I'm looking forward to another 2.0m Radian release. I will purchase it on day 1.

I hope it stays 3 channels (rud, ele, thr). Prioritizes thermal performance. And remains 2.0m wingspan size.

Originally Posted by 1987tc

A quck question. Has anyone run a 4s lipo on a stock night radian?

Yes, works fine with tons of power! Just don't stay at full throttle for extended periods of time or you might cook the motor and/or ESC.

Originally Posted by Closus

Yes, works fine with tons of power! Just don't stay at full throttle for extended periods of time or you might cook the motor and/or ESC.

Be careful when you launch under full power WOT ……..don’t . It will go vertical as soon as it leaves your hand and will loop back over you head in a 50 foot loop and nose plant before you can take control. Ask me how I know .
I’m now launching at about 60 % power and all is well .

Originally Posted by Closus

Yes, works fine with tons of power! Just don't stay at full throttle for extended periods of time or you might cook the motor and/or ESC.

Or just stick with 3S, put on a BB aluminum spinner and Aeronaut Cam 11x6 prop and stay within motor / ESC limits at full throttle while getting excellent climb performance. Plus you don’t have to worry about the stock plastic spinner blowing apart eventually.

I am not looking for more power. Just use batteries I already have .

Took my (night) Radian for a little 2-mile XC soaring flight yesterday--

Got inspired to start a dedicated thread for cross-country soaring w/ the Radian --

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...g-Radian-style

Is there a switch available that can be plugged into an empty channel in the receiver to simply turn the lights on or off using the Tx?

I don't need the pattern select, just on or off with the Tx?

Okay, for anybody interested, my research answered my question, first off Dave of MERC gave me my first clue, 5 volts to the LED's,

Most receivers output a constant 5 volts to the servo and a ground, the center wire is positive and either brown or black is the negative side.

The factory sub harness that has the on/off switch also has a voltage regulator, that's the first component after the on/off switch that's covered with heat shrink, the voltage regulator takes the battery voltage 11.1 + down to 5 volts for the control switch for speed & pattern.

So the plan is to remove the plug, switch & regulator and solder a channel controlled switch to the speed & pattern switch using the receiver supplied 5 volts to power the LED's.

If I cut off just the end of the control switch heat shrink to solder a 5 volt supply via and channel controlled on/off switch, now plug that switch into the receiver on an open channel and I should be able to assign a switch on the Tx to switch the power on or off to the LED's with the Tx.

I know about the Wingnut on/off and control of the pattern & speed unit, but for now I just want to be able to plug in my battery, fly and have the choice of when to turn on the lights and not be toggling a couple of switches to get the select pattern or speed, just don't need to complicate things for now, my flying is more important than the lights.

This will also clean up some of the wire birds nest under the canopy and free up my battery balance lead for a low voltage alarm unit.

receiver controlled switches can be used to turn lights on-off and light changes. There is a how to thread somewhere but been years since I’ve seen it

Hi gang, well it wasn't near as hard as I thought it was going to be to unlock the receiver, AR363A, have two channels open, I use AUX 1 for the switch and assigned switch F , soldered in the switch where I planned, removed the regulator as planned and now have lights on/off on the Tx.

Pattern select is done on the ground with the stock control switch but now I have my balance lead open for my low voltage alarm unit.

If I decided to go with the Wingnut controller I can assign the rotating knob to AUX 1 and have all it's options.

Thanks to all that shared their knowledge & experience in this thread.

The Wingnut works GREAT and only took a few min to install. I can’t believe it took meme so long to buy it now knowing how cool and easy it is.

Originally Posted by Slo-Mo

Hi gang, well it wasn't near as hard as I thought it was going to be to unlock the receiver, AR363A, have two channels open, I use AUX 1 for the switch and assigned switch F , soldered in the switch where I planned, removed the regulator as planned and now have lights on/off on the Tx.

Pattern select is done on the ground with the stock control switch but now I have my balance lead open for my low voltage alarm unit.

If I decided to go with the Wingnut controller I can assign the rotating knob to AUX 1 and have all it's options.

Thanks to all that shared their knowledge & experience in this thread.

Morning all, yesterday was the maiden for mine, the only other powered glider I've flown was an ill fated V tail Blaze.

The Radian flew quite well for me, the control was a little hard to get used to, one stick for everything, I'd like to have rudder on the left for landing and ailerons for turning and a drag chute for landing,,,,

The first few flights were all trim, it had too much up, went into a series of short stalls,
I'd gain altitude on SAFE, switch it off and see what the plane did, then land, and adjust sub trim, then launch and get it back up there, I repeated that until when I switched off SAFE it would tip down just a bit and remain on that trajectory without stalling or continuing to fall into a dive

It was a very basic finger tip CG check during set up, I've got the Morgan CG Tool V2 coming, that should make my set ups consistent, I can see how the CG can make for some interesting trim shift in gliders.

I set it at around 3 to 3 1/4 back , using 1800 50c Lectron Pro packs, today I'm going to fly it with some 1800 75c packs.

Problem with doing motor run time of battery life testing is that for the total 7min run time I did yesterday it took half an hour to run the pack down to 20%

One of today's items to set up is the telemetry read out for the flight pack, my DX 8i does have it, but it's in pack mha and I'm not familiar with what I should be looking for, I'm accustomed to total voltage vs amp hours., having pack % would be nice, but if someone could fill me in on what I should be looking for mha reading wise that would be nice,

I gained some altitude and just let it sit up there in SAFE, it slowed to the point where the control surfaces were not very responsive but it wouldn't stall, just hung there, I'd throttle up to turn and move it around.

During my first few landing attempts, kept over shooting the runway, did a tip stall when turning around to try again but was high enough to save it, during the dive after the tip stall, I had already throttled up to get some elevator working quickly before the stall but I hadn't throttled back after the stall, in the power dive the entire airframe went into a wobble, it was getting to close the ground, I panicked and flipped on SAFE, it leveled out and coasted about a quarter mile,,,,,

I'm not used to a plane like this, all my other planes drop like rocks when you cut the throttle, if you point the Radian down during the approach you've already over shot the runway,,,,,,,,,

Still learning how to fly a glider,

Today's another day, practice flying skills with the Apprentice for a couple of packs then fly the Radian, going to get some photo's of it too, want to show the carbon fuselage stiffeners I put i and the free hand graphic's I put on it, didn't have decals when I purchased it.

Originally Posted by Slo-Mo

Morning all, yesterday was the maiden for mine, the only other powered glider I've flown was an ill fated V tail Blaze.

The Radian flew quite well for me, the control was a little hard to get used to, one stick for everything, I'd like to have rudder on the left for landing and ailerons for turning and a drag chute for landing,,,,

The first few flights were all trim, it had too much up, went into a series of short stalls,
I'd gain altitude on SAFE, switch it off and see what the plane did, then land, and adjust sub trim, then launch and get it back up there, I repeated that until when I switched off SAFE it would tip down just a bit and remain on that trajectory without stalling or continuing to fall into a dive

It was a very basic finger tip CG check during set up, I've got the Morgan CG Tool V2 coming, that should make my set ups consistent, I can see how the CG can make for some interesting trim shift in gliders.

I set it at around 3 to 3 1/4 back , using 1800 50c Lectron Pro packs, today I'm going to fly it with some 1800 75c packs.

Problem with doing motor run time of battery life testing is that for the total 7min run time I did yesterday it took half an hour to run the pack down to 20%

One of today's items to set up is the telemetry read out for the flight pack, my DX 8i does have it, but it's in pack mha and I'm not familiar with what I should be looking for, I'm accustomed to total voltage vs amp hours., having pack % would be nice, but if someone could fill me in on what I should be looking for mha reading wise that would be nice,

I gained some altitude and just let it sit up there in SAFE, it slowed to the point where the control surfaces were not very responsive but it wouldn't stall, just hung there, I'd throttle up to turn and move it around.

During my first few landing attempts, kept over shooting the runway, did a tip stall when turning around to try again but was high enough to save it, during the dive after the tip stall, I had already throttled up to get some elevator working quickly before the stall but I hadn't throttled back after the stall, in the power dive the entire airframe went into a wobble, it was getting to close the ground, I panicked and flipped on SAFE, it leveled out and coasted about a quarter mile,,,,,

I'm not used to a plane like this, all my other planes drop like rocks when you cut the throttle, if you point the Radian down during the approach you've already over shot the runway,,,,,,,,,

Still learning how to fly a glider,

Today's another day, practice flying skills with the Apprentice for a couple of packs then fly the Radian, going to get some photo's of it too, want to show the carbon fuselage stiffeners I put i and the free hand graphic's I put on it, didn't have decals when I purchased it.

You won’t be able to get flight pack voltage monitoring with the AR636 receiver. You will need to upgrade to an AR637T. The AR637T also has a vario which is awesome for soaring and it fits perfectly in the same spot as the 636.

As for landing, on final try some zig zag turns to bleed off speed. It takes some practice but once you figure it out you’ll be able to spot land it right at your feet almost every time.

or I could just use the windsock pole like I did today, just a light tap on the left wing tip and the plane just kind of rotors to the ground,,,,,,,

as for the telemetry, could be the reason I'm not getting any on the Tx page,,,, oh well. I'm good with the motor run time,

Today went kind of sideways, the mower guy showed up and started mowing the runway while I was up, also the wind was picking up and turbulent, plane was so I had to try the short course runway and that's when I clipped the pole, fractured fuselage between the rear cockpit cut out and the front edge of the underside access hatch.

Just finished the repairs so it's ready for tomorrow, another day,,,,,

Well, thanks for the help guys,

Flying gliders is quite different from power. I tell people that are new they fly better the less you move the sticks. A Radian is best, IMO, when you use the power to climb to a reasonable altitude and shut the motor off. Then look for thermals until you need to repeat. With practice you will learn how high to start your final approach for landing. Nut, some times ma nature has other ideas, she may dump you early or she may make you lucky and hand you a thermal to prolong the flight. Good luck fishing for thermals.