Originally Posted by rhampton

I'm impresssed AJbaker.......
Actually Tomorrow is my big day...I should get my Super Sky Surfer Arf in the mail sometimes in the afternoon.
10/15/12....
i didnt wasted anytime. i ordered my 4s and 60a esc at the same time. i'm not even gonna maiden mine with a 3s...i need some launching power cause i have to hand launch it.

Hand-launching is quite possible with a 3s battery. My first six flights were done that way. It does take a pretty good heave, but then it flies straight and true, mine never sagged toward the ground after it left my hand, and I'm not all that strong.

I never ROG'd mine until I had the 4s battery in it, though.

i hope there's not much building. I wonder how long it takes to put the whole thing together....

Not a lot, especially if you simply glue the tail on as the instructions say (I made mine removable, which took extra time).

This was my first ARF, and I was delighted with how little time it took. Maybe 12 hours including the time to fabricate parts for the removable tail, graft kwik-link rods onto the tail pushrods, and sand the out of the wing spar rod since mine just would not fit (none of that is called for in the instructions).

Most people don't seem to have as much trouble with the wing spar as I did. Guess I was just lucky.

Well first flight of the SSS today ! Man what a sweet floating glider ! I tried to use my dice cam on the brim of my hat, didn't get the plane in the video all the way through,but ill upload it anyway.Because i want you to see how easy this thing left the hands on a hand launch and just floated away. It has plenty of power as it would go almost straight up ! Most of the flight was at about 1/4 throttle, she turns very smooth and with power off will just float ! we had maybe a 15 to 20 MPH wind and she handled it very well. Now on a sour note,my friend got his SSS ready to fly for first time after i flew, i noticed the elevator was slowly moving down,so i made him sit it on ground and played with elevator stick, the servo finally went to the extreme end of travel and stayed there !! this was a stock brand new servo. So we lucked out seeing this. If he had tried to fly, the SSS would be in small pieces right now ! Soon as i get video uploaded to utube ill post it. just watch the first part as most of the last (except for a nice landing) is just sky lol..

Oh and i didnt even need to use flaps to land as the wind was blowing hard enough that she just glide in and sit down Cant wait to get it in the air again ! Can anyone tell me if the 17g servos on this are digital or analog ?? Have to order some replacements as the new stock one going bad has freaked me !

Originally Posted by G-LO

How did you feel about your power in your new motor, Aj?

Just to be clear, I used the stock motor with a 4000mah 3S LiPo with an external BEC (not relevant). So, given that, I found that the power was adequate - barely. Climbouts were limited to about 20 degrees maximum. Because I generally like a 1:1 power system, the stock motor will have to go. But, I would encourage any beginner to use the stock motor because it does ok. Although I only hand launched it once (SAGATO on 3 other Take Offs), it floats like a dream right out of my hand. I used full throttle to launch it. However, ½ throttle would have worked, too. Hope that helps.
AJ

Originally Posted by fastfwd

Well first flight of the SSS today ! Man what a sweet floating glider ! I tried to use my dice cam on the brim of my hat, didn't get the plane in the video all the way through,but ill upload it anyway.Because i want you to see how easy this thing left the hands on a hand launch and just floated away. It has plenty of power as it would go almost straight up ! Most of the flight was at about 1/4 throttle, she turns very smooth and with power off will just float ! we had maybe a 15 to 20 MPH wind and she handled it very well. Now on a sour note,my friend got his SSS ready to fly for first time after i flew, i noticed the elevator was slowly moving down,so i made him sit it on ground and played with elevator stick, the servo finally went to the extreme end of travel and stayed there !! this was a stock brand new servo. So we lucked out seeing this. If he had tried to fly, the SSS would be in small pieces right now ! Soon as i get video uploaded to utube ill post it. just watch the first part as most of the last (except for a nice landing) is just sky lol..

Oh and i didnt even need to use flaps to land as the wind was blowing hard enough that she just glide in and sit down Cant wait to get it in the air again ! Can anyone tell me if the 17g servos on this are digital or analog ?? Have to order some replacements as the new stock one going bad has freaked me !

Short answer - Analog.
AJ

Originally Posted by ajbaker

Just to be clear, I used the stock motor with a 4000mah 3S LiPo with an external BEC (not relevant). So, given that, I found that the power was adequate - barely. Climbouts were limited to about 20 degrees maximum. Because I generally like a 1:1 power system, the stock motor will have to go. But, I would encourage any beginner to use the stock motor because it does ok. Although I only hand launched it once (SAGATO on 3 other Take Offs), it floats like a dream right out of my hand. I used full throttle to launch it. However, ½ throttle would have worked, too. Hope that helps.
AJ

I figured. Hopefully your 1450 KV motor do a whole lot better.;

never mind

Originally Posted by ajbaker

Just to be clear, I used the stock motor with a 4000mah 3S LiPo with an external BEC (not relevant). So, given that, I found that the power was adequate - barely. Climbouts were limited to about 20 degrees maximum. Because I generally like a 1:1 power system, the stock motor will have to go. But, I would encourage any beginner to use the stock motor because it does ok. Although I only hand launched it once (SAGATO on 3 other Take Offs), it floats like a dream right out of my hand. I used full throttle to launch it. However, ½ throttle would have worked, too. Hope that helps.
AJ

AJ,

Is this a personal perference thing, hand launch vs SAGATO?

The SSS seems to be a sturdy bird. Coming in over the fence this morning with the flaps down, I managed to hook a wing on a street light pole that I thought I'd passed. Plane spun in, quite flat like a maple seed, and landed on its belly wheel with a thump. Aside from a slight impression in the leading edge of the left wing about 18" from the tip, and the fuselage seam in front of the canopy slightly split open (top only), no damage! After a thorough checkout, it was flying again ten minutes later, split seam and all. I'll CA that tonight.

I don't recommend this as a short-field landing technique, other than for emergencies.

P.S. What's SAGATO? Same thing we used to call ROG (Rise off ground) fifty years ago?

Originally Posted by GTstrudl

AJ,

Is this a personal perference thing, hand launch vs SAGATO?

I know it generally means ROG take off, but SAGATO? Wazzat?

Gord

Originally Posted by G-LO

I figured. Hopefully your 1450 KV motor do a whole lot better.;

i would have to agree the motor is just adequate, one just a bit bigger or maybe a prop that would give more thrust ? Here is a crappy video of maiden flight, i need to get the dice cam higher up on my hat my buddy is just a little excited as youll hear,but i wanted you to see the takeoff hand launch and the landing.

PICT0003 (10 min 6 sec)

Originally Posted by fastfwd

Now on a sour note,my friend got his SSS ready to fly for first time after i flew, i noticed the elevator was slowly moving down,so i made him sit it on ground and played with elevator stick, the servo finally went to the extreme end of travel and stayed there !! this was a stock brand new servo. So we lucked out seeing this. If he had tried to fly, the SSS would be in small pieces right now ! Soon as i get video uploaded to utube ill post it. just watch the first part as most of the last (except for a nice landing) is just sky lol..

Oh and i didnt even need to use flaps to land as the wind was blowing hard enough that she just glide in and sit down Cant wait to get it in the air again ! Can anyone tell me if the 17g servos on this are digital or analog ?? Have to order some replacements as the new stock one going bad has freaked me !

That is exactly what my elevator servo did, Fortunatly it happened while I was trying to adjust the elevator neutral.This also has me freaked out as I assume all of the servos are the same. This makes me remember other earlier posts of people that have had unexplained crashes, like the person that thinks his Aurora 9 had a brown out, or the person that feels the stock control rod disengaged from his servo horn, and the very first person to post a flight report and an unexplained crash on the third flight. Although all of these problems could have happened, I feel that they may have all been caused by the elevator servo moving on it's own to the end of its travel while in flight. seriously, look at all of the crash reports, all the same problem with assumed different causes. and now two actual documented problems with elevator servos that if happened when in flight would have caused the same result. When I removed my stock elevator servo, I took it apart, and unlike what was posted earlier, They are not metal geared servos, And I have to say that these have to be the crappiest built servos I have ever disassembled. I replaced my elevator servo with a hitec HS-81 and it was a perfect fit. Now the question is do I leave in the rest of the crappy servos and risk a 5 plus pound airplane crashing into a crowd of kids, or somebodys car, or do I spend another hundred bucks to replace all of the servos??

Originally Posted by antennahead

That is exactly what my elevator servo did, Fortunatly it happened while I was trying to adjust the elevator neutral.This also has me freaked out as I assume all of the servos are the same. This makes me remember other earlier posts of people that have had unexplained crashes, like the person that thinks his Aurora 9 had a brown out, or the person that feels the stock control rod disengaged from his servo horn, and the very first person to post a flight report and an unexplained crash on the third flight. Although all of these problems could have happened, I feel that they may have all been caused by the elevator servo moving on it's own to the end of its travel while in flight. seriously, look at all of the crash reports, all the same problem with assumed different causes. and now two actual documented problems with elevator servos that if happened when in flight would have caused the same result. When I removed my stock elevator servo, I took it apart, and unlike what was posted earlier, They are not metal geared servos, And I have to say that these have to be the crappiest built servos I have ever disassembled. I replaced my elevator servo with a hitec HS-81 and it was a perfect fit. Now the question is do I leave in the rest of the crappy servos and risk a 5 plus pound airplane crashing into a crowd of kids, or somebodys car, or do I spend another hundred bucks to replace all of the servos??

That is my thinking also ! I am going to go ahead and order ALL new metal gear servos, i do not want this baby in pieces on the ground due to a POS servo ! But there are cheaper metal gear servos other than Hitec ( which i think are excellent servos) . And did you know your HS-81 are all nylon gears ? i have a few of these on hand, have two in my sbach and two in my sonic 185,they seem to work fine http://epbuddy.com/index.php?main_pa...roducts_id=254

Originally Posted by fastfwd

That is my thinking also ! I am going to go ahead and order ALL new metal gear servos, i do not want this baby in pieces on the ground due to a POS servo ! But there are cheaper metal gear servos other than Hitec ( which i think are excellent servos) .

I haven't had any problems with the stock (or any other) servos, ever. But that doesn't mean they're perfect of course.

I just got a bunch of these:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=17322
Metal gears, ball bearing final drive, 13 grams each, 0.12 sec. for 60 degrees (which is normal), 2.3 kg-sec stall torque (which is greater than most), $4.67 each plus shipping from China At first glance they seem to be the same size as the SSS's stock servos but I haven't measured them closely.

They're still cheap servos. They look great for what that's worth (zero). Hopefully my lucky streak of no servo problems will continue.

BTW, I noticed that when my SSS flaps are down all the way, the servos are pulling pretty hard (and so probably pulling somewhere near their stall current), because those foam hinges suck and also because the control horn is pointing almost straight at the servo in that position. I hope to move the control horns back soon to correct this, will have to replace the pushrods too since I clipped them to make them fit where they are.

That SSS looks SO cool coming in to land with the flaps down....

Originally Posted by Little-Acorn

I haven't had any problems with the stock (or any other) servos, ever. But that doesn't mean they're perfect of course.

I just got a bunch of these:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=17322
Metal gears, ball bearing final drive, 13 grams each, 0.12 sec. for 60 degrees (which is normal), 2.3 kg-sec stall torque (which is greater than most), $4.67 each plus shipping from China At first glance they seem to be the same size as the SSS's stock servos but I haven't measured them closely.

They're still cheap servos. They look great for what that's worth (zero). Hopefully my lucky streak of no servo problems will continue.

BTW, I noticed that when my SSS flaps are down all the way, the servos are pulling pretty hard (and so probably pulling somewhere near their stall current), because those foam hinges suck and also because the control horn is pointing almost straight at the servo in that position. I hope to move the control horns back soon to correct this, will have to replace the pushrods too since I clipped them to make them fit where they are.

That SSS looks SO cool coming in to land with the flaps down....

I also have had no servo problems, and i did notice on flaps when all the way down was binding servos, so i just adjusted them with endpoints and set up my three point toggle switch so i have different positions . Like position one they only go about half way down,on two they go all the way down,but not to the point of making servos buzz .

Originally Posted by GTstrudl

AJ,

Is this a personal perference thing, hand launch vs SAGATO?

I don't have a preference.
AJ