly this plane it will end in tears so please dont tell me it is a optimistic desicion.
Do any of you extra 300 experts have any words of wisdom with regards to setting up the throws and mixing a little elevator with the ailerons ?
Anything that could maybe increase my chances of just flying a plain and simple circut.

Cheers guys , thanking you in advance