Originally Posted by JuZ

I have a COG question.

I seem to be having the opposite trouble as everyone else with my COG, I have to pull the stock battery almost fully forward to get the quoted 63mm from leading edge

Mine's the same way. I don't use the stock battery, but a similar one, and I have it as far forward as I can and can't even get the cg to the recommended point. It's probably a mm or two back from that, but it seems to fly fine there. I moved the ESC as far forward as I could too but it doesn't make much difference.

Originally Posted by av8r

Mine's the same way. I don't use the stock battery, but a similar one, and I have it as far forward as I can and can't even get the cg to the recommended point. It's probably a mm or two back from that, but it seems to fly fine there. I moved the ESC as far forward as I could too but it doesn't make much difference.

Guys don't worry about the recommended CG, mine is 1/2 inch back from the recommended location, it's just a start point.

hmmm, i might wanna try and different battery as well. i'm using stock one and although i benefit from a 30 minute Flight, i wouldnt mind trying my TP 2100mah 15c Battery. I'm lovin every minute of this Parkzone Radian.. Was up @ the crack of Dawn this morning and there was just about 0% winds and i was having a blast with this Glider. I Also have the Aspire EP Glider as well and it's made of Wood, Balsa and Monocote..It's a heavier Glider and goes much much fast and pierces thru the sky really faster than the Radian. I guess that's because of the Weight. With my Radian, i also look for No Wind Days but with the Aspire Ep i look forward to the wind cause it flies soooo smooth and o love catching Thermos...
So if your ready to move on to a more performance Glider but at the same time will still glide,,,i recommend the Aspire EP...U will for sure feel the difference in power. When your up and u point down,,this Glider is gonna go down Fast

Reggie

Had a great flight this morning from my backyard. I live out in the country in a hilly area. The sky was cloudless and the winds were light but coming up the hill, not down the hill like they were last night. There was no lift at all last night.

There wasn't any radical lift on this morning's flight but there was some very subtle and sneaky lift. After a short motor run of 38 seconds and not quite full throttle, the Radian was holding its own for several minutes, finding some lift here and there. Then I found some better lift and circled around in that for a while. After a few minutes, I realized that I couldn't see the dark wingtips anymore and the plane was getting very small, so I headed west toward the top of the hill to my north to try to get out of the lift. I circled around there for a while but it didn't seem to be getting any bigger even though it was closer to being overhead than before. I started pushing the nose down and made my circles tighter. It was hard to get it to come down but I finally did. It was going so fast at one point that I could hear it whistling. I was afraid of over-speeding it, but it didn't seem to mind.

I got back in some lift again a few times but not as strong as before. I made a nice landing on my tiny backyard "runway" with a light tailwind even, and still had to circle a few times on the approach to get it down low enough to land short. The picture was taken where it landed.

The flight lasted 35 minutes with only one motor run of 38 seconds at less than full throttle. The pack was still at 12.23V.

A couple things I learned from this flight:

It's a fine line between being concerned that there's not enough lift and being scared that you're not going to be able to get it back down.

Sometimes flights are not limited by the aircraft's battery. They can be limited by the transmitter battery and pilot fatigue. I'm going to get my neckstrap out next time. I don't know if I'm ready for a chair yet, but I'm thinking about it. And I'm going to buy a new tx battery, a LiPo one.

Amazing glider!

I just found and ordered a new lipo 3s 2500mah battery for my Futaba 7C FAAST transmitter, ostensibly, it will last 4-5 times longer than my old NiCd 600mAh battery that lasts only about 2 hours before recharging. These are only $19 from Hobby City vs about $34. for the old ones. http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/...?idProduct=6955 they say it will fit Futaba/JR transmitters. Must be something out there for the DX5 too.

Originally Posted by sylifis

I just found and ordered a new lipo 3s 2500mah battery for my Futaba 7C FAAST transmitter, ostensibly, it will last 4-5 times longer than my old NiCd 600mAh battery that lasts only about 2 hours before recharging. These are only $19 from Hobby City vs about $34. for the old ones. http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/...?idProduct=6955 they say it will fit Futaba/JR transmitters. Must be something out there for the DX5 too.

Yep, that's the one I've been looking at. Think I'm going to try some Zippys for the Radian too.

I've been using a NiMH 1800mAH pack in the tx that I got from cheapbatterypacks.com, but it's getting pretty old and doesn't last as long as it used to.

I had my first proper flight with mine today, even managed to find some thermals

We had 5 of them out today, windy but the lift was big!

first thermalling for me today - how high is too high? - I have the Spektrum 6i radio and AR6200 full range receiver. (I could still see it and control it but the thermal kept taking it up until I pushed the nose down) - does anyone know the range with a setup like this?

As long as it's a full range reciever, you'll lose site before you lose connection.

Originally Posted by Hostage-46

As long as it's a full range reciever, you'll lose site before you lose connection.

Dan, what is the highest you have recorded thus far with your RAM 2?

with the radian, 1500 agl, that's high enough where I've proven my point get's real tiny from there... In a 3M+ sailplane, (using AR7000 and AR9000 recievers) 2000 is as high as I've gone, and again it's where I can barely see the thing.

I had a nice relaxing flight with my Radian this evening after work, flew if for 40 minutes and used the motor 3 times
I've made up a small metal firewall to protect the wiring from the rotating back of the motor, it weighs 13g and has balanced the plane up beautifully

I just put a (gentle) twist or two in my battery leads to pull the harness back from the motor.

Try routing the wires back under the velcro that holds the speed control. Works fine.