Finally got to fly mine today, after replacing the control board/brick.
Flew fine, so won't be trashing it yet.
Good little glider, but still find it a bit boring.
Will likely accumulate lots of dust before I fly it again.

Originally Posted by Clive66

Finally got to fly mine today, after replacing the control board/brick.
Flew fine, so won't be trashing it yet.
Good little glider, but still find it a bit boring.
Will likely accumulate lots of dust before I fly it again.

Sadly, I agree. I picked up the Micro Radian after a few years off from flying miniquads. It was my first foray into flying fixed wing and the transition was easy. After a few flights, I quickly grew bored and decided I needed MO-AH POWWAAA. I've since gotten back into building and flying freestyle quads and that has all of the loud, screaming adrenaline-packed fun I was seeking

Haha whatever floats your boat.
Quite true, screaming adrenaline-packed fun will not be delivered by this plane.
I fly it primarily for relaxation. In this sense I still enjoy it even though I push my flying skills on far more advanced planes (focused on 3D flying).
Want to kick back in a lawn chair and fly? Want to lie in the grass on a hill and fly? Want to chill on the beach and fly? This plane's a good choice.

Originally Posted by Nyathi

Haha whatever floats your boat.
Quite true, screaming adrenaline-packed fun will not be delivered by this plane.
I fly it primarily for relaxation. In this sense I still enjoy it even though I push my flying skills on far more advanced planes (focused on 3D flying).
Want to kick back in a lawn chair and fly? Want to lie in the grass on a hill and fly? Want to chill on the beach and fly? This plane's a good choice.

Exactly. Although the little Radian can be pretty thrilling on a slope, in the right conditions. Pretty cool to see about an ounce of foam come scooting by and then shoot up into the sky.

Speaking of sedate, it was dead calm this morning, so I enjoyed floating around like a wisp of smoke with the Night Vapor, lit up like a Christmas tree. Planes like it and the little Radian have their own unique charm to appreciate.

Originally Posted by DaveG

....Speaking of sedate, it was dead calm this morning, so I enjoyed floating around like a wisp of smoke with the Night Vapor, lit up like a Christmas tree. Planes like it and the little Radian have their own unique charm to appreciate.

+1k! There's something about watching the UMXR stay aloft for 10-20 minutes without the motor on a dead-calm morning or evening! Makes me grin like a kid in a candy-store! First time it happened, I could hardly believe it. Had to put in a fresh batt & go back up to the same area just to see if it was my imagination or not. Sure enough - another 15-min flight without using any motor once I got to the "sweet-spot" in the backyard, nearly over the house. That's when I came-up with the saying - "Stays aloft on the farts of field-mice alone!" - 'cause it seemed like there was nothing else keeping her up there!

In reality, she was staying up on nothing but "roof lift" from the dark-colored shingles on my house! She can also surf parking-lot & cul-de-sac lift!

Joel

Reminds me of the time I thermalled a UMX Sbach. I never timed the flight but I was up a LONG time with the throttle cut on but the prop windmilling (no brake!)

Great fun

So I fixed my decalage using a tic-tac size piece of credit card and I must have gotten the angle just right. It flies like a dream now! COG is perfect. Trim is minimal and in a dive it just barely wants to pull out. I believe that's where I want it. Thanks for the HU Joel.

John

When needed, I change my decalage by un-taping the fuselage seam fwd of the tail, spacing it, and re-taping. Did you do that, or put the shim somewhere else?

I’ve been eyeballing this one for a while now. Looks like a nice, little, 3-ch. electric sailplane to start out with. Perhaps to teach my wife to fly? That Flyzone micro-Calypso’s nice, but I’ve heard negative things regarding the RTF radio. The gimbals are SUPER-STIFF.

Originally Posted by Bell47G2

I’ve been eyeballing this one for a while now. Looks like a nice, little, 3-ch. electric sailplane to start out with. Perhaps to teach my wife to fly? That Flyzone micro-Calypso’s nice, but I’ve heard negative things regarding the RTF radio. The gimbals are SUPER-STIFF.

I liked mine. I had two of them and I lost both of them, due to flying too high or losing in the sun.

As you are familiar with the Champ S+, here are some comparisons between the Ultra Micro Radian (URAD) and the Champ S+ (CS+)

The URAD will handle a little bit more wind than the CS+. Neither does particularly well in the wind, but the URAD is a little more sleek than the CS+.

The URAD is quieter than the CS+ (good if you are trying to be stealthy).

The URAD is a little harder to see than the CS+ since the CS+ has a thicker body and bright cherry red paint.

Of course, the URAD lacks all the GPS functions that you have on the CS+

Since the URAD is only three channels, you could say that it is easier to fly than the CS+, but since a lot of people seem to fly the CS+ without even bothering to use the Rudder at all, I am not sure it is that much easier.

Despite the URAD NOT having SAFE, and despite the fact that I crash planes a lot, I never crashed my two URADS. They just got lost to the heavens. If you let go of the sticks it will more or less right itself, if I remember correctly.

I don't know if you can actually do rolls with the URAD or not. I have heard of people doing "rudder rolls" but for the life of me don't know how. I would assume that you could do something akin to barrel rolls but not axial rolls.

Personally, if it were me, I would let your wife fly your Champ S+ and I would buy another plane for yourself. The Conscendo Advanced is a really nice plane. Just saying...

Originally Posted by JustMark

I liked mine. I had two of them and I lost both of them, due to flying too high or losing in the sun.

As you are familiar with the Champ S+, here are some comparisons between the Ultra Micro Radian (URAD) and the Champ S+ (CS+)

The URAD will handle a little bit more wind than the CS+. Neither does particularly well in the wind, but the URAD is a little more sleek than the CS+.

The URAD is quieter than the CS+ (good if you are trying to be stealthy).

The URAD is a little harder to see than the CS+ since the CS+ has a thicker body and bright cherry red paint.

Of course, the URAD lacks all the GPS functions that you have on the CS+

Since the URAD is only three channels, you could say that it is easier to fly than the CS+, but since a lot of people seem to fly the CS+ without even bothering to use the Rudder at all, I am not sure it is that much easier.

Despite the URAD NOT having SAFE, and despite the fact that I crash planes a lot, I never crashed my two URADS. They just got lost to the heavens. If you let go of the sticks it will more or less right itself, if I remember correctly.

I don't know if you can actually do rolls with the URAD or not. I have heard of people doing "rudder rolls" but for the life of me don't know how. I would assume that you could do something akin to barrel rolls but not axial rolls.

Personally, if it were me, I would let your wife fly your Champ S+ and I would buy another plane for yourself. The Conscendo Advanced is a really nice plane. Just saying...

Thanks, Mark. Yeah, rolling this UMX Radian looks difficult w/the extreme-dihedral in the wing. But just to have a little 3-ch to horse around with would be fine with me. From what I understand, this one REALLY sold.

Plus - 5 years later & the URAD is still in production!

Regarding aerobatics - with the control-throws maxed & the CG at the neutral-handling point, the URAD can do power-off loops and also "rudder-rolls" (actually more of a barrel-roll).

Joel

Originally Posted by Bell47G2

Thanks, Mark. Yeah, rolling this UMX Radian looks difficult w/the extreme-dihedral in the wing. But just to have a little 3-ch to horse around with would be fine with me. From what I understand, this one REALLY sold.

The other thing about the URAD vs CHAMP S+ is that if you want to glide around, the URAD will glide for a long time since the prop folds back and doesn't windmill the way it does on the Champ S+

Originally Posted by hard line

When needed, I change my decalage by un-taping the fuselage seam fwd of the tail, spacing it, and re-taping. Did you do that, or put the shim somewhere else?

That sounds like a good way to do it. I shimmed it where the horizontal stabilizer bisects the fuselage, placing it under the rear half of the stabilizer. I had to use a razor to cut through the glue joint but it worked perfectly for me.

Forgive me if this thought is in the wrong thread but here goes:

When attempting to thermal, does one enter up-elevator or just let the thermal take the plane up? Also, and this is going to sound stupid I'm sure but is it possible to have a radio where you program a predetermined amount of rudder and then use a switch to go to that position? For example, let's say to thermal you want X% of rudder, wouldn't it be cool to hit a switch on your radio and have it go to X% just like that? Bought a cheapo radio for my first plane in 20 years and I honestly don't know what's possible.