Well, old Santa claws brought a little sky surfer for me - my first flying anything.

For days I watched the forecast, hoping the wind would die down. Today was that day, and out in the back yard there wasn't the faintest gust of wind.
Half a mile away at the local flying field was quite a different matter. It was pretty breezy.
Still, I'd waited a whole week, and driven all the way down here. Was I going to pack up and go home? ... Not a chance!
I convinced myself it'd be ok to just do a couple of hand throws to check the trim, then I'd head back indoors.
Needless to say, in a strong wind the little surfer doesn't need it's motor at all. In fact it's quite happy to rip up to 50ft high and spiral and twist and turn uncontrollably till it comes to an abrupt stop at ground level.

I'm told patience is a virtue..... lesson learned!
At least the little surfer is a tough cookie!

Congratz, it was my first plane, I had some heli experience before that but she is a rugged and tough little glider, just wait until you get some more experience and your flying it without issues in those types of winds.

Originally Posted by Stu L

Well, old Santa claws brought a little sky surfer for me - my first flying anything.

For days I watched the forecast, hoping the wind would die down. Today was that day, and out in the back yard there wasn't the faintest gust of wind.
Half a mile away at the local flying field was quite a different matter. It was pretty breezy.
Still, I'd waited a whole week, and driven all the way down here. Was I going to pack up and go home? ... Not a chance!
I convinced myself it'd be ok to just do a couple of hand throws to check the trim, then I'd head back indoors.
Needless to say, in a strong wind the little surfer doesn't need it's motor at all. In fact it's quite happy to rip up to 50ft high and spiral and twist and turn uncontrollably till it comes to an abrupt stop at ground level.

I'm told patience is a virtue..... lesson learned!
At least the little surfer is a tough cookie!

Hi Sorry for the newbie question, but I am toying with the idea to get started with the RC plane hobby. I thing the NE Sky Surfer might be a good candidate to start (after having spent some serious time on the simulator that is on its way).

I have a question for the Sky Surfer owners. How can you tell when the battery in the plane is low? Is there some circuitry that cuts off power before the battery goes depleted beyond recovery? Is there any sort of alert in the remote?

This is the quote from Wikipedia:

In an electric-powered radio controlled model, the BEC is typically part of the electronic speed control (ESC). BEC allows such a model to carry only one battery (the motive power battery) instead of two (motive power, and a separate battery to operate the R/C equipment). A BEC-equipped ESC meant for airplane use often incorporates a low-voltage-cutoff (LVC) circuit which can sense the voltage drop caused when the battery has little charge left in it.

So I guess the question is: "Does the NE Sky Surfer have a LVC circuit?"

Thanks,
Luca

Hi Luca,
Well a few things, yes it does, and it will kill the batteries faster if you hit it...

Hi Luca,

The sky surfer was (and is) my first glider. I know very little of other gliders but am getting on just fine with it. I do have lots of experience with lipo's though.
The transmitter does have a low voltage warning, but only for the AA batteries in the transmitter, not the lipo.

A couple of thoughts on running your lipo down:
If your anything like me, your first flights won't be long enough to run it completely flat - I got over an hour on my last outing, which included a lot of on motor time.
It takes relatively little power to glide and operate the servo's and receiver compared to the motor. If you start to run low on juice, the first sign is that the motor won't provide much thrust. I found that when this happened, there was still plenty in the tank to glide gently back down to earth where I can recharge the battery.
Replacement batteries are very cheap. It's worthwhile buying a spare or two so you can play all day. If you're worried about the running it down too low, bring it in after an hour and swap over.

Given the choice, I think I'd rather not have a LVC - if I were ever in the situation of running out mid air, I'd want the glider to stay active till the very end whilst I try to bring it home, rather than shut off in mid air, even at the expense of busting a $4 battery.

Hope that helps!
Stu

OK the LVC, and since this was my first plane I hit it a LOT, just cuts the motor, lots of time in the battery left to run the servo's.
And yes get a few batteries from HK for it, they are dirt cheep and hold more capacity for even longer flight times.

Guys, thanks for your answers, much appreciated!!

Agreed, a few spare batteries seem a good idea.

Luca

Hi everybody, I got a question: Is there a programming card for a " Tower Pro MAG 8" esc? Thank you,Gerhard.

I just got the sky surfer out for the first time this spring only to find the aileron servo twitching. It worked fine when I last flew it in the Fall. Battery is charged. Rudder and elevator servos are working normally.
Any thoughts?

It might be the wires getting loose into the white connector. Check these, mine were starting to actually come out and the aileron server didn't even work. Ended up super gluing these in.

Originally Posted by pjschae

I just got the sky surfer out for the first time this spring only to find the aileron servo twitching. It worked fine when I last flew it in the Fall. Battery is charged. Rudder and elevator servos are working normally.
Any thoughts?

Also under the physical part of the servo there is a little sensor, that gets dirty at times and can cause that as well, a paper match stick with some alcohol on it can fix that

Thanks. I'll give that a try

Mine started twitching one time I put the wing on. I think that the rx antenna was just touching the servo and making it grump. I put the wing back and it cured it.

On a separate note, does anyone know how the spinner and prop detach? After a week in a tree she's been recovered today, but needs a new prop. I see there's a screw in the very middle of the prop which I've removed, but it still doesn't want to budge. I don't want to break anything!

Hi guys, I received my new NE Sky Surfer last night. This is my very first plane so it is hard to tell what is normal and what is not, because I do not have other planes I can compare.

The first impression is not of overwhelmingly good quality. The servos feel on the cheap side, as well as the tiny wires and connector for the ailerons servo on the wings.

What does not look too reassuring is that it feels that aileron do not have the same range of movement. Giving full right ailerons makes them flex more than when giving full left ailerons (or maybe the other way round, I do not recall it exactly). Anybody noticed this as well?

I do not think that mine is a defective version it does not seem broken and it responds to the commands, it just feels a bit flimsy. On the other side, I generally read good reviews about this plane, so I guess I just need to be reassured.

Maybe I got spoiled by the simulator, that, being virtual, shows smooth control surfaces movements, when maybe in real life things are more jerky.

I have a question for the group. I expect that I will have to do regulations before it will be ready to fly. The obvious one is the CoG that I understand is regulated mainly by placing correctly the battery, but what about the control surfaces? Apart using the trim buttons on the transmitter is there any regulation that can be performed directly on the plane?

The servos are a kind of worm drive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worm_drive), where it is very easy to turn the worm by hand. Is it how trimming on the plane is performed?

Looking forward to trying it during the week end.

Thanks,
Luca

Lucas, I had unequal aileron movement too. it turned out that mine hadn't been put together correctly - there's a plastic piece shaped a bit like a bow tie that moves the ailerons - check that the metal wires for the ailerons are inside the slots on the plastic piece.
Hopefully that makes sense, if not I'll take a picture