Preparing for Step 6 - Adjusting Control Rod Length:

In the picture below, I think it's clear that the control rod is too short, i.e., the clevis pin is way short of reaching the outer-most hole in the control horn.



Fortunately, displaying yet another facet of a quality product, instead of a "Z-bend" with a "U-Bend" to adjust length, HZ put a two-sided threaded clevis on the end of a threaded control rod.

Now, a word of caution, the clevis, while threaded and plastic, is VERY tight on the control rod. Also, note in the picture above (click on it), that the clevis is mounted to a bit of rod that is itself glued to the longer rod. So, you do NOT want to grab the control rod too far forward (too far away from the end of the control rod, too far away from the control horn).

THE PICTURE BELOW IS NOT, REPEAT NOT, HOW TO GRAB THE CONTROL ROD TO ADJUST CONTROL ROD LENGTH:



Instead, if you need to turn the clevis on the control rod to adjust its length, you want to grab the short piece of control rod to which the clevis is threaded.

THE PICTURE BELOW IS, REPEAT IS, HOW TO GRAB THE CONTROL ROD TO ADJUST CONTROL ROD LENGTH:



Also note that I've grabbed the rod 3-4 grooves back from the tip of the hemostat. I found if I grabbed the rod with the end of the hemostat and turned the clevis, the whole rod turned, trying to twist itself off of the longer rod, ruining the rod and, thus, preventing me from flying whenever this thunderstorm cluster passes by.

So, grab the short piece of the control rod that the clevis is threaded onto, then turn the clevis in the direction you need to mate up its pin with the outer-most hole in the control rod -- doing so one or two turns at a time -- don't get carried away and twist the clevis all the way off. So the pin in the clevis easily falls into the out-most pin hole in the control rod like this:

Step 6 - Attaching the Clevis to the Control Horn:

First, this is how the clevis should look when you start, i.e., the plastic ring/retainer holding the clevis closed:



Now, slide the plastic ring/retainer away from the end so you'll be able to spread the two sides of the clevis apart:



Now that you have the clevis spread apart, position the clevis' pin to slide into the hole in the control horn which is farthest from the elevator, close the clevis halves together and slide the plastic ring/retainer toward the end to keep the halves together:



In case the above makes no sense, I posted a video on my website showing me doing the above steps:

For windows users, a wmv version is here.

For mac users, a qt version is here.

Step 7 - Preparing to Assemble the Wing:

First, there are three bags of screws remaining at this point:



Two of the bags have six screws. On the far left is the 6-screw bag with the smaller screws -- these are for the nose-landing-gear.

On the far right is the bag of six screws with larger screws - these are for putting the wing together.

Step 7 - Assembling the two halves of the wing together:

The instruction manual is pretty good for the initial step:

"Installing the Wing
1. Insert the carbon tube (A) into the hole in the
left wing, then slide the right wing onto the
carbon tube. Tabs on the left and right wings
should align once the wings are properly
joined.
2. Secure the wing assembly by installing the
Top Wing Plate (B)"

I made a short video showing these steps:

o The mac version is here
o The windows version is here

At the end of this step, you should have the two parts of the wing together with the carbon fiber tube and the plastic piece on top with its four pins through the corresponding four holes in the wing.

Awesome! I picked mine up today at 5pm. I don't have time until maybe tomorrow to mess with it, but it will rain until Sunday anyway. The 7.4 lipo looks new. It is part # EFL13002s. The hobby store had to order them cuz they are different than the other 7.4 they had. I ordered an extra battery. I might order spare props too. Don't know how well they will hold up during landings. Some planes props break, some planes prop shafts bend. We will just have to see how the landings go.LOL Remember, I am "Sir Crash-a-Lot"!!!

Originally Posted by Mr.Firemouth

Awesome! I picked mine up today at 5pm. I don't have time until maybe tomorrow to mess with it, but it will rain until Sunday anyway. The 7.4 lipo looks new. It is part # EFL13002s.

Wow!!! Really? As I mentioned above, the battery that came with mine is part number EFLB13002S

I wonder why different batteries??

Step 7 - Screwing the two rectangular pieces into the wing halves to hold the two halves of the wing together.

First, make sure you have the right screws. Recall that earlier I showed that there were two baggies with six screws -- one with smaller and one with larger screws. In the picture below, the far left baggie, for the nose wheel, contains the smaller screws and the far right baggie, which we're going to use now, contains the larger screws:



I just went ahead and made a video of how I am putting the screws through the two rectangular plastic pieces to hold the two wing halves together. The video is kinda long -- about six and a half minutes and I'm saying "um" a lot:

Here is the link for windows users.

Here is the link for mac users.

Step 7 - Assembling the Wing - Bits and Pieces:

Refer to pg 11 of the included Instruction Manual:

3. Install the wing fins (C) on the right and left
wing tips by opening the back side of the
wing fin and sliding it into the slot on the
top of the wing. Secure the fins using the
included 8 pieces of tape (D).

Look at the picture on the box to figure out which fin goes on which wing and put the tape on the outside of the fins (two pieces on top, two pieces on bottom, for each fin). Just to make sure you've got the right fin in the right slot, the right fin has an "R" on the top and the left fin has a "L" on the top.

Wing skids (E) help prevent damage to
propellers and wings while learning to fly.

The slots in the wing into which the skids are inserted appear to have a rod of some sort in there. I'm just guessing, but I'm going to put the skids BEHIND the rod. <- The preceding statement is in error - see the revised posts five posts down from here.

6. Insert the pin (F) flat side up, onto the wing
plate. Lock the pin into place with 2 screws.

I have a bit of a problem with this. The wing is supposed to be "break away" on crashing but with that (strong, stiff) pin in place I have difficulty seeing how this is so.

Putting the wing in place and letting just the magnet hold it, it sure seems to me I could still do gentle loops without worry.

I'm going to try replacing the "pin" with a flat toothpick for a while...

That's it, I'm done, thank you for your patience. If the weather calms down, I'll let you know how long I can keep it in the air before bashing it into trees, rocks, and/or bushes.

I sure hope this helps someone.

Thank you..... I got my stratos last nite...and have yet to pull anything out aside for the manual...Your posts will help get me (newbee) set up correctly...again... Thank you..for the posts

Originally Posted by Ginohio

Thank you..... I got my stratos last nite...and have yet to pull anything out aside for the manual...Your posts will help get me (newbee) set up correctly...again... Thank you..for the posts

Ginohio,

You're very welcome. I'm a newbie too. I've been successful only flying my Parkzone Ember 2 on zero wind days. Even then I've been bending prop shafts and tearing control surfaces.

Josh^2 have a review on the Stratos here:

Flite Test - Hobbyzone Stratos - REVIEW (11 min 1 sec)

In which they do an outstanding job of explaining how to adjust the control rod/clevis pins to account for the "Beginner Friendly Features," e.g., that we need to pull the wing, activate the transmitter, plug in the battery, then set the throttle to full and adjust the elevator so it's flush with the horizontal stabilizer.

I'm preparing to head back out to the garage to do this and expect to undo all the twisting I did previously adjusting the elevator's clevis

Later Edit: I only had to twist the elevator's clevis 1/2 a turn -- so what I did earlier was pretty darn close.

Our batteries are the same, I missed a "B" in the part number. The older 7.4 batteries E-flite was using for Helis are different than these. The shop has to order these in so they have the right ones. Hopefully I get mine together by Saturday. I also own the Cessna 182 by Tower Hobbies and have yet to maiden it due to weather.

The quality of the HobbyZone Firebird Stratos is surprising. The parts baggies include 50% more screws than required and three extra plastic rings to hold the clevises together.

Also, all the parts were in their own, individual zip-lock baggies, e.g., the 6 (4 required) smaller screws for the nosewheel are in their own baggy, the 3 (2 required) screws for the "F" pin are in their own baggy, and the 6 (4 required) larger screws to hold the wing halves together were in their own baggy.

While some of this, e.g., the extra screws and rings, could be written off to the company wanting to avoid having to mail out screws and rings for those shorted, it's still rare these days to find a company bothering to include extra screws and parts and not only segregate parts/screws but put them in resealable baggies.

Way to go HobbyZone!!

Step 7 - Assembling the Wing - Bits and Pieces (revised):

I was in error in my earlier post where I said:

Originally Posted by YosefAugers

Step 7 - Assembling the Wing - Bits and Pieces:

Refer to pg 11 of the included Instruction Manual:

<snip>

Wing skids (E) help prevent damage to
propellers and wings while learning to fly.

The slots in the wing into which the skids are inserted appear to have a rod of some sort in there. I'm just guessing, but I'm going to put the skids BEHIND the rod.

I was, erroneously, under the impression that the skids "E" went in the slot to which I'm pointing with the end of the hemostat in the following picture:



THE ABOVE SLOT IS NOT, REPEAT NOT, INTENDED FOR THE SKIDS "E."

The picture below shows the correct hole into which we're to insert the skids "E."



Hmmm, let's shift over to the underside of the right (starboard) wing and see if we can get a clearer shot:



Here's the underside of the right wing with the skid installed:



I apologize for my ongoing confusion, befuddlement, and bewilderment.

Yosef,

but I'd sure like to find a 5-6A AC (US) power supply that's less than $25...

I picked up a 6amp 110 volt AC to 12 volt DC power supply at CompUSA for $24.95. These things are also available at Walmart.

Thanks for the text and videos. I am not a beginner but this looks like fun for an afternoon in the Park.
Gary

Originally Posted by Gary Hoorn

Yosef,

I picked up a 6amp 110 volt AC to 12 volt DC power supply at CompUSA for $24.95. These things are also available at Walmart.

Thanks for the text and videos. I am not a beginner but this looks like fun for an afternoon in the Park.
Gary

Gary,

Thanks for the heads up on the power supply.

Wrt the Stratos being for a beginner, I was rather surprised by Dave Eichstedt saying:

Originally Posted by Dave Eichstedt

Just a few comments here on the Firebird Stratos.

<snip>

My hope is not that you guys will enjoy it, but that your sons & daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, neices, nephews and neighbors will enjoy it, that they will be inspired to give the hobby a try as a result of this neat new design.

I sure hope by "you guys" he meant non-beginners because I am a newbie/novice/beginner whose ability to climb the RC airplane learning curve is, well, retarded, and I bought the plane for me -- to learn how to fly.

Also, I'm hoping to use the Stratos to learn takeoff/landings. To do so I need to first put larger wheels on it to handle the very rough terrain that are the few open areas on my "estate." When I get this figured out I plan to post on how I did it but for anyone already contemplating swapping wheels:

1. Note the nosewheel is smaller than the two main gear wheels.

2. The white plastic cylinders on the end of the axles are easily unscrewed as, in yet another display of quality, HZ threaded the ends of the axles.