Originally Posted by bmschulman

I did notice that inverted flight needs a fair amount of down-elevator, and there's a whole lot of knife-edge coupling (aileron and possibly elevator too) that I need to mix out. Surprising, because I thought prior reviews suggested otherwise.

Try moving your CG back until you need less down elevator inverted. The starting CG in the manual for 3DHS planes always leans a bit nose heavy. This might also correct some of your KE coupling, although I wouldn't be concerned if a foamie like this needed a bit of mix.

I know there are alot of comments on here about this, but why does it do that? Mine starts to do it at anything over about 60% Throttle, past 75% it is moderate and at 100% it is definate. Is my wing slightly twisted or is it just a by-product of the down and right thrust against the airframe? Does everyones do it to some extent or can I correct it?

Originally Posted by bmschulman

I finished my build and have flown the plane six times. I didn't notice any twist using the chopstick/pencil alignment test. When I throw the throttle wide open, the plane stays straight and does not drop a wing. You guys almost talked me out of this plane, but it seems to fly fine to me. Maybe they had a bad batch or something, and I got lucky. (I'm using the 72g motor.)

I did notice that inverted flight needs a fair amount of down-elevator, and there's a whole lot of knife-edge coupling (aileron and possibly elevator too) that I need to mix out. Surprising, because I thought prior reviews suggested otherwise.

Also I put the Aurora light kit on it (and it looks exactly like the picture JavaScript posted above). I am finding that orientation is hard to determine at a moderate distance, either because of the plane's color scheme or (more likely) because the light kit emits a bright point of light in a wide angle from each of the LEDs, washing out a lot of the reflected light from the wing and tail.

it's a great little plane isn't it! yep heaps of aileron an a bit of elevator coupling in KE.. definitely need to mix it out. How's the stable hover, and KE at just a few of clicks of throttle.. love it. great for learning torque rolls.

just wait till you get fully used to it.. it is accurate and agile, capable of going hard and fast, and slow and low nice and gracefully.

I'vefinally killed my 2 after dozens of repairs.. once they were pretty trashed I couldn't help myself but explore the 'lower' limits of flight, exitting crazy-loud KE spins as late as physically possible and smacking it in sometimes, crazy lanings like snap roll to harrier spot landing etc etc a lot of fun an amazing how many times I could just pick it up and dust it off, then straight back up.. or 2 minutes and some CA and kicker hehe. can't wait to get another 2 in a couple of months

[QUOTE=FireyFate;23032500]Try moving your CG back until you need less down elevator inverted. QUOTE]

I moved the battery a bit back on the last two flights and it seemed to make it more touchy (i.e. tail heavy) without helping balance inverted flight. What CG are people using if not the recommended 62mm?

[QUOTE=bmschulman;23035829]

Originally Posted by FireyFate

Try moving your CG back until you need less down elevator inverted. QUOTE]

I moved the battery a bit back on the last two flights and it seemed to make it more touchy (i.e. tail heayevy) without helping balance inverted flight. What CG are people using if not the recommended 62mm?

Yep me too. can be touchy when tail heavy. i find the recommended CG just right. just a smallish elevator i reckon. i made sure to give myself a full 50 degrees of travel on the elev - i needed to use a servo arm extension to do so. plus slightly less expo, and its ok then. how much travel have you got?

Originally Posted by bigbookfrank

I know there are alot of comments on here about this, but why does it do that? Mine starts to do it at anything over about 60% Throttle, past 75% it is moderate and at 100% it is definate. Is my wing slightly twisted or is it just a by-product of the down and right thrust against the airframe? Does everyones do it to some extent or can I correct it?

Maybe you didn't get the wing completely straight/flat, or if the ailerons aren't hinged straight/even, or aileron neutral position (subtrim).is out.. all pretty fixable .. you can just twist the wing more if it's not yet straight. if it's doing funny things when ailerons are deflected even a tiny bit you may want to check that the travel/ end points are equal on both ailerons. slop in aileron linkages ?

I was flying a little too low and broke a blade off of the propeller. As I was going to unplug the battery I accidentally bumped into the throttle. The massive unbalance throttle up of of the one blade prop ripped the motor mount right off. I'm not sure if it's fixable but I'll post pictures in the evening.

Ouch draven that's a bummer.

It is fixable, I promise, just a question of how to do it. I am getting good a fixing them because I refuse to get a simulator

Originally Posted by Draven

I was flying a little too low and broke a blade off of the propeller. As I was going to unplug the battery I accidentally bumped into the throttle. The massive unbalance throttle up of of the one blade prop ripped the motor mount right off. I'm not sure if it's fixable but I'll post pictures in the evening.

Lol I broke down and bought a sim and am still fixing planes. My edge took a bounce yesterday. Small crack in the SFG. Was flying in some wind yesterday turned up into it went for the harrier and well not enough throttle to turn up into that wind. Lol. Fell outta the sky like a rock. Was pretty low so not a hard bounce. On the plus side my landing gear fix from the last bounce held very well. Haha. Still getting the hand of this thing but enjoying it a lot. My cg may be still too far back as it does seem pretty twitchy at times so I think I might still be tail heavy but when I do move it forward it dives real bad inverted, nice and level upright with a couple elevator trim clicks but pretty good dive inverted. So a bit more tweaking I think. May have something not quite lined up right. Dunno. Hehe. Fun plane though regardless.

Originally Posted by Draven

I was flying a little too low and broke a blade off of the propeller. As I was going to unplug the battery I accidentally bumped into the throttle. The massive unbalance throttle up of of the one blade prop ripped the motor mount right off. I'm not sure if it's fixable but I'll post pictures in the evening.

Ha! you would've been kicking yourself right? that's the kind of silly thing I do from time to time..

..but don't worry, that is just SO easily fixable on this plane.. the whole plywood firewall area can just be glued back together with epoxy.. take care to maintain the correct original thrust angle, and also don't slop too much more than you need as it's heavy. i've had the firewall split into pieces, come away from the fuse, an shatter completely.. all totally fixable.

All this talk of fixing inspired me to fix one of mine again.. front end was all split open, firewall in 2 free floating pieces and had de-laminated, f/wall had let go of cf stringers again!, and wing had broken next to where it was fixed and my 2 little spars had let go..

I cleaned up (dremel) any epoxy and ply splinters that were stopping the front end from being squeezed back into correct shape, then epoxied.

this time I reglued the wing with 5 min epoxy as I wanted to go fly..Once back together I squeezed foam safe CA into slots containing the two 4 inch f/glass blade spars across the break, and flooded sprays of kicker..

a few more slops of ca & kicker into remaining couple of cracks on the wing and fuse.

last time i had got the wing back together slightly crooked and I had the tell-tale roll to the 'left' this time, hard to trim..
So when re-gluing this time I concentrated on getting the wing straight by eye.. and I went flying and it flew awesom again!! yeeha. This must be the 20th major fix, and it's still going.. gaining a bit of weight though - i'm due for a new one soon.

Question how close are you guys to the 2.5 inches from the leading edge for the CG as stated in the manual? Fiddling with mine tonight before flying and realized that I wasn't even close to that spot. And using that spot where I had been putting the battery makes it very very tail heavy. So just curious. Where I had been putting my battery the plane flies decent but it does seem pretty twitchy in harriers and hovers. I'm thinking that could be it. Of course I remember having a more forward cg on my maiden and it wanted to just dive into the ground upright.

I know all planes are different as people put them together with different components but just trying to get a range from that point you all are at. I love my plane but I think it could be better and my newness at setting up one of these is showing through.

As far forward as I can get it!

Originally Posted by Aaeolien

Question how close are you guys to the 2.5 inches from the leading edge for the CG as stated in the manual? Fiddling with mine tonight before flying and realized that I wasn't even close to that spot. And using that spot where I had been putting the battery makes it very very tail heavy. So just curious. Where I had been putting my battery the plane flies decent but it does seem pretty twitchy in harriers and hovers. I'm thinking that could be it. Of course I remember having a more forward cg on my maiden and it wanted to just dive into the ground upright.

I know all planes are different as people put them together with different components but just trying to get a range from that point you all are at. I love my plane but I think it could be better and my newness at setting up one of these is showing through.

Crashed mine again today an. Broke mount but the knife edge a couple of inches off the deck for 40-50 yards was totally worth it. Why is low so cool damnit