Originally Posted by Greywing

+1 on that JG. This thread has provided a forum on many interesting and useful experiments some of which clearly improve the performance of the Radian.

So you admit that some experiments do not improve the performance. I certainly agree with you _ _ _ +1 LOL

There are some posters that feel that they must pontificate about why these modifications do or don't work.

Many readers which includes participants in the forum are interested to understand the reasons why some experiments are beneficial and some are not.

I would recommend to those who feel obliged to provide their theory on these changes move to the appropriate thread on modeling science and discuss it to their hearts content with the experts,

No one is obliged to provide theory but it is often useful to assure that the readers are not misled by as you wrote below "amateurs to our toys".

i.e. leave us amateurs to our toys and the fun they provide us.

The man difference between an amateur and a professional is that the amaterur is not sure of what results to expect while the professional knows what to expect.

Many kit manuals clearly show that our models are not toys and give good advice for safe handling and avoidance of potential damage to property and serious injuries to people; even depth. That is good advice to all fliers.

Have your fun in a safe environment.
The more anyone knows about their models, how they fly, how to control them , makes better/safer pilots.

Zor

And so the pontification continues . . . QED

Originally Posted by Greywing

And so the pontification continues . . . QED

Join the I am biting my tongue group!
It is just simpler, there is much more fun stuff to discuss here.

Originally Posted by ddruck

I can show a couple of pictures of my endlessly modified, bashed up, guinea pig Easy Glider Pro.It is just 2 wires and 2 aluminum tubes glued into the foam. To use the standard push rod you could glue plywood control horn, but about 1.5 in long at the pivot point. The pivot point is just a brass tube glued into a square of balsa and that is glued into the foam. balsa provides larger gluing area. Overall flying tails are much easier to damage and for a foam glider, not much advantage.

Nice mod... I think I just scraped the V-Mount and will try yours using the existing HStab saddle as part of the bearing assembly and rear servo for added tail weight.

We reserve the right to change our mind on any mod at any time

Originally Posted by Jovanx

..I've been trying to figure out how to get the CG where I want it without having to use dead weight on the tail. So far the only idea that comes to mind is moving one of the servos to the rear?

Agreed, dead non-functional weight is against my religion. I have just started flying my 0-Decalage Radian with the CG at 3.5" ( 1 inch rear of the factory recommended ) and I love it with, dare I say, neutral/no trim. I was a bit of a woosie getting to that 3.5" slowly inching back and then I just went from 3" to 3.5". But to do that I have about 40g of dead weight on the tail. Even so flying my "Radian Heavy" with that extra dead weight, 50mm aluminium spinner, 11X8 Graupner and HK Wing Cam, and heavier 40A ESC ( Turnegy Super Brain ) it is thermalicious and out performs the same airframe set at 2.75 to 3.0" CG where I only needed 10g dead weight on the tail. Reacts quickly and smoothly to entering and exiting thermals... just like Naton said.

Since my Radian and I are amateurs, how long will it take to be a professional? This pontification has turned into obfuscation for me.

Originally Posted by tyme4me

Since my Radian and I are amateurs, how long will it take to be a professional? This pontification has turned into obfuscation for me.

3 months of dedicated practice every other day of the week. Hit the simulator for a couple of hours per day, when not practicing with the actual plane. Within 6 months, you'll be really good with your Radian.

Originally Posted by Mike 52732

I enjoy flying mine. Bought a Pro but haven't gotten around to flying it.

Mike

I've always flown rudder/elevator/spoiler sailplanes. I might be severely tempted by the Radian Pro ailerons. But then you get those times when the Radian gets locked into a thermal, and then; who cares about ailerons. Until someone behind me says "How can you see that thing ... where is it?" That's when I need to break the trance of hypnotic bliss and wish I had ..... SPOILERS!

In the last post I mentioned the Turnegy Super Brain ESC

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=10941

which I now use on my Radian after damaging the 30A eFlite OEM ESC. It worked OK but one of the capacitors was well dinted after a crash when the LiPo slammed forward into it. On the PRO side it is 1/2 the price of the PHZ eFlite replacement, has built-in data logger (V, A, RPM, Temp etc ) firmware upgradeable and can be programmed by PC or in the field with a programming box. TX programming of an ESC drives me nuts and won't use it. On the CON side it is larger and heavier and has a linear 2A BEC. Add a USB Linker http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=10628 and a program box http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=10945

and the total package of 3 items is the price of the 30A eflite.

I ordered several for all my planes for interchangabliity and one common programmer. Sold my Turnegy Plushes and Turnegy Programming Card and sold my spare eflite 30A and serial programming cable and software. End result many of my planes are over spec'd on this 40A ESC. e.g. a EasyStar that only draws 18A ( 200+ W) on an outrunner but I have interchangable spare ESC's amongst all my planes.

I programmed it with soft brake and it works whereas I found the soft brake on the eflite to not work as the prop would feather a little or sometime for the whole flight. Some have suggested the hard brake on the Radian plastic hub is unnecessary wear and tear. Other have flown 100's of flights with no problem or broken hub. Other have looked at it funny and it broke.

This thread has gotten to be exhausting, at least for me. I mean we're at over 12,000 posts now. The next most popular under the Electric Sailplanes category is on the Radian Pro. That should be a sign. Maybe, just maybe its time for the Radian series to get its own sub forum? I did a search on "mods" in this thread and got over 600 hits. And the personal miscommunication and opinion threads are just noise.

IDK....Maybe I'm just lazy.

Non FPV, high altitude flying.

Parkzone Radian High Altitude Scare (10 min 22 sec)

Originally Posted by Radio.Active

In the last post I mentioned the Turnegy Super Brain ESC

Have you done any tests to compare in-flight measurements of WOT current with static tests using the same motor and prop? I have been tempted to buy a SuperBrain ESC just to satisfy my curiosity about that.

Originally Posted by gmtx77

This thread has gotten to be exhausting, at least for me. I mean we're at over 12,000 posts now. The next most popular under the Electric Sailplanes category is on the Radian Pro. That should be a sign. Maybe, just maybe its time for the Radian series to get its own sub forum? I did a search on "mods" in this thread and got over 600 hits. And the personal miscommunication and opinion threads are just noise.

IDK....Maybe I'm just lazy.

There is already a Radian Mods thread

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...an+decalag+mod

This thread cannot have a sub-thread as it is already a subset of a larger forum. It also cannot have stickys. That's just the way RCG is.

The 808 camera threads got around this by reserving the first few posts for "quasi-stickys" to answer all the repetitive generic questions.

If mod discussions are annoying the newbees here then the moder's can go over to the other thread and this thread can replied to ever new question with ... "do a search" cuz, like other mature threads, just about everything to do with the out-of-the-box Radian has been said a dozen times.

The Easy Star forum which has degenerated into thousands of chit-chat OT posts, because there is just so much you can say about it, deal with this by starting a new thread each year with a bunch of "quasi stickys" in the first half dozen posts. They now get 8 or 9k of posts each year to discuss that foamy but mostly not.

Originally Posted by kaptondave

Have you done any tests to compare in-flight measurements of WOT current with static tests using the same motor and prop? I have been tempted to buy a SuperBrain ESC just to satisfy my curiosity about that.

I haven't, but your question is important. I'll do that the next time I'm out - fully charged LiPo, WOT, then launch and see if the amps go up or down.

I used to run my RCLogger http://www.rclogger.com with the power module a couple of years ago to get a readout of A, V, RPM and individual cell voltages but it was a pretty bulky module. So I began to just do static tests with my Wattmeter to see that I have some margin of error on the ESC when I upgrade a prop.

Nice find R.A. When they call this a "data logger", they aren't talking about anything but min and max readings are they? That is, this is not a multipoint time dependent data recorder is it?

Originally Posted by Radio.Active

I haven't, but your question is important. I'll do that the next time I'm out - fully charged LiPo, WOT, then launch and see if the amps go up or down.

I used to run my RCLogger http://www.rclogger.com with the power module a couple of years ago to get a readout of A, V, RPM and individual cell voltages but it was a pretty bulky module. So I began to just do static tests with my Wattmeter to see that I have some margin of error on the ESC when I upgrade a prop.

Speaking of props I and my friend would like to upgrade ours to mybe a 11x6.
Could you please give us a place where we could purchase such while usung the same spinner?
If we need a diff spinner thats ok to.