When I did my Paul Naton Mods, I looked at my old prop. It was a little dirty, and had a few nicks. So I ordered a new one to go with my new spinner, and clean fuse.
I did not even give it much thought. at about flight number 5, I was powering up and only made it about 100' off the ground when there was a big crack. Brought it back in, and the prop had snapped! which of course caused it to be out of balance and broke the firewall badly. I looked at the prop and sure enought I got one of the Old ones! Why are these still in the system???

Now, fixed the firewall, and put the old beat up prop back on. No problems

i ordered spinner and blades just in case. you know, it's good to have spares. (haven't got them yet, so can't make comments on them).
but so far i have had no problems at all with the rad. it is a splendid machine. all works great. and all is stock.
i have other foamy sailplanes, and have had my share of mishaps. but not with this 1.

could this be just beginner's luck?
(i mean, beginner to the rad)
but tell me, how do i know if the blades are the old ones?

On the new blades where it says 9.75x7.5_1
On the old ones there is no "_1"
There was a bad run on the first Radians to come out. There is a lot of talk about it here on this thread.

The bad thing is, I knew about it. It just did not occur to me to look!

It's not beginners luck. The Radian is a really great sailplane

My Radian came with a 9.75 x7.5, I heard there was trouble with this prop, so I ordered a free replacement from Horizon Hobby. The replacement was a 9.75 x7.5_1_1. Eventually I broke it and bought a replacement at the LHS. This one was a 9.75 x7.5_1. I ordered another free replacement from Horizon Hobby and it was also a 9.75 x7.5_1_1. The _1 is thicker than the original and the _1_1 is thicker than the _1.

boy, i love horizon!
they are great guys, their designs, innovations, customer's service, are all terrific.
the back-up to their products too.
but regarding the way they asign part numbers.... i want to cry!
look at their radios: DX6, then DX6i...say what?
and then DX7 and DX7s !
and about the way they name the parts.
now this prop, with these mods and the _whatevers.
and some parts that are exactly the same, when used in several planes, have different part number.
and their manuals!
an example (there are hundreds): manual of the DX6i, page 40:
'when the reverse direction is selected press the roller to deselect the channel.
yes, you read it right: DESELECT. but in other situations like this they say 'to save settings'. that is better, don't you think? who wrote this page?
on the other hand, give a look at the catalog of micro fasteners: those guys know how to asign part numbers. hats off!
by the way, my rad has the _1_1. lucky me!

Well after almost a year since the plane was ready for flight I finally got to maiden my Radian today. To say it was worth the wait would be an understatement! What a joy to fly, between the nice low 80's and no wind speak of I got two flights of 15 min each. I would have flown more but I had two other planes to maiden also.
It's stock except for the Graupner folding prop hub, Aeronaut blades and of course the replacement of the fragile tail control horn connectors with DuBro ones.
This is one sweet bird. Love it!

...

That is incredible!

Here's a funny one...

Originally Posted by Caddguy6

Well after almost a year since the plane was ready for flight I finally got to maiden my Radian today. To say it was worth the wait would be an understatement! What a joy to fly, between the nice low 80's and no wind speak of I got two flights of 15 min each. I would have flown more but I had two other planes to maiden also.
It's stock except for the Graupner folding prop hub, Aeronaut blades and of course the replacement of the fragile tail control horn connectors with DuBro ones.
This is one sweet bird. Love it!

I am somewhat puzzled by many of you guys apparently changing the horns on the rudder and elevators.

On my Radian the horns seem solid enough.
It is the tiny small diameter pin in the clevises tha I am worried about.

I intend to change these clevisse with metal one and 1/16" dia metal pins.

Zor

Went 4wheelin yesterday and brought along the Radian.

RC Glider over Great Sand Dunes National Park (3 min 20 sec)

I'm not sure how many people have flown over dunes before, if you haven't I gotta tell you it's amazing!!! Hot hot sand creates massive lift. Pretty much flew the entire time trying to keep the Radian in sight. Up up up and away, always climbing. It actually kinda messed up my footage. I have the camera set a bit down pointed towards the back of the plane so while gliding you can see the ground, but since the nose was always climbing I got a lot more ground than I bargained for. Still turned out ok though.

RC Glider over Great Sand Dunes National Park (3 min 20 sec)

I once said I was done with regard to Radian quality. The control horns on my Radian are fine and the foam is fine. The rest is poor (junk). We're stuck with the control wires. I reiterate, buy your own esc, receiver, and servos. The control arm connectors should be replaced, Dubro #845 or solder clevis pins. Both my son and I have had in flight failures of servo and connector pins. Parkzone makes good foam! The Radian is really awesome. I simply cannot explain the failures both my Radian and my son's any other way other than POOR Quality! The foam is good, the rest is junk.

...

I'm still on my original stock Radian (except one set of new props)... Never had an issue with anything. I check the stock connectors each flight and they've never failed. I would guess I have at least several hours of air time without a single failure. I'm not saying there aren't Radians with issues, but a lot of us have had ours for years without issue.