Rave longer aerobird challenger flying time

[Ken-Ohki]

Originally Posted by Wingtips24

http://www.jkaerotech.com/

Here is another site:
http://www.rccaraction.com/MA/reviews/pocket_plane.asp

OK, I checked it out, By the description I read its a sport and intermediate training model. I wouldnt call that a beginers plane so I stand by my first impresion of it is to much for a beginer. of course a few planes down teh line it would probably be most suitable.

To bad you trashed your plane, Be cool if your frankinplane flys.

Ken-Ohki
"I make things do what I want then to, The hell with what they are designed to do."

[Wingtips24]

Ken,

Okay hear me out I got a plan, looks like I will have a few unexpected bills to pay so might have to wait longer on the aerobird than I thought but I had an idea. I was checkin out some of the replacement parts for some of the 3 chan planes at raidentech.com. They have some servos for $8.95 and esc and recievers for 10 bucks each. Now I know you probably get what you pay for in regard of quality but I have ignorance working for me. If you don't know what you are missing you wont miss it. Anyway I was thinking of getting a cheapie remote/esc/servo/ firebird battery and reciever, total about 60 to 70. I am almost possitive they will work since they are all replacement parts for the same plane. It will accomadate an 8.4 volt pack.

I want to use it on my slow stick so I can fly the thing. The back up plan is that if it does not work well I can always convert it to my "frankiplane" I built. Do you see any inherent reason why (other than it being utterly cheap and cheezy ) why it would not work with an SS. I got all excited as I looked at the possibilities. I can tell from flying my creation ( converted Firebird outlaw) that the characteristices are similar to the Yellow bee since it's parts are on the inside though it still flies much like the outlaw. I am swapping out motors tonight.

Speaking of which I had another question. I noticed I have two sets of little motors that are identical all except one set has two "advil" looking things on the connectors and the other doesnt. That set seems to run faster than the other set using the same battery pack so I can only diagnos that it has something to do with the advil looking things. They have a number 10 on them if that helps. Do you know what they do and if they do why they affect performance. I am swapping those into my creation tonight. It lives ! It lives!.

I wanted to know also what do you look for when setting up motor battery combinations for the BEC and ESC. How do you know they can take what you are running and in my case will the one I want to use be able to handle a firebir 900mh bat like the one you use for your SS. Here is a link with the stuff I wanted to get. Can you tell me which servos are better there are two to choose from?

http://www.raidentech.com/raidentech168/3acbaye.html

http://www.raidentech.com/raidentech168/3drflysppa.html

A link for your aerobird : http://www.raidentech.com/raidentech...hrtfoemsp.html
http://www.raidentech.com/raidentech...extoemspp.html


Gotmy creation caught in a tree last night, high in a tree I might add but a few sticks later and I had it back without a scratch. I hope to gradually refit my slowsick with more quality parts but if I wait till I can afford it all I might be waiting a while and I don't want to go midway trying to scale back good parts, I would rather just go super cheap and then get a good set later. Okay what are your thoughts?

[Ken-Ohki]

Well,,,

From what I see on those pages ( wich isnt much ) you could scrap together a flight pack as you sceam to do. However ,,There is almost no information about any of the parts on those pages other then what they are, "No Specks" At best, Id say you are taking your chances.

As far as knowin what to put together for a motor and ESC and such,, It varies plane to plane. There is a program called motocalc ( available for free download ) that helps nderstand a little,, it take sa bit of figuring to get it to work right though,, but definitly worth the time to learn.

the little advil looking things are resistors and help reduce interfearance to your reciver.

Ken-Ohki
"I make things do what I want then to, The hell with what they are designed to do."

[aquaflight]

Thanks Ken ; You are right about putting 900mah together with 1100mah cells or mixing any capacities of any sort. I did a little research and found out why. The lesser capacity cells go first (discharge) and then will go reverse polarity. I guess this is one exception to your motto.

[Ken-Ohki]

Ow heaven forbid there be an exception to the motto hehehe.

The actual saying was originaly. " I can make most anything do what I want, It might only last a few minutes, But It will do it."

but that just didnt have the same ring to it.


here in about 15 miutes I expect a freind of mine to come screaching into my dooryard with 200 bucks in his pocket to go buy his first ABC. With any luck the wind will stay calm enough for him to get to use it. Took him forever to decide between the ABC setup and the SS "real" radio setup, but in the end, Money was the deciding factor,, What he can afford now and still have a few bucks in his pocket.

Ken-Ohki
"I make things do what I want then to, The hell with what they are designed to do."

[Wingtips24]

She is built just waiting for parts to come in. I used that clear duck tape. I like it works very well from what I can see and it was not that heavy in my opinion. It is as strong as regular duck tape but not so gummy like they grey kind plus its lighter. I think we may hear more on this stuff soon enough it definitly has it's place I think. So far I have added a few fish string cables from the wings to the landing gear. I thought using the landing gear would be good so if I needed to move the CG I could move everything without changing the tension on the lines.

Do you think I should use this 1180 prop or get on of those 1206 (I think ) I want to fly slow as possible so I can learn. I am thinking of shoving a light piece of balsa or some other light wood down the fuse so that it will be more strong for WHEN I crash. I figure I have a week to make mods so I am going to do all that I can. Not yet sure which mod to do for overall wing strength though. you been flyin lately

[Ken-Ohki]

ok, lets try this again, I replied twice last nigte ( at lenght ) and the server seames to have lost my post each time, Perhaps it will be better this time.

TO each his own on wing reinforcements. I do not personaly like the look of struts the fishing line gives, or the time it takes to mess with them. Even with fishing snap swivals, this form of mod isnt for me. I truly love the fact that it takes about 1.5 minutes to put the wing and battery on, preflight and catch air. I have added a pic of my wing reinforcement at the bottom. I believe my method is overkill, and way more then needed, But thats just how I do things.

the 11x8 prop is decent, so is the 12x6, I have used just about every gws prop between 10x4.7 and 13x6 . The prop you need is yet to be determined. things like plane weight, cell count, motor, gearbox, wind all play a role in prop selection. 11x8 ta 12x6 appears to be the most commonly used props. I went to the LHS and purchased about 8 different props ( and some duplicates ) just so i could decided for myelf what was best. I am curently using a 12x6 but the 12x8 is also used allot. You were talking about using the cheep stuff a few post ago, this will also play a factor in what prop you can spin. I pull over 12 amps sometimes. I dont think the cheep stuff will handle that so you would have to use "weaker" pitched and smaller props.

putting a strip of wood down inside the fusilage will strenghten it, some, But I dont think enough to make it worth the weight gain. Not that weight gain on a SS is a problem, However if you wish to fly slow,, You want to be as light as possible, adding more weight will mean a faster stall speed.

Yes, I have been flying flying flew 4 or 5 times saterday moring before the mist became rain and we packed it in.. Saterday, we spent in excess of 5 hours at a new spot I found. Both my SS and my ABC flew repeatedly. as well as my friends. We had 3 ABC's my SS and a Glow powerd alpha trainer.

My friend that just got his ABC, managed 8 flights before his first crash, he is up ta about 20 flights now with a total of 3 crashes, One Lawn dart nose plant, Once from blying bhind some trees and loosing site of it, and once by getting blown into the power lines off the side of teh place in the no-fly zone. Nothing that stoped the plane from flying. Only required a bit of tape to repair some prop gouge on the wing.

The Glow Alpha trainer also crashed but it survived with nothing more then a broken prop. wile doing a mock landing to see how it handled, the pilot cliped a bush at the far side of the runway wile comming down. it cartwheeled the plane pretty good. ( even got video) but it survived. I think this is the first time teh 4 of us flew together that all the planes came back in usuable condition hehehe. Usualy the glow job of the day comes back in pieces.

I on the other hand had a first today. I was showboating ( as usual ) with my SS. I was doing some corkscrew spiral loop de loop things and ejected the battery at about 30 feet. Sent it flying accrost the field like a shotput. Fortunelty, the plane took on a nice circulare orbit loosing about a foot every time it went around, I had time to set my radio down, and walk about 150 feet away to stand under it and wait for it to come down to a hight that I could snag it. And I did It isnt often you come away from a battery ejection in 1 piece.


Below is my wing reinforcement. I used waxed Bow string , 4 long fiberglass rods , 2 short ones, and stock joiners. The front support was hidden up under the wing flush, but the rear support was installed on the bottom of the wing to also serve as a shim to raise the trailing edge of the wing. This wing is solid. I flew it into a goalpost the other day and after the flatspin, it flew away NP.





Ken-Ohki

"I make things do what I want them to, The hell with what they were designed to do."

[Wingtips24]

Wow, nice save! Whats the black stuff on the supports you made. I think I will add some more strength like you did. With the firebird batteries I ordered I just realized that I did not order a charger. Now I have the one I used for my Yellow bee but it usually charged a 4 cell 600 mh battery. Does that mean if I try to charge the firbird batts it will not charge fully or just take longer to charge?
Is it hard to find the CG with this plane, looks like it could be tricky with all the stuff in random places like that. I saw the manual but it still looks tricky. Is there a safe way you go about testing the CG with out actually flying. I didn't know if there is some trick you can do other than try/fly/crash test.

As for the fishing line if I can get it in the car it will be good LOL! I like that wright brothers flyer look and I was impressed with how it all attaches to the landing gear so that moving it does not affect tension. It also allows the landing gear to be used as a drag of sorts since it will flex a little but the gear s also joined together so it does not have much room but it would help to keep it from just snapping. Of Course this is all inexperienced theory which has yet to be proven but I like messing with it.

I also noticed youcanonly muve the tail up so far befor it hits the rudder, did you do anything to combat this. I figure it is probably good for me since I don't how to fly very well yet. I really have seen the beauty in this simple design. I already see why people like them and I have not even flown it yet.

BTW (I may have asked this but) What do you think I will break first so I know what to go buy. Is it likely I will crash it hard the first day out or do most get the hang of it befor needing a new prop or motor? I want to be prepared. I'll get spares if it seems like I will likely need them. Iw was props for the outlaw and wings for the yellowbee. Yellow bee never broke a prop but broke the wing like 8 times. Outlaw never broke a wing but busted props as fast as you could get a new one on.

Thanks for the advice I cant wait to fly this thing, I am patient must....wait... for ... calm ....day......Again... must wait for...calm ...day

[Ken-Ohki]

The black stuff is the waxed bow string i used to tie it all together. after getting it all tied, it was epoxied, again overkill, but its how I do things.

Your theroey for the fishingline braced to the landing gear will work. I just dont like that mod. It is defintily a prferance thing.

the elevators hitting the ruder can be adressed 3 ways, you can set the horns and servos to less movement by using the variouse holes..
if you get a computer radio, you can set it to reduced throws, if a standart radio you might be able to trim it down and readjust the throws.

and lastly, and the most common abd best way, Just check out where its hitting and trim a bit of the rudder away.. I trimed my rudder, but I also use max throws,, when you setup your gear on it, it might not even be a issue.

If I had to guess, I would say broken prop first. but per my prior recomendations, you should buy several in variouse sizes around the stock one ( mostly biger ). the other thing that seems to go for most people is the propshaft, after a nose hit or 2 then become bent or broke,, You can bend them back into shape for the most part. The plane itself is only 35 bucks and You should probably just buy another one as a crash kit. SPare everything that way. SO far, Ihave chewed the teeth off the pinion gear of a 300 motor, Ihave destroyed 1 gearbox, I have folded 1 wing. Also broke some plastic mounting hardware.

today I was using a 10X8 prop on my 400 C gear, a prop the package said would preform poorley, Im my opinion It rocked

CG is very important, especialy for a slow flyer. FOllow the directions, they mark the CG in a picture someplace, I think its 4 1/2 inches from the leading edge, But check your book to make sure.. Just moce stuff around until it balances, The first time I flew my SS the CG was facotry, but needed to be moved forwad over a inch to get it to fly like I wanted it to,, I have since rebuilt it and changed some gear, and the cg is now dead spot on where teh manufacturer recomends. If in dout, make it nose heavy, You do not want it to be tail heavy.



Got another 16 or so flights in today after the rain went away Folded a wing on the ABC, but it was slready dammaged from a few propstrikes. ow well, slapped another one on and was off

Ken-Ohki
"I make things do what I want then to, The hell with what they are designed to do."

[Wingtips24]

Thaks Ken I can't wait to get back in the air, I have not had anything to fly for weeks now so I am really wanting to try this thing out, as you can tell now that I have said it like 5 times. Yesterday I went back to the Hobby Shop and got 3 more 11 X 80 props. I was going back today to get that plastic servo head thing to make a prop saver out of it like on one of the threads I saw. Among the things I ordered I got an extra 380 motorso at least I'll have two like motors idf it works. They also had balsa posts just about the same size as the SS Fuse so I got a few of those. I think I'll ram it down most of it, don't think I'll be making any tail crashes so hard to bend the fuse. I will pick up some more props like you said that are larger

BTW how does the wing bend it feels so strong I was wondering how they bend so easily,everyone seems to say they have? Do they weaken over time?Also I got some of this cool plastic flooring from some of the guys at work here who are doing construction in our building. It's cool it is 2 ft wide and light as thin plastic painting tarp but is sticky on one side. I saw that and thought of wing repair or wing coating for that matter

Folded a wing huh. What do you think is the first simple trick I should try, I think you said the SS wont barrel roll. I want to pick something to try to do.......uhhh after a few succesful flights. You know I was using the FMS simulator and realized that the turning with the rudder as oppose to ailerons was very choppy and not smooth. seems like flying with throttle , ailerons, and, elevator was much smoother. I actually never really used tthe rudder. What do you think of the steering? After using the sim it made me think aieron planes are the ticket, yet the SS is poular as ever. Soo what am I missing

BTW how did you get your motor/ gear to stay on the end of the fuse. I did not want to epoxy it for obvious reasons. I thought of using a screw to anchor it so I could get it back off, I saw that in one of the threads too. Any thoughts? what did you use? I am also tryin to figure out if I want to put an rack of some sort to velcro the electronics to it. Did you velcro or rubberband the stuff to the fuse? I was allllsoooo thinking of running the antenea down the fuse and up over the rudder, is this how you did yours, I don't want it to get caught on anything so I am trying to figure out where to run the thing.

[Ken-Ohki]

SS wings
strictly speaking, If you fly gental, never do trix or crash, the stock wing, prepared as per stick instructions should never fold. But what fun would that be.. Im am sure your wing feels very strong, but,, look at it like this.. all the weight of the plane is being held by the wings wile you are in thr air,, if you start to pull g's. the efective weight increases.. if Im not mistaken ( and I could be, but it does work like this ) your 1 pound plane flies through the air. the wings are suporting 1 pound of weight,, but,, pull back on the stick, say, 3 g's your 1 pound plane is now applying the force of 3 pounds on that wing. now imagin 9 g's 9 pounds.. Do you think you can hang a 9 pound weight under your wing and pick it up by the wingtips?. And we havent even factored in the wind sheer forces at work wile flying. So dont overestimate the strenght of the stock wing. Overkill is the word of the day when building a SS wing.

Your tile sounds interesting,,, imidiatly, I think it might be usefull in atlering the shape of the wing, make it flat bottomed.. but i wouldnt worry about that right now.


Tricks huh,, Im asuming you mean on the SS. FOr your first several flights, Just flying is a good trick. but after you get a feel for it, It loops like crazy, and will do inverted pretty easy. Stalls, and whipturns are also easy

I find turning with only a rudder very easy on the SS, it can be violent and smooth if you ease into it, or violent and jerky if you just hold over teh stick,, Most of it really boils down to piolet finess. I find my SS much easyer to control then my E-Starter, but teh estarter has more control, so naturaly, it is harder, be gental with teh sticks, it will fly gental.

I used a screw to mount my gearbox to the fusilage. I have also used clear tape, and that worked tooo.

I used double sided tape to hold my reciever, hasnt let go yet , and it has definitly been stressed, I also routed my antena through a hole on the rear wing mount and the rear rod holder ( the v shaped thing the rods got through between the wing and the tail ) I then just let it hang from there. I also use 3 rubberbands to hold my battery in place, I used to use 2 but since I ejected my battery the other day I use 3 now.

Ken-Ohki
"I make things do what I want then to, The hell with what they are designed to do."

[Wingtips24]

How long a flights do you get on your setup anyway. I went back to the hobby store , no chore it's fun and hard to go and just look, my wallet seems to just jump out of my pocket and star gettign things to by, reall I'm powerless to stop it.

Got some 5/32 brass tubing so I am making another brace like how you did on yours. I also got an larger prop cant remember the size but it was noticable bigger thicker in the scoup part. Got my parts in the mail today..oooo its like Christmas in May 28th. LOL ! Servos were smaller than I thought, batteries were bigger. Chunky little buggers they are. Oh yea what did you think about my charging these firebird batts a=on my 600 mah charger I had for my yellow bee. Will it just take longer or will I not get a full charge?

Today I took time to read about all the SS first flights so that I could grasp any last tips befor and making it nose heavy to tail heavy was seconded and thirded by a few as I read some had come to that conclusion by way of crash. I also heard gentle turns and big open space and that it glides down easy if you mess up. Well if you have any last tips before I maiden her let me know and as always thanks for helping me get this far.

[Ken-Ohki]

Brass Tubing? I didnt use that, but others have, I just used some fiberglass rod and tied it on. ( still holding strong too ). I know what ya mean about teh wallet in the hobby store. I usualy cant get out of ther under 100 bucks..

Cant remember your prop sizes? For shame, for shame hehehe, You prop will make or break you good time, but as long as it is close to recomended you will be ok. as example, My estarted had a 10x8 on it, it flew decent but lacked power. I acidently put on a 11x4.7, it still flew but way lacked power, when I got it down I discovered my mistake, and put the 11x8 on that I ment to. Now that prop made the plane come alive and made it dance like I have never seen it. Strongly recomended you buy several prop sizes and pitches so you can experiment to find whats best.

What did you end up buying for a plight pack? did you go cheap or buy real?? I wouldnt worry about small servos on the SS, other planes might not like tem, but the SS is so slow you should be ok.

battery chargin. you need a minimum of .2 volts more per cell to charge properly, .5 more is better, less voltage then that will not properly excite the battery to charge. SO, to properly charge a 7 cell pack, you need a charger that will output from 9.8 volts (acceptable ) ta 11.9 volts ( high end of good ) if you do not have enough voltage the pack will not properly charge, and bever become full... As far as amperage, or MAH, you can charge a 1000 MAH battery with a 50 MAH charger, it will take awile, but it will do it.so low amps on the charger is ok, it will just be slow, But low volts on the charger and you are wasting your time. Another word on charging, having more voltage then required is ok to a point, for instance, last year when I got back into this hobby, I could not afford a charger right off, I charged my packs with a 30 volt 500 mah wall transformer. with no load, the charger showed 36 volts, but when connected to my 7 cell battery pack, the line voltage droped down to whatever the pack needed, teh excess voltage I believe converted to MAH. but in any case, it worked very well, I would put my meter on it and watch it charge, and manualy stop it once I noticed the battery peak., after 2 or 3 days, I could just read the pack voltage, and know it neeed 30 mimutes or whatever charge time. Now, I am not suggesting you charge like that. I only mentioned it to show you what is possible.

My SS will take off land and fly within the confinds of the infield of a baseball diamnond. In fact, it will fly in conciderably less space then that if you need it to. SO that should give you an idea of how tight this plane can manuver. Naturaly, the more open air you have around you the better. The plane will fly gental or violently, one of the reasons its so populare.

Sometimes when you mess up it will recover itself, it depends how high you are, and how bad your rness up is. The plane also glides very well, I do all my landings deadstick with it from about 30 feet up, it almost lands itself with just a little imput from me to keep it in line with my landing area.

remaining tips.
1 Be gental with the controls.
2 more the 5 mphs wind is no good to learn this plane, Once learned, I fly in exxess of 10 mph with mine.
3 Be gental with the controls.
4 Make SURE your battery pack is securly held to the plane.
5 Did I mention be gental with teh controls?
6 ROG your maiden, you will be closer to teh ground or might not even take off if something is wrong, but if you hand launch, you are already starting 6 feet in the air, thats 6 extra foot of drop if something is wrong.
7 Ow forget all that and just fly
8 Ignore #7 ;p

seriousely thought, you should be fine. dont forget your CG. This plane dont like to be tail heavey. And recheck your CG before every flight, especaly your first flgiht of the day after putting on the wings.

Ow, I almost forgot, here is a little pilots voodoo for you. ( Superstition ) You must Name you plane before your maiden, its bad luck to fly a plane with no name, And heaven forbid you pick the wrong name and the plane dont like it.

My Cobra is named "Headstrong" becuse I was told it was to much plane for me, well, it isnt/wasnt, So I felt it a suitable name.

My ABC is named " Tsunami Huntress" When I maidened her it was blowing close ta 20 mph. I almost lost her when she got downwind and very high on me. But I would not give up, I stayed on the sticks and made her come back. Not bad for my first 3 chan plane. Tsunami is a japanese word, as with many Jap words, there is no direct literal translation. It means. A Great Wall of Water, so I took a liberty with the translation to English, and translate it as "Great Wall of Wind" or in my planes case, "Female wind Hunter".

My SS is named the "Red Baroness" I kept calling it the red baron, and Its a sin to give a plane a males name, I had something else in mind for her but I kept refuring to it as the Baron, so a quick sex change to the word and the Red Baroness was born

My E-Starter is named " RumpleTeazer" Just becuse its my favorite cats Name from the broadway musical "Cats". And this plane is very playful like a cat.

My Canard is named "Candy" becuse she flies so sweet ( slower then the SS ) She is a 1 chan walmart ARF and is a ideal first flight toy.

My fleet of cheesy black planes simply got named X1 - X4 becuse they all suck. The X-4 is still sitting in a box brand new awaiting me to figure out how to properly modify the X-3 for aceptable flight, once determined, The X-4 will will get the mod done profesionaly ( by me of course ) the X-1 is in pieces, the X-2 is also all tore up through countless experiments to try to make her fly. I suppose if I ever get it to fly, the X-4 will recive a more proper name. ( perhaps this is an example of a plane not liking its name and refusing to fly as per the rules of superstition. )

My little red twin is named "Addiction" becuse she currupts all my friends and addicts them to R/C flight , almost on contact. Everyone I have let try this plane has gone and bought themselves a R/C or is curently saving up for one.

Guess thats all from the book of Ken-Ohki this time out.

Ken-Ohki
"I make things do what I want then to, The hell with what they are designed to do."

[Wingtips24]

Ken,

Thanks for all the insight and plane "vodoo" sideponts. I named my plane "Little Mime" was just the first name that came to me though this plane does inspire the name Red Baron of some kind. My roomate called it that when he first saw it.

Okay to date here is how it has gone so far. On Friday night I went to bed really early like 9pm and woke up at 1:30 am. It was late so I started working on Mime. I was up till 9am when I felt it was ready. I was tied but hapy. I ended up getting a Firebird charger that morning . Had to go half way to philly to get it Got a flat on the way Got back and started thinking about my plane again . It was windy so could not fly it that day plus I wanted to view the handywork for a while in case destruction was waiting for me.

I also got a saudering iron 60 watt couldnt find a higher one at the HB store but I see why you said too. I kicked my self for not listening, fortunatelly it was only 6 bucks though. I'll get a better one. It worked but just took a while. I later got an idea. I was looking in my trunk and saw an umbrulla and saw the ribs on it and was like hmmmnn. These are light and made for supporting weight. I then saw my other umbrulla and realized I had 2. Don't need 2 umbrullas now do I. So I hacked into on and epoxied two of the steel ribs to the wings. Man that increased the strength alot. I have a digital camera so I will try to get some pictures for you. That night I took it to a parkinglot. I know I know concrete but I did not want it to leave the ground. I wanted to see whether it would roll straight and if the balance was right for wheel lift off. It kept nosing up extreamly then getting blown backwards and landing so I took it home. I changed the CG a bit and tried again the next day. Then it dawned on me I read somewhere to put the battery in front of the wing. So I moved it( I can still get my wing off too BTW) I also resupported the tail wheel and edges of the wing. I also used a piece if fishing line and connected my landing gear to the screw on the motor mount that I put in. That held the landing gear in place by pulling it from both sides.

Went back out last night again for some more preflight test ( 3rd outing) and I think the weight is closer to right but my plastic wheels broke from all the bouncing ( cheap things ) I think the CG is alot closer on but it was cut short duto the fact it would not roll. The wing was very sturdy. I can hold the tips and bounce it up and down with little movement.

As for my prop sizes I am using the 11X 80 prop and I also bought the next one bigger, that wa all they had. This is a very strong plane. It rolls at 1/3 throttle and takes off at a little over 3/4ths to give you an idea of the weight if my plane. I want to find a scale I am curious, I am sure it is heavy from all my reinforcements. I am going to get some new wheels today or tomorrow and just wait for a realy good day. And yes I went with my El Cheapo fight pack. Works pretty well but not that great of range. I accidentally broke my antenea and solderd it back together. Could that mess up the range at all?

From nose to tail this is what I did so far. I made a prop saver using a servo white plastic thingy and a rubber band. I put a screw in to hold the motor on the Fuse. i put a piece of balsa down the fuse ( Had a time of that it was snug)I reinforceed the leading edge of the wing with 12'' of brass. I reinforced the middle of the wing with anothe v shaped 12' peice of brass that rested on the wings using some flat balsa 3 mm thick to spread out the contact point. I then used a 5 inch piece of brass and the umbrella ribs to support the trailing edge. I stuck the umbrulla ribs in the v shaped brass
tubing and taped and epoxied as I did for all of them. I also had heavy fishing line going fron the leading edge corner and half way down the wing to the landing gear. and from half way down the trailing edge to the geaar and from the motor mount to the gear holding the gear abd the wing in place. As for the electronics. I have the battery being held with "2" rubberbands on some more of that 2 inch 3 mm thick flat balso under neath the clips. I also have the battery heabvy duty velcroed to stop sudden jerks during impacts. Mine slipped out of the rubberbands the first time. I mounted the the servos the regular wauy and ran the antena how you did yours. I mounted the ESC and Reciever on the flat balsa with velcro. All edges except the trailing edge are taped. The tail wheel has a piece of coat hanger to support it and fishing line pulling the other way to provide tension. I cut and smoothed a notch to allow full elevator movement and I thinks thats it. So there you have it. I must Admit I used a lot of tape and alot of epoxy. Almost a whole roll of the clear ducktape which I love by the way and about 25 little mixings of epoxy. It takes about 25 ft to start to have lift. Is that close to right. I must admit I was paying no attention to wind direction

BTW I did on one of my test flights use the down elevator and a little bit of turn to keep it next to the ground and I found that to be very smooth to use and I was like WOW that was so much better that a 2 channl. I can see that this plane can bee majorly affected by wind so it looks like I am going to have to wait for a seriusly calm day or I'll never get the CG right. SO I figuured I would take a bunch of low level ground test and I am so glad I did.I made a lot of changes in the way of reinforment as I saw how small bounces effected this particular plane. I feel pretty confident of handling a decent crash now. I hope to do a maiden tomorrow but I will wiat for the right day. It's easier to wait with more work having gone into it. Ha Heehee. Know what I mean. I like seeing it in my room and admiring its simple design and would like to do what I can to keep it looking in one piece.

BTW when the CG on this plane is right how will it take off , straight up , smooth and easy heavy on the nose??? And when I cut power what should I be looking for it to do?. How do you suggest I take off this plane seems to slide around alot more than my other two. They would take off and go pretty much up and then start to veir fter about 15 ft but it was easy to correct by then. I know I have not gone up high only 3 ft or so but each time I did it seemed to stand on its tail almost except the time I put some down elevator. THat was too cool! That was also before I moved the battery to in fron of the wing. Anyway thats the latest I am enjoing all the tset flights and experiments it is makin g me more confident of a more sucessful maiden.

[Ken-Ohki]

well, It certainly seems you have a cg issue happening. It also appears you have indeed added a good bit of weight in teh way of reinforcement. THis particulare plane can handle allot of extra weight, but most in this catigory cant, so keep that in mind. Lighter is generaly better. But some weight does also have its advantages.

the 11x8 and 12x6 seem to be most favored for the SS, so you should be ok there. But that 25 feet for R.O.G. strikes me as odd.. Especialy from pavement.
Facing the wind, my SS will lift off within 2 feet. It will take off instantly if there is more then 5 mph winds or so. Running with the wind, It requires no more then 5 feet, From gravel, the liftoffs are about 50% longer runs. With this plane, I pay no attention to wind direction on takeoff, I ROG in whatever direction my best runway is with no problems. But I do suggest into the wind until you are comfortable with it.

When I maidened my SS, it was way tail heavy, took off vertical then ovver backwords when I tried to touch off. Ended up mounting the battery in front of the wing to get it to fly right, my wing was to far forward, and I ened up balancing on a CG way off of speck becuse it was teh most simple quickest way to get it to work in the field.. Your wing needs to be slid rearword some if you battery has to be that far forward.

Some pix of the setup would be helpful, but it apears you are well on your way to gettingit in the air.

I just took my SS off the flightline. But not becuse anyhting was wrong with it, I needed parts.

read about that here
Bad Day

So having lost my smaller ESC, I had to choose wich plane to keep in the air. I decided on the E-starter over the SS becuse of its ability to fly in stronger winds, and the fact that it has ailerons. SO I striped the 20 amp esc out of her, and took the borrowed servos and radio out of her to be stuck back in a alpha trainer, , SO for at least I month I think, the SS will be sidelined. Ive been meaning to buy it its own flightpack anyway.

Then I descovered the motor on the E-Starter died as well, Luckly I had a replacement, so on goes a new motor, then I discover the gearbox is messed up, Luckily I also has a spare one of those too. So now my estarter is setup, all glued together again, and has the addition of a round servo horn on the ailerons, allowing the one moving up to move more then the one moving down, Unfortunely, I lost some overall movement becuse the circulare servo horn isnt big enough, Im hoping the uneven movement will make up for the Less movement thing, If it dont guess ill have to add that to my shopping list.

Ken-Ohki
"I make things do what I want then to, The hell with what they are designed to do."