Originally Posted by gpraceman

We were not worried about the drag at this point. My son is still learning, so being a little slower is helpful, not hurtful.

We gave them a try this morning. They worked out quite well. We shot some video, but I have to figure out how to get it off our video camera.

my stryker took off perfictly. i had no problems with it except for the fact that it pulls to the left when taxiing, but that only requires som trim and rudder. other than that it was great!!!

Originally Posted by Armyboy96

my stryker took off perfictly. i had no problems with it except for the fact that it pulls to the left when taxiing, but that only requires som trim and rudder. other than that it was great!!!

Yes, Ryan. Your new landing gear did very well.

I wound up swapping the stock PZ 6-6 for the APC sport 7-5 and the difference was noted. Had it fly right out of my hand using the leading edge launch method.

Got it to spin and did my first parachute drop landing tonight. Amazed at the rate of spin. Lucky I started with ample altitude as I just wanted to watch it's dizzying descent as long as I could.

I really wasn't planning a parachute drop but came in a bit high and just kept applying up elevator. Once it stalled it just settled right in.

I do need to get an offset neckstrap mount thing as my JR 9303 is a bit "tail heavy.

This Stryker (my first) is so much fun I've ordered a 2nd, plug 'n play version for backup.

P.S. Found a quick way to add a thick washer for the thinner APC hub. My Stryker is a bit nose heavy so I had a steel Fox prop washer made for a prop extension. It's about 1/8" thick (tapered) and has a ID which fits the PZ prop hub perfectly. The heavier steel washer helps a bit getting the CG back to where it belongs.

Originally Posted by Eastcoast78

Yea thats the thing. In the Manual is says 35-40mm of travel on H/R's!! When you Stick your Right Stick in either of the Bottom corners it was causing the Binding. When in the corners could easily give yea in the neighborhood of 60mm. But the Z bends would prevent that from happening! Binding and stripped servos.

Its not the gear but the pins as mentioned. But its still a stripped servo.
I toned down my H/R's to 22mm or so. Now that gives me 35mm when in the corners.

I like the idea of cutting out the foam like Mingus done.
I've got 10 or so flights on the Q and servos are fine. 2 more today...Loves it!!
But noticed today 20mm full up Elev it was harder to do a Parachute landing.
But i was running a 2200mah and i it was all the ways forward. I got rool of that non slip rubber for your cabinets im going too glue to the bottom.

Its quite the difference inverted to with it forward and bigger batt vs the 1800mah's i have been testing.

So im going too up it 25-27mm and see.

Something I found is to just adjust your end points in the Tx. Before I did, I had mine set to 23mm on high rates, and about 13mm on low. But the servo arms were hitting the foam when put in the corners. So I went into the menu on the DX7 to adjust the end points, I did also cut a little foam out as well. I put the sticks to the corners so the arms would touch the foam, then back off the end points til they stopped short of hitting the foam. After that I checked my throws, and they were still exactly the same, 23mm high rate & 13mm low rate.

Personally, I think the guys who are stripping the servos aren't bothering to adjust their end points. That will most certainly cause excessive travel that over time will damage them. And it'll damage them faster than if they adjust the end points. Just my $.02 guess.

Here's an unusual question for ya'll. Has anyone tried a wooden prop?

I think someone mentioned it way back in the thread, but reason I'm asking is (to make a super long story short), I'm currently in possesion of about 60 props by Zinger & Top Flite. All are anything from 7x4.5 to 7x8, and there's a BUNCH of 7x5 & 7x6 props as well.

(The long story): An elderly member of our club passed away, and we're in charge of inventorying & auctioning all his RC stuff to raise money for his wife & our club. She said she want's 40% of the sales and the rest goes to our club.

If these wooden props will work, I'm going to buy them all.

Originally Posted by Moonbeam

Something I found is to just adjust your end points in the Tx. Before I did, I had mine set to 23mm on high rates, and about 13mm on low. But the servo arms were hitting the foam when put in the corners. So I went into the menu on the DX7 to adjust the end points, I did also cut a little foam out as well. I put the sticks to the corners so the arms would touch the foam, then back off the end points til they stopped short of hitting the foam. After that I checked my throws, and they were still exactly the same, 23mm high rate & 13mm low rate.

Personally, I think the guys who are stripping the servos aren't bothering to adjust their end points. That will most certainly cause excessive travel that over time will damage them. And it'll damage them faster than if they adjust the end points. Just my $.02 guess.

Thats what i did as well. Haven't heard of anyone stripping out any recently.
It was more at the beginning!!

I love woodies, but IMO it is simply a waste on this belly lander as you will be changing props after every several flights (if not every flight). Buy the props anyway, sell them to your buddies who need them at the field for $4ea and everyone wins! I think those props are probably $8ea retail.

But did you check to be sure they are "electric" wooden props? Ones designed for gas are different...

Originally Posted by Moonbeam

Here's an unusual question for ya'll. Has anyone tried a wooden prop?

I think someone mentioned it way back in the thread, but reason I'm asking is (to make a super long story short), I'm currently in possesion of about 60 props by Zinger & Top Flite. All are anything from 7x4.5 to 7x8, and there's a BUNCH of 7x5 & 7x6 props as well.

(The long story): An elderly member of our club passed away, and we're in charge of inventorying & auctioning all his RC stuff to raise money for his wife & our club. She said she want's 40% of the sales and the rest goes to our club.

If these wooden props will work, I'm going to buy them all.

Originally Posted by SmartMartY

but she will go from bonkers to sedate and back (bit like a woman) in a second

I'm sensing some comedic material here!!!

Originally Posted by gpraceman

We were having trouble with hand launching, so we wanted to give a try at putting some landing gear on my son's F-27Q Stryker. I hadn't seen any photos of people giving this a try on the newer Stryker, so I wasn't sure what gear to try. I ended up getting the gear for a Hobby Lobby F-9F Panther for $14. Popped out the belly wheel and dug out the foam for the nose wheel assembly. Made plywood mounts for the rears and glued them to the foam.

We tried it out this morning and the landing gear worked great. Though, a rough landing did bend the wire on the nose wheel a bit.

Raceman...pretty cool, bro.

So....how do you steer on the ground? Does the nosewheel pivot?

Our club has a runway so this might be fun for giggles.

Originally Posted by poiyt

Raceman...pretty cool, bro.

So....how do you steer on the ground? Does the nosewheel pivot?

Our club has a runway so this might be fun for giggles.

The nose wheel is steerable. The servo is plugged into Aux1 and we set a mix in the radio to control it.

This is my son's first plane, so I want to do anything to make it easier for him to fly. He's been flying my T-28 and HawkSky and the SIM, but he's still a relative beginner. I did try to discourage him from getting a faster plane, but he had his mind set on the Stryker.

Originally Posted by gpraceman

The nose wheel is steerable. The servo is plugged into Aux1 and we set a mix in the radio to control it.

This is my son's first plane, so I want to do anything to make it easier for him to fly. He's been flying my T-28 and HawkSky, but he's still a relative beginner. I did try to discourage him from getting a faster plane, but he had his mind set on the Stryker.

Thx...I had just found the link at HL.

The Q's not that tough to launch, once you kinda get the hang of it.

That said, steerable LG on the Q is a novel idea....and kinda kool.

A couple more q's if you don't mind...1st, have you flown it both with & w/o the gear? I'd be interested in how she performs in the air; eg- cg, the added weight, the added drag, etc etc

Next: takeoff & landings...any suspense w/ these?

In sum...my thinking is, what the heck??? As long as I don't have to carve the foam up too much, for $20, some LG could be fun!

Thx for the info
Jeff

Originally Posted by gpraceman

The nose wheel is steerable. The servo is plugged into Aux1 and we set a mix in the radio to control it.

This is my son's first plane, so I want to do anything to make it easier for him to fly. He's been flying my T-28 and HawkSky and the SIM, but he's still a relative beginner. I did try to discourage him from getting a faster plane, but he had his mind set on the Stryker.

I don't know how old your son is, but landing gear is a good idea. Anything to keep his hands away from the prop.

Originally Posted by jhroof

I don't know how old your son is, but landing gear is a good idea. Anything to keep his hands away from the prop.

Son?? I'm the one on the sticks, baby!!!!

Originally Posted by poiyt

A couple more q's if you don't mind...1st, have you flown it both with & w/o the gear? I'd be interested in how she performs in the air; eg- cg, the added weight, the added drag, etc etc

Next: takeoff & landings...any suspense w/ these?

In sum...my thinking is, what the heck??? As long as I don't have to carve the foam up too much, for $20, some LG could be fun!

We only had one flight without the gear, so it would be hard to compare. I really am not worried about the extra drag issue, as I am just trying to get him comfortable flying it. Maybe later, once he has a good handle on it, we'll pull the gear off.

Our attempts at hand launching lead to the nose breaking off on our 2nd flight attempt, so that's when I decided to give landing gear a try.

No real issues on take off or landing. He had a relatively steep take off angle, but the prop did not strike the ground. The landing was a bit on the rough side (need to work on flaring it at the end). The front gear did bend a bit, but it was easy enough to straighten.

The install was pretty easy. The main gear just glued on over the foam, using plywood mounts that I made up. The nose gear went where the belly wheel was. Dug out the foam down to the plastic battery tray.

Originally Posted by jhroof

I don't know how old your son is, but landing gear is a good idea. Anything to keep his hands away from the prop.

He's 15. He did have a prop strike from my HawkSky, so hand launching is something that we were nervous enough as it was to do. Fortunately, his cuts did not require any stitches.