I had some APC gas props from my nitro flying days around. I currently have an electric motor (NEO 60-410) and put a APC 13X10 electric prop on with a 5s 4400mah lipo. After testing on the watt meter, I still had plenty of room for more amps/watts to what my motor and Esc are rated for. I had a APC 14X11 gas prop and put it on. Everything was right in range for what I was looking for regarding amps and total watts. The motor, battery, and esc were cool to the touch on testing. My question...I know the electric props are a little thinner, but is there any problem with using this gas prop on an electric motor if everything specs out correctly?

Thanks for any words of wisdom. Mitch

I am looking at a nice hotliner airframe $200 and under with fiberglass fuse and fully sheeted wings. I was looking at the Scorpion or Variant 3 from Northeast sailplanes (nesail.com). Does anyone know about these planes? I appreciate any feedback. Thanks!!!

Like all Parkzone planes this plane is just flawless. Out of the box as a PNP she was setup in 20min. Very easy hand launch as you can grab it under the belly by the CG and just give a gentle push. Very stable on low speed and very snappy with high rates....best of both worlds. I did fly her with a 2200mah and 1300mah. I like the 1300mah stock setup as she is a bit lighter which was noticeable when flying. A 1300mah 25C or 30C will make her cook a little more. The mid wing looks cool in the air and the yellow tip prop adds a nice touch. Once again, I am yet to find any issue with a Parkzone plane right out of the box with no mods. Great job Parkzone!!

This is a top quality balsa and mylar covering WW1 Biplane. The kit went together very well and I put a 480 motor(specifically the PZ T-28 motor) with a 11-8 prop and a 3S 2200mah Lipo. The instructions give you the option on glueing or not glueing the cabane struts to the fuse. I opted to not glue them in since it was strong with all the guy wires and struts. This caused the forward cabane struts to sit up (the forward cabane struts were not sitting all the way down in the fuse) a little causing a positive wing incidence (not aware until after maiden flight). The boys and Cliff from Atlanta Hobby really did a great job figuring this out. Add this to the CG of 3 1/2 inches recommended and you have disaster. I saved the plane from a wreck and got lucky. The guys at Atlanta hobby also noticed not enough down thrust on the motor . I glued the struts in pushed the forward ones all the way down. Got a better mount for down thrust and added 6.75 ounces in the front to balance at 3 to 3 1/8 inches from top leading edge. Now the plane flies well. Very scale with slow rolls. It really is a beauty with all the details attached. I was missing a bracket and the bottom left wing strut is a little long causing the upper wing to push up a little. For this I took off 1 star of rating. Overall, a beauty and top quality. I do not recommend this for a beginner. All others will like it if balanced correctly. Adding significant weight is not uncommon for these WW1 warbirds. Others have experienced the same adjustments to this plane. Set her CG up correctly and enjoy her. I must say that Ramone from Maxford USA was very nice and really listened to my feedback. Hopefully there will be some addendums on these issues online and in the kit.

I sent a blog yesterday regarding the Maxford USA Nieuport 28 40" ARF. As stated before the plane is quite beautiful and the build was top quality. I had read in an earlier blog someone having trouble with the CG being at the recommended 3 1/2 inches causing the plane to be tail heavy. I added 3/4oz to be safe moving it to about 3 1/4. The original blogger was correct. I just maidened her and I was in a world of hell. As soon as I took off she pitched up and I did everything a pilot of my 15 years rc experience could do to save her. I got her down but with minimal damage. Just a new cowl and landing gear is needed. I cannot believe that was the only damage. The CG needs to be more like 2 1/2 from top wing leading edge. I will call Maxford to discuss this for future owners of this plane.

I just finished building the Maxford USA Nieuport 28 40" ARF and boy this plane is amazing looking. The recommended CG is 3 1/2 inches from the top wing leading edge. My plane balanced right at this spot, however, I added 3/4 ounce to be sure for the first flight. Easier to maiden if it happens to be slightly nose heavy. If anyone has this plane, please let me know if the recommended CG is accurate or if it flies better with the CG around 3 or 3 1/4inches. Thanks so much for any input.

Mitch

I have about 25 flights on the Radian Pro and it really is a joy to fly. The plane flies very nice with the stock 9.5X7.5 prop, but I felt the climbs could use more power. I put a Graupner 11X8 prop on her (with a Maxx Products 4mm collet and 50mm spinner adapter) and it is a dramatic change in performance. Now she'll climb right up at 3/4 throttle with ease. I was able to reach much higher altitudes with this change as well as dramatically more authority on the climbs. On the watt meter it pulls 25amps at 250 watts. This is about the max on the 480 motor with the 30amp ESC. The stock props pulled 13 amps at 150 watts. No wonder the climb was slow..... as there was more room for power. I will try the 12X6 prop next. I think that may be the ticket to efficiency and power. It really is amazing filming at these high altitudes.

Unedited footage from the PZ T-28 Flight.

T-28 Trojan Flies GA (5 min 49 sec)

This was my flight today with the Parkzone Radian Pro with fully functioning flaps and Crow. I flew about 30 min. but edited the video to 5 min. taking out the unwanted footage. Hope you like the classic Aerosmith tune.

Radian Pro Flies Cumming, Ga (5 min 7 sec)

Just flew my Guanli PBY Catalina off the lake. You just cannot beat the price of this kit $38 from Nitroplanes. I put two 370 motors in with Turnigy 30amp ESC's and 3S 2200mah with a Spektrum AR600 receiver. I fiberglassed the bottom and put two 1 3/4 spinners on which reduced splash in the nacelles where the motors and ESC's are. I added 2 used AA batteries in the front to balance her at 55mm from the leading edge. This was a perfect balance point as she tracked straight as an arrow with 2 clicks of elevator trim. All I can say is this plane flew flawlessly and taxi/takeoff was a breeze. Landing was as easy as it gets with less than 1/4 power she floats right in. Hold elevator for taxi and you can drive anywhere. The water rudder works perfectly. This plane is like a glorified trainer. If you are a builder I recommend this kit. I did some small mods to make it better during assembly (pushrods and wire channels) but I expected that. I had many people admiring the flight. If you use max throw on high rates you can do some minor aerobatics......but really not necessary....it's a PBY!! Fly her scale with high and low speed passes and you get what the real plane was designed for. Enjoy!!!

Just a follow up from my last blog. I put a 3S 800mah Blue Lipo in with the 370 motor and OMG. Compared to the 2S this is unreal. This was the exact setup on the mods video and Tony/Antonio was right. First, the plane balances perfectly with this setup. If you use maximum throws on high rates, I would suggest 50-60% expo. If you want a little hot rod, this is a great choice. It can be a flying missile or a docile flyer at 1/4 throttle. For all who use this setup.....enjoy!!

Wow, I ordered two 3S 800mah Blue Lipos and an Alpha 370 1360kv motor from Hobbypartz last Friday and I got them today. Total cost $27...no charge for shipping. How can you beat that price????

I bought the Nitroplanes Airfield 750mm P-47 Kit for $37. I had some components around including a Park 370 1360Kv motor, servos, AR600, and a 20a ESC. After watching Tony in the "mods" video of this warbird I knew the 370 would rip this plane. The package came on time and the plane was in perfect shape. All I can say is this kit was setup perfectly. Everything fit perfectly and the E-flite Park 370 was mounted nicely. The plane balanced out with 14 grams in the front easily inserted in the front foam which is what was mentioned in the video for a 45mm CG. Really, this plane rips with this setup even on a 2C 1000mah 20c Thunder Power lipo. I am waiting for the Blue Lipos to arrive which are 3S 910mah 25c. That should be interesting. This plane is predictable and very stable. Flip to high rates and you have insane rolls. I use 50% expo on high rates and 20% on low rates. This plane just tracks right in on landing. This plane feels just like my PZ P-47, just a smaller version yet the same feel and tendencies. I STRONGLY recommend this little warbird. Nitroplanes did a nice job on changing my order as I requested prior to shipment as well. I was pleased with their customer service and the product.

I have never come across this before, but here is my issue. When I activate the V-tail function in the settings of the DX6i it reduces the travel on the AR6400 micro receiver on board Elevator and Rudder servos. If you activate the Elevon function it reduces the travel of the on board elevator servo and aileron servos. I have all the sub trims and radio trims nuetralized properly and the travel adjustment is set at 100% for all inputs. I have used this function before with AR 600 receivers without this issue.

Is this a limitation of the AR6400 micro receiver, or is there a solution to this?

After reading the July 2011 edition of Electric Flight I decided to put my stamp on the Micro PZ T-28 with a Camo airbrush style. The article was excellent and this is my first airbrush attempt. I have flown nitro warbirds for years and was very proficient at monokote applications....but I never did airbrush. I bought a little "Badger" airbrush kit for 29.95 and I cannot believe how cool it came out. This little plane has about 50 flights on her and she is a blast and always stable. So, I was excited to watch her fly with the new look and as I tossed her up she immediately wanted to go up, and up, and snap, and very unstable. I floated her down to safety and went back home to check the CG. Wow!!! I could not believe how tail heavy it was. The tail dropped down hard at the recommended CG of 32mm. On a small plane the weight of the paint actually DID affect the CG. I had to add some weight in the nose. I hated to do that but I had no choice. I tossed her again, and...yep...she flew perfectly. I was actually surprised how the added weight did not really affect the speed. Actually, she tracked even better than before in the wind. What a great article form the magazine and I have also added a new skill to my hobby. In retrospect, I would probably use a different paint and apply it much lighter next time. I was going to put the decals on, but she kinda looks cool without them. Below are the pics.

I never thought I would own a plane this small, but this Pterodactyl is really cool. Take your time on this micro and she will look really nice. The build is easy...just tedious as everything is so small. Using the AR6400 receiver I was able to get all control on the right stick by using the V-tail function on the DX6i. There was a post on this forum as to how to program this and it really helped. From the instructions, use version 2 programming. After the paint job mine came out at 28 grams. This plane is a floater and flies great indoors. I maidened mine in VERY light wind and she flew great. In fact, she kept climbing when heading into the wind. I got her up pretty high. At dusk, the orange light in the receiver makes the belly glow and looks very interesting. I am considering building the 52in Pterodactyl as it looks amazing from the videos. Go to Pteroworks.com. Here are the pics.





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After 15 years of flying all kinds of planes, I never even thought of a sailplane. I bought the PZ Radian Pro and, well like all the other PZ planes, it was flawless. Setup, other than programming, was about 15 min.. Everything was setup perfectly and just a few turns on the clevises got all surfaces to nuetral very quickly. With the DX6i I was able to get Flaps and Crow. I cannot believe how much fun this plane is. My first sailplane flight I got about 21 minutes. The next flight I got 45 min on the 3s 1300mah. Learning thermals is an art and using the flaps or Crow makes it very interesting. I can only imagine what slope soaring is like. I just never realized how much talent it took to fly powerless efficiently. It would be nice to experience Camber and Reflex but the DX6i is limited. However, this in no way, inhibits the beauty and enjoyment of this plane ( I knew I should have bought the 8 channel ) I put a nice mix of Flaps to down elevator as recommended on the setup and the Radian never ballooned up when I deployed the flaps. Using Crow really slowed it up.....I landed her at my feet. I have seen some mind blowing videos from many of you and it made me think....this is like a whole different sport. Thanks for broadening my RC world! And, thank you PZ for providing a wonderful product.

When I first got into electric foamies, specifically the Parkzone Warbird series, I needed to learn how to hand launch. I never had a need for this with my gas planes of course since I flew at the club with a beautiful runway. I fly these Warbirds at a field next to my house with very little room for takeoff and landing on pavement. But, I have tons of airspace and grass. I have small muscular hands so hand launching can be tough as it is hard to get your fingers around the T-28 or Corsair behind the wing with the wide fuse. I almost nosed in a few times before I could grab the sticks. But here is a solution that I have found works great. On my DX6i radio I mixed in Gear to Elevator on the CMix and assigned the switch to the Gear, which is right above the throttle stick. With my left hand holding the transmitter, this allows me access to both the throttle stick and gear switch. I use 13% up elevator in the mix (after several trials this one worked perfect). When I am ready to launch I flip the gear switch up and the elevator now goes up 13%. I put my index finger on that switch. Throttle up, hand launch, and the plane will climb (as opposed to maybe going down). As soon as I release and the plane climbs, I flip the switch back down and the elevator is back to nuetral. This can be done very smoothly almost instantly. Please do not start at more than 10%. Each plane is unique and if you put too much up elevator (like 25% or more) she can stall . I now am very comfortable with hand launching.

I hope this may help some of you hand launchers that may have had some difficulty.

OK guys, I am a little embarrassed about this but I hope to help others out with my mistake. I bought a Guanli PBY Catalina brushless version. For $109 you just cannot beat it. This plane comes with everything. I fly 2.4ghz so I just put the included 27Mhz and receiver aside. The instructions are terrible but if you have experience you know where everything goes without a problem. I just tossed the instructions aside for trash. You will have to carve out channels in the wing for the wiring from the motors and ailerons to the middle of the plane. No big deal. I replaced the linkage and put my own control horns on the Elevator as it was off a bit from stock. I put my own spinners on as the included ones were cheap. I put my own AR600 receiver in and binded with no problem. I was amazed at how well it was powered when I fired it up. I actually planned on putting my own motors in but these brushless motors were more than fine for a PBY. Again, for $109 this is a major bargain. You could buy this airframe for $45 as well. It really is beautiful with a 55in wing.

Here is the fun part...I was going to wait to bring it on my buddy's boat in case of ...whatever. I am a very experienced flyer so I brought it to my nearby lake by myself since it is wide open with no boat to retrieve in case of....whatever . I was amazed again at how well this plane taxis with the included water rudder. I took off and she climbed perfectly. A little tail heavy from the recommended CG but 3 clicks of...Continue Reading

I have flown the Nitroplanes 800mm BF109 for about 50 flights now and it flies awesome as I wrote in a previous blog. I decided to have some fun and modify it a bit. I cut the front of the fuse open and removed the stock motor and built a plyboard mount. I put an E-Flite 400 Brushless motor in with a 30 amp ESC and 3S 1800mah battery. The battery fits perfect!!!!! I had already changed the receiver to Spektrum before the modification to fly dual rates and expo which was a huge difference on this plane. I painted her Black with Tamiya paint and yellow tape trim. I am not a Steelers fan, but any of you who are will love this scheme. It looks totally awesome! I was amazed the CG was almost dead on after all was done. I kept it a tad nose heavy since I think this plane flies smoother like that. Below are the pics. It flies so smooth with the E-Flite motor and little spinner with plenty of power to spare. And...17-22 minutes of flying time depending on throttle management.







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