Originally Posted by kjs1961

My Radian should be at the shop today, and I hope I'm back in town tomorrow to pick it up.

Been reading this thread all the way through, you guys should get together and write a how to e-book for the bird. I've really learned a lot from all your posts.

Lets see if I've got everything.

Out of the box while charging the battery.

1. Upgrade the the stock prop with a Aeronaut 11x6 or Graupner 10X8

2. Reinforce and straiten the fuselage with cf rod or strip.
Plan to reinforce wing slot shoulder with CF, packing tape, or toothpicks.
Plan to replace stock spar tube with CF tube.
Plan to reinforce stock cowling cup with a disk cut from a cd.

3. Check and/or replace control horn connections.

4. Check security of control rods they sometime get loose.

5. CG Slightly aft for thermal and more control under powered assent.
ON CG Ballast for better wind handling (Steel rod in spar tube).

6. Magnets, velcro, or ruberbands to secure hatch, tail and wings.

7. Paint or cover lower wing surface with high vis paint or stickers this babby gets high fast .

8. Lawn chair, binoculars, and pick-nic lunch she may never come down.

9. Couple of trim tosses to dial her in.

10. Gentle toss, low power initial climb (may need some nose down), add power for fast climb rate (more nose down), full throttle = rocket (lot of nose down).

11. Crash her early and get a ding so not to worry so much about it, every one else has and survived, likely I will too.

12 Book trip to to see AussieJarrad for hovering lessons.

13. Go have fun.

That sound about right?
Jay

Thanks for the cliffnotes summary of this thread lol. very useful.

You forgot. Buy an extra wing, do a little cuttin' and make a Radian 120.

Been flying the Radian at night.

Parkzone Radian Sailplane with Lights (9 min 14 sec)

Parkzone Radian Sailplane with Nav Lights (9 min 45 sec)

Jay:

I mostly agree with Gary but would consider the following:

I would change the prop but suggest the Graupner 11x8. It provides more performance yet does not overload the battery, ESC or motor. The stock prop's performance is fine but, at this time anyway, sometimes breaks. The breakage can destroy the fuselage and your day.

I would either change the pushrod connections (DuBro mini) or treat the stock ones very gently.

Definitely paint the underside of the wings and stab. Black is best but dark red or blue will do. I've had my Radian to a measured 2,469 ft.and could not have done that without the dark red wing undersides.

Move the CG aft to about three inches from the LE. The further aft, the quicker your Radian will respond to thermals, the easier it will be to turn quickly and the easier it will be to land. It'll also have a wider speed range; it can go slower and it can go faster.

None of the rest matters. If you fly your Radian the way it was intended (climb & glide), the wings won't fly off. The flexibility of the rear portion of the fuselage is actually a good thing; the tail will tend to flex & not break should your Radian experience a sudden arrival. Do not stiffen anything, the flexing is on purpose.

I don't wish offend but I stick by what I've said.

Thermals to all,
Joe

I took a few short flights this afternoon with the Webbie installed. Wind was pretty gusty so I didn't stay up long, but wanted to test it out. I do think I need to move it forward a few inches and get it over the CG line. It was really hard to tell with the wind conditions but it seemed to make the plane a bit bouncy as is.

A short video is on Youtube, currently processing so it should be available in a few hours. Here are some snapshots from the video, hope you enjoy.

Video is up. Not a great sailplane example, very unstable in the high winds. I'm happy with the video quality of the Webbie however. The resolution and quality was reduced as I don't yet have any good video editing software so I had to convert the format, edit with Windows Movie Maker, and then save as .wmv - then Youtube took it's chunk out of the quality.

If anyone can suggest a product similar to Windows Movie Maker as far as features and ease of use, but will process MP4 files, please let me know!

Parkzone Radian Sailplane aerial video (4 min 26 sec)

Originally Posted by AeroRecon

Quick flight showing how I play boomerang with my Radian. Catches were not so good but still fun. Will try to get something better.
Cross-posting to cover both Radian threads.
-Allen

Decided to remove the video. If you have quoted it in your post, please also remove it. Thanks

Okay Allen I've been practicing catching. Went out like five times to mostly play boomarang-rang catch with the Radian. Finally started to get it today. During the last 20 minutes I caught all but one. The air was still but I need to stay on my feet to do it. It does get easier with practice. I'm sure the wind will make it harder but I'll get better and that will allow me to fly in unusual places here in AZ where there's not many LZ's.
James

Originally Posted by Joe Minton

I would change the prop but suggest the Graupner 11x8. It provides more performance yet does not overload the battery, ESC or motor. The stock prop's performance is fine but, at this time anyway, sometimes breaks. The breakage can destroy the fuselage and your day.

I fitted 11x6 Graupner blades the other day but not yet flown with them. When I received the blades found them to have 8mm sholders which will not fit the radian spinner assy. Apparently insufficient research on my part

I thinned down the sholder part by about 1.5mm with a dremel. Bench test seems ok. Also, the blades do not fold all the way back when fitted to the radian spinner. Just a few things to be aware of.

Lert:

I did the same with a set of Aeronaut 11x6 blades. They worked quite well except for the partial folding.

I settled on the Graupner 11x8s (which fully fold) when my tests showed they didn't overload anything. Both will climb the Radian at about a 60-degree angle with good speed. The Graupner 11x8 blades have 6mm shoulders but 2mm pivot holes, which must be carefully enlarged. It is easier to narrow the shoulders than it is to enlarge the holes. In either case, they don't break ;o)

Joe

Originally Posted by leaktech

Okay Allen I've been practicing catching. Went out like five times to mostly play boomarang-rang catch with the Radian. Finally started to get it today. During the last 20 minutes I caught all but one. The air was still but I need to stay on my feet to do it. It does get easier with practice. I'm sure the wind will make it harder but I'll get better and that will allow me to fly in unusual places here in AZ where there's not many LZ's.
James

Excellent! Practice makes perfect with this method. Indispensable when flying over sand. Glad to hear its working out for you. Depending on the stability of the wind, sometimes its easier. At the beach, sometimes I had it almost hovering into the wind and I had to walk forward to pull it out of the air. Doing that I just kept it under power about 10ft off the deck, and then chopped the throttle and walked under as if descended into my raised hand.

Got mine about a month ago. Was fairly instant victim of spin nose in the grass. Wings blew through the saddle, cockpit area from under cowl to behind canopy broke in 2 parts additional parts, with severe cracks almost complete breaks elsewhere in the area. Yes, part of the problem was over controlling (PIO). But the joint on the right side of the fuse was found very loose and the other side compressed, which related to the left spin in.

Anyway, all epoxied. Had to move the front canopy magnet, actually replace it - round mags @ Home Depot. Shortened canopy by 1/4" (!) due to compression. All was repaired with 5 min Gorilla Epoxy.

The fuse (and HZ is sending me another gratis, thank you) is out of alignment and the bird still wants to turn left even with full right rudder trim, but it's doable if I'm very careful with inputs, slight down trim, moved the battery forward to get a stock CG at 2.5 - 2.75" from LE.

Had an awesome fun flight this morning in slight winds. 60% power max, slight down trim w/additional down inputs as needed.

Here's the TIP on repairing dings in the leading edge or smoothing over epoxied repairs elsewhere: Red Devil (or your fav brand) One Time Spackle. As light as foam, water soluble and adjustable viscosity, adheres, sands super easy. I painted my Rad yellow, so I spray a little over the sanded spackle for sealing and aesthetics - shows up as a matt sheen area, but restores my leading edge shape and stays on.

I imagine if my bird was still white, the repair would be almost invisible - could shoot a little flat or satin water base clear over it for sealing, or even paint on.

Hope this helps.

Don't just fly a Radian, BE a RAD-ian!

jackson

Don't just fly a Radian, BE a RAD-ian!
.................................................. ....
Amen! A little hint for the future..I had a failure on launch, which caused a hammerhead stall, straight down on the spinner. After epoxying it together, my nose was also 1/4 " short. An earlier post said to dip it in boiling water, so I did. The beads expand, causing lizard skin, but I used the back of a spoon to pretty well smooth it back out. Forgot to do the same to the interior, so had to grind out clearance for the motor The canopy now fits fine, and it flies beautifully, as a Radian should

Originally Posted by makemcool

Don't just fly a Radian, BE a RAD-ian!
.................................................. ....
Amen! A little hint for the future..I had a failure on launch, which caused a hammerhead stall, straight down on the spinner. After epoxying it together, my nose was also 1/4 " short. An earlier post said to dip it in boiling water, so I did. The beads expand, causing lizard skin, but I used the back of a spoon to pretty well smooth it back out. Forgot to do the same to the interior, so had to grind out clearance for the motor The canopy now fits fine, and it flies beautifully, as a Radian should

I've found if you just pour boiling water over the affected areas (a little at a time), as opposed to the prolonged heat exposure of dipping you don't get the lizard skin effect.

Originally Posted by lilleyen

I've found if you just pour boiling water over the affected areas (a little at a time), as opposed to the prolonged heat exposure of dipping you don't get the lizard skin effect.

I spoon the boiling h2o on the affected area. Lizard skin seems to dissipate after a few weeks. Sometimes rubbing an ice cube will help with lizard acne.
James

Radian will Not Stay up as long as use too??

Hi, I put this as a New thread & New reply Sorry.

Can some one please help me out on this one.

I Don"t Understand why Back in late spring & start of winter the radian use to stay up longer in the sky and when i turn Never use to do nose dives. Now for some resone over the last week i took it out two times and i be lucky if it stays up for 6 mins, Same goes for the New Radian. Just wont stay up for long & when i turn its doing nose dives? Do yous have any idear why this will be happing? Im starting to get Tick off about it.

I tried the more up elevator & Down no luck.

Cheers,
PJ...