You heli experience WILL help, I am almost sure of that. You already know not to let it get too far away probably ... and that is mistake #1 for rookies. Plus you should have no problems with orientation when it is flying towards you instead away from you. mistake #2.

I should have my TaylorC in a few days. I am excited!

Wow, this is great! Folks are already getting thier's in the air. Anyone thought about a scale pilot figure(s)? I don't have mine yet...nor I am I in a postition to see it anyway. I'm wondering what would work though. Thanks!

Barnesjonr, are you doing a review? I would like to see some pics and video of one of these things soon. I have to wait at least a week until my LHS gets them in. I will wait bc the folks at my LHS are good people and I would like to buy it from them.

Blakevan ... No sir I am not doing this one, although a fellow Author has it on his slate I am sure?

No, I just bought one because I am a sucker for a pretty face!

It is great to support your LHS if possible, thats for sure!

Originally Posted by johnm15141

>snip< And the tail-wheel fell off almost immediately, I'll check the collar on mine tonight. (Although it really doesn't need a tail-wheel, since the tail comes off the ground almost immediately, he flew most of the morning with out it.)

Hey that is just like in the pictures that Horizon has on their website: Taylorcraft in flight with no tail wheel!

Proof! No tail wheel needed...

I just installed the Park 450 motor, it really looks puny compared to the rest of the plane...

...biting fingernails...

I caught the tailwheel wire in the carpeting of my car when we went out for the video shoot. Tailwheel came off immediately on takeoff. We never had one fall off before that or after that. There could be some tolerance issues on the small plastic keeper. A drop of CA would remedy it I believe.

Sounds like the first flight reports are coming in. I personally really like this bird. It is a winner hands down in my opinion, and that isn't because of my affiliation with E-flite. Everything about eh T-Craft just works, and works darn good.

John

Originally Posted by John Redman

I caught the tailwheel wire in the carpeting of my car when we went out for the video shoot. Tailwheel came off immediately on takeoff. We never had one fall off before that or after that. There could be some tolerance issues on the small plastic keeper. A drop of CA would remedy it I believe.

Sounds like the first flight reports are coming in. I personally really like this bird. It is a winner hands down in my opinion, and that isn't because of my affiliation with E-flite. Everything about eh T-Craft just works, and works darn good.

John

She is a nice looking plane - I can't wait to get mine! I have a set of skis ready to go should the weather not want to cooperate - also a 480 if I need it with the skis...

Cheers,
Steve

Originally Posted by steve1814

She is a nice looking plane - I can't wait to get mine! I have a set of skis ready to go should the weather not want to cooperate - also a 480 if I need it with the skis...

Cheers,
Steve

Steve- Did you make the skis or purchase them somewhere?
I'd love to see the specs- thanks

Originally Posted by John Redman

Hey guys, first question regarding the gluing in of hinges. A fair amount of our research in the market place says that modelers today would rather us do all the work if possible. For that reason we try to accomplish the most we can. We do not glue the hinges in on our 3D park flyers, becasue I have yet to get ot a point of controlling the vendor during manufacturing to the tollerances we would like. We have not had any complaints on the Mini Pulse XT or the Mini Ultra Stick. I will look into the setups at the factories and see what I can come up with.

The comparison between our Taylorcraft and the Hobby Lobby Bird Dog is a nice comparison. I believe we are a slightly larger model with 100 square inches more wing area which in turns costa bit more with covering, materials and such. But overall the Bird Dog looks very nice.

I will look at the nose structure on the next coupel of models and see what I can do for you guys. All great info guys.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

John

John-
My 2 cents on hinges;
If your factory can get them centered- terrific! If not, then it's much more trouble to redo them than it is to just install them correctly the first time.

REintalling hinges-cutting through them, reslotting and reinstalling includes a little more work and a bit of risk of damaging the covering than there is just installing the hinges. There's the possibility of having the exisiting hinges in the way, cutting a TE, LE or slicing the covering while cutting through the exisitng hinges, etc. Depends on a modeler's skill. It didn't take long to do a clean re-hinge on my Texan's tail surfaces, but then again I have a lot of experience as a craftsman. Some ARF builders either don't have the time, patience, experience, or interest, and in those cases the modeler may just fly the plane as is and either be disappointed or just accepting of flight performance less than optimum.

On my Texan I would not have re-hinged the surfaces had I felt it wouldn't influence the flight performance. The rudder and one elevator half were off enough to effect flight.

My T-Craft just came in. One aileron is spot on. The other is off by enough that it would effect trim, and I'll have to replace the hinges. Same with the elevator on the Taylorcraft. Both surfaces are crooked- they are not off evenly and still parallel, but they are correct on one end and off on the other.

Since the covering, the decals, the fuse framing, and many other details are really clean on the T-Craft (better than the Texan I think), then I see no reason why the factory won't be able to find consistency with the hinges.

I agree with the others in this thread and the Texan thread. There's alot more right with these 2 new beautiful products from E-flite than there is wrong with them. And you know your active participation is appreciated, as is our opportunity to offer constructive feedback.

thanks,
'beat

Originally Posted by wingbeat

John-

I agree with the others in this thread and the Texan thread. There's alot more right with these 2 new beautiful products from E-flite than there is wrong with them. And you know your active participation is appreciated, as is our opportunity to offer constructive feedback.

thanks,
'beat

Agreed, please post your build progress and certainly some in-flight pic's or better yet some video!!

Thanks!!!!

Oh, lets not forget the first couple of posts.....

such as this one


http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...92&postcount=9

We get it now can you stop? The rest of us want to have fun and enjoy this plane.

Originally Posted by guapoman2000

Oh, lets not forget the first couple of posts.....

such as this one


http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...92&postcount=9

I think it is time for us to enjoy this plane. Granted most electric models are built differently than those intended for glow. Just because one of us does not agree does not make it wrong!
Gary