Originally Posted by BestView

We flew the Radian yesterday, here's some video:

http://www.vimeo.com/2001194

Blimey, Johan, that's Radlof Park ! My parents house is a few blocks away up Hillcrest Road, and my (S African) house is over on the hill just behind the trees (Rome Glen)!

Sorry for the OT post - just got a bit excited/homesick there ..

new here and to the sport. Got a radian and have crashed and glued a few times,but I have had a hard time with charging the batteries. I have blown numerous fuses in my truck trying to charge. Tried my wife's car and same result. Anyone having problems with this? Horizon is sending me a new battery, but I think it may be the charger because it will blow a fuse without even having the battery connected to it. Trying to get into this thing, but a little frustrated. Perfect weather this morning and couldn't go fly!

Originally Posted by trefoil

new here and to the sport. Got a radian and have crashed and glued a few times,but I have had a hard time with charging the batteries. I have blown numerous fuses in my truck trying to charge. Tried my wife's car and same result. Anyone having problems with this? Horizon is sending me a new battery, but I think it may be the charger because it will blow a fuse without even having the battery connected to it. Trying to get into this thing, but a little frustrated. Perfect weather this morning and couldn't go fly!

Sorry to hear of your problem, I skipped the ""included" charger and use a balancing charger that I bought from Align. It charges both the smaller "included" battery and my larger 2100mah and I do this at home...I use the smaller battery as a backup, but frankly the 2100ma lasts me for hours once I get up in the air the Radian tends to float pretty nicely for a long time...you may want to consider using a larger battery or buy another small one as a backup and charge at home

Can some one post some home videos and pic of the Parkzone Radian . Thanks

Originally Posted by paul ace

Can some one post some home videos and pic of the Parkzone Radian . Thanks

See Post 35 and 46

Help please took the parkzone Radian up for a maided flight today winds 8-9 mph she went up with 50-60% motor power on.Then she started to balloon up and down making it hard to fly . Is this plane going to be a bad one from parkzone one good thing got her down ok . Can this plane take a bit of wind pic of battery here to thanks for your help . I have the torjan and corsair good plane ...

pics

More pics

Originally Posted by paul ace

Help please took the parkzone Radian up for a maided flight today winds 8-9 mph she went up with 50-60% motor power on.Then she started to balloon up and down making it hard to fly . Is this plane going to be a bad one from parkzone one good thing got her down ok . Can this plane take a bit of wind pic of battery here to thanks for your help . I have the torjan and corsair good plane ...

What you describe is proposing. This is caused by having too much up elevator trimmed into the plane. This is usually caused by poor trim and having the plane too nose heavy. This is usually based on having the battery too far forward.

1) Get the plane high, then power off. Get it gliding as straight and true as you can, into the wind. If you are getting proposing, add a click of down trim and see if it settles down. Keep adding down till it stops.

If you have to add so much down that the plane is starting to dive, then you need to move the CG back. Land

2) Move the battery back about 1/2". Launch again. Get hit high and see what happens. Now you might need to add some up trim.


Continue to work with the balance and the trim till the plane will glide nicely, into the wind with the motor off. It may take several flights. Once you have the battery and the elevator correct, put a mark on the foam so you can get the battery back to that spot the next time you put it in the plane. Note that if you have a second battery that is a different weight or different shape, you may have to make a second mark specific to that battery.

Proposing is ALWAYS caused by too much up elevator. The plane tries to climb, based on up elevator trim, it stalls, nose drops, it picks up speed and comes out of the stall. The up elevator trim again tries to put it into a climb and it stalls, over and over again.

The steps I gave you will help you fix this.

I did some modifications on my Radian and it flies great.

(1) Sand all the mold mark on the wing and fuselage (take 1hr)
(2) Light weight spackle on the holes and non-even surface (take 10min)
(3) Change the control horn linkage - DLG style... more safe (take another 10min)
(4) Put "2-cents" on the tail to move the CG backward a little bit

Radian really thermals well, compare to other foamy I have.
I usually do few motor climbs and can thermal for an hour plus.
Really nice relax toy for non-contest flying.

-Kai

aeajr Thanks for the help i think the battery is moving up and down in the plane making the plane go up and down(cg) i have locked the battery down now.

My 2nd post... thanks AEAGR for the tips. I think my Radian is about half glue at this point. I got it about a week and a half ago! he he. New flyer here. Went out tonight after the glue dried from this morning and had a blast. Can I ask...Is the last flight always a gravity check? just kidding...or not. Anyway, really magical right after sunset when the plane is glowing orange in the sky.
I experienced the same fly characteristic a couple of times, if there is a good breeze and your heading into it the plane wants to go up too fast and then stalls. I have been trying to keep the nose down a little on the way up and it helps alot. I'll try marking where the battery is when it is flying well. Thanks all. Fun stuff.

Originally Posted by paul ace

aeajr Thanks for the help i think the battery is moving up and down in the plane making the plane go up and down(cg) i have locked the battery down now.

A loose battery will definately not caues the plane to go up and down, but it might be moving back and forth, causing the CG to change. The battery should not be allowed to move.

Flying better now.With motor on full power push down to stop the nose going up to fast. with power off ok.

Maidened my Radian this afternoon.....first time flying and had a great time.


a few thoughts...

I too experienced alot of instability with the aircraft pitching up and down. As others have said, climb out required almost full elevator. Once motor was off I was pretty much giving constant stick inputs to keep her level. Maybe this is normal? I don't know. Winds were light but variable and I could see the tops of trees blowing different directions so I am sure that was a factor as well.

I checked the CG multiple times but I felt like the plane was out of trim. The single velcro strap used to secure the battery is inadequate. It runs fore and aft under a small piece of plastic to which it is glued. The glue does not hold, which allows the strap (and your battery) to slide back and forth. I am going to put some velcro tape on the deck of the cockpit and the battery to resolve this.

I followed the instructions and kept the rates on low since I am a beginner. However, to my eye there is very little elevator movement compared to the rudder so I may adjust that for the next flight.

I practiced landing three times, and after each one I noticed the wings had to be pushed in a half inch or so on each side. The landings were all pretty smooth so I was surprised that the wings were not snug and am unsure if this was occuring in-flight or not.

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That being said I am really happy with this plane. As an RTF, I could fly it with out being overly concerned for damaging something I spent tons of time building. Plus, the fact that it came with everything took all the guess work out of which prop goes with which motor, ESC setup, etc. While I look forward to learning all that stuff, the Radian package lets you just get out there and do it. This was especially key for me as I am pretty much flying by myself at this point.

There were some nice moments where the plane was just hanging there in the sky. Low passes were awesome to as it really cool to see something that big silently whooshing by overhead. Really, really fun........exciting and relaxing at the same time.


I had a question about determining the CG. The manual says 2.5" from the leading edge of the wing. Do I measure that along the horizontal axis of the fuselage or do I measure following the curve of the underside of the wing?

Also, what is the recommend method to change the control horn linkage as recommended by Kai@UCSB above? I get the z-bend part but am not sure how to you get the bends in the right place so that servo center has the control surface centered.

Last question, how do I estimate flight time? I have the stock 11.1v 1300mAh battery but have no idea how long it is supposed to run. Will the battery just run itself dead if I let it or is some power always conserved for flight control once voltage drops below a certain level?

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Thanks for the help and to anyone who is thinking about getting one I definitely recommend it.