Got my second and third flights today. During today's first flight, I tried out all the bells and whistles, flaps, crow, reflex, camber. Everything I could think of. During the second, I tried to stay aloft and find thermals. Not very successful, but I had a great time. Forty seconds of motor at first them shut it down. I averaged about 3 to 4 minutes before I had to add the power again. I would let it get down to about 40' before adding power. I think the best I did was about 6.5 minutes with no power after regaining the altitude. Maybe sometime in March, I will be able to post a time in the contest.

When the Pro is at high altitude I can still see it and see which direction it going. My problem is seeing if it is rising or losing altitude. By the time I confirmed it was sinking, I had lost much of my altitude.

It was rainy and cloudy with winds about 5 mph on the ground. An occasional gust but not much.

I had a great time while it lasted but I didn't have time to fly more today. Hopefully Tuesday will be another good time.

Originally Posted by trailmaker

Thanks for that info. Now I've got it set up to do CROW or normal Flaps, and 35% rudder mixing. These new fangled radios are very cool.

+1

Nice to have the extra mix available. Funny how HH wants you to use both mixes when one will do.

Didn't break any records today, it was blue sky, 10-15mph and was not expecting much. I went out early, about 10:30 am and thermals did not really kick in until about 1:00. By that time I was getting tired, but the thermals got really strong. Had to bail several times because the neck was sore.
There were some really strong thermals but difficult to stay in them due to the wind. One thermal hit in the middle of a 45 second launch burn. I figured that one would be a good flight, and it was. Motor off and it just kept going up. Just too bad I cannot look up any longer than 25 minutes without getting weary.

Ecase, I know what you mean about not being able to tell if it's rising or sinking. Especially when it's really high. I often bail and start doing stunts for fear that it will get sucked out of sight. Next thing I know it's back down around launch height and I'm struggling to find another thermal.

Best indicator on mine, other than a sudden wing tilt, is that I can pull the elevator back and it continues to fly, like it's under power. That tells me it's a thermal, so I crank in a turn and ride the elevator until the plane slows and settles into the thermal. If I pull the elevator and it stalls, then it's not a thermal. That may just be the way mine is trimmed though. It seems to speed up when it hits a thermal, so the elevator keeps it from getting spit out the other side.

KMZ files/graphics posted here for todays action.

Has anyone tried camber of the flaps and aileron in a thermal yet? I'm going to have a go at that I think. Just a little camber though.
I've seen some discussion way back about changing the prop size. Unfortunately, I can't recall too much about it. Is it just a case of changing it out, or are there mods (drilling) needed too?

Originally Posted by ecase

Got my second and third flights today. During today's first flight, I tried out all the bells and whistles, flaps, crow, reflex, camber. Everything I could think of. During the second, I tried to stay aloft and find thermals. Not very successful, but I had a great time. Forty seconds of motor at first them shut it down. I averaged about 3 to 4 minutes before I had to add the power again. I would let it get down to about 40' before adding power. I think the best I did was about 6.5 minutes with no power after regaining the altitude. Maybe sometime in March, I will be able to post a time in the contest.

When the Pro is at high altitude I can still see it and see which direction it going. My problem is seeing if it is rising or losing altitude. By the time I confirmed it was sinking, I had lost much of my altitude.

It was rainy and cloudy with winds about 5 mph on the ground. An occasional gust but not much.

I had a great time while it lasted but I didn't have time to fly more today. Hopefully Tuesday will be another good time.

Hey ecase, welcome to the best bad habit there is!! These damn sailplanes are so addictive.

Those times are perfectly respectable when searching for thermals with the RP.

One tip that I was told was to try to fly a little further away from you rather than ending up right on top of yourself. That should allow you just a little more perspective to see if yo are rising or sinking. It's not going to do much once you are at a healthy altitude but it is something to bear in mind.
It also helps with the achey neck!

I have taken to slope soaring of late. The RP is not a born sloper but it will perform quite adequately so if there is a slope near you and the wind is blowing nicely up the face of the slope, give it a try. I would highly recommend putting some time in practicing crosswind landings beforehand though (unless you are experienced already) as that is mostly what you will be doing.
Give it a whirl, you might like it...

I took the RP slope gliding for the first time yesterday. I packed a key-chain cam on board, but forgot to turn in on.. bummer.. Oh well.. Anyway, went to our Lewisville dump, (called Mt. Trashmore), a huge mound about 150 ft tall, from the flat surrounding area, covering almost a sq mi or so.. South winds were intense, steady at 25-30, gusting to 45 mph on top of the mound, much more than I have ever flown in. VERY intimidating.. At tmy buddy's recommendation, I replaced the carbon rod with a solid steel one for additional ballast, which worked wonders. After watching the other guys launch and recover their planes with out any problems, I tried it... successfully... WOW.. what a rush.. I thought it would crash and burn instantly, but.. it flew perfectly. Once away from the ground, it flew effortlessly and handled the wind without any issues. It was incredible and I was amazed. The first flight lasted about 30 min and don't think I ever used the motor, pure gliding.. The landing was scary, but also without incident.. It's was nice, cause you didn't have to strain by looking up, but rather you looked out horizontally.. The second flight was also without incident, until the landing, where the wind caught it close to the ground and cartwheeled it. Broke half the elevator off and damaged the nose. No worries though, already fixed.. All in all, it was an awesome time and can't wait to do this again.. Forecast is for more strong winds all week.. Hee HAA, ride em cowboy... Luvin it..

Originally Posted by ecase

Got my second and third flights today. During today's first flight, I tried out all the bells and whistles, flaps, crow, reflex, camber. Everything I could think of. During the second, I tried to stay aloft and find thermals. Not very successful, but I had a great time. Forty seconds of motor at first them shut it down. I averaged about 3 to 4 minutes before I had to add the power again. I would let it get down to about 40' before adding power.......

Try landing instead of reinitiating power. This will help on several fronts:

-Practice precision landings and your approach patterns (things are different without power)

-I have actually caught thermal down low and rode it for 3-4 minutes more than I expected

-contest practice

-and, you will be able to position yourself into the wind better for a good launch

Don

Originally Posted by donsinger1

Try landing instead of reinitiating power. This will help on several fronts:

-Practice precision landings and your approach patterns (things are different without power)

-I have actually caught thermal down low and rode it for 3-4 minutes more than I expected

-contest practice

-and, you will be able to position yourself into the wind better for a good launch

Don

Sounds good to me. I only made two landings, the closest was about 50' away. The other, about 100'. I really need to practice all aspects of flying this plane. Yesterday I got caught up in trying to stay aloft. Didn't even think about trying to learn how to land well.
I live very close to Point of the Mountain. That's a fairly famous slope soaring location. I have flown my Weasel there and can't wait to take the RP.

There were a lot of Radians and Radian Pros at the SEFF LMR contest. I finished in the middle of the pack with my Pro but had a great time. I even posted one 12:00 exactly with a landing in the spot! What a rush! Love my Pro!
McD

I picked up a Radian Pro, Saturday, at the LHS and spent 30 minutes flying it, with minimal setup, just adjusted the control surfaces to center them, charged the battery, and then headed to a local park. I did notice the elevator sticking after a while and stopped flying when it became difficult to hold it in level flight.

I tried sanding the wire and lubing it, which helped, but it was still hard to control. I wound up crashing it less than a minute after taking off Sunday morning, but that was mainly due to more wind, turbulence and a smaller flying area. Not a good combo. The elevator control certainly did not help though, as I could not get it to hold a glide. It either dove or climbed.


The crash broke the fuselage just ahead of the wing, one prop blade, and I had to re-tape the rudder. Honestly, I was surprised it had as little damage as it did as hit almost vertically on pavement.

In retrospect, I should have trimmed the elevator to hold a glide after returning to center from one direction or the other, so at least I would have had a way to glide. Live and learn...

The first 10 minutes of flight on Saturday, before the elevator started sticking, gave me such a rush. I just loved the gracefulness of it and the way it glides forever, before needing a little motor to bring it back up. I think I'm hooked just from that 10 minutes of bliss. The first time I gave it a toss, to check the trims, it went over 100 yards before landing. I was amazed.

I just ordered some Gold-N-Rods and hope that settles the elevator issue, because I SO look forward to replicating that first 10 minutes of flight!

Originally Posted by Siggy101

Yay, I found it. Well, almost.
It was my old matey PretendPilot but it seems that we all got tied up in the stab stall business and I don't think that the aforementioned configuration got posted. What do you say we all buy him a beer if he can scribble it all down.
The description here sounds exactly what I am after so I'd be hugely grateful.....

here ya go... https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...radio+programs
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i made another thread out of it because of the nature of this thread - i wanted it to be easily accessible, but it's fallen quite a bit down the post list.
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anyways, i am flying with it. i won't go back to the original unless a different type of flying suits it. i now have not only more control over the flaps, crow and camber/reflex, i have more throw in them. various conditions seem to be the best reason for the finer control. next is various flying moves. it takes a bit of time to learn how to use these vs the on/off method because the effects can seem subtle at 1st.
.
notice that a signal loss or brownout with my setup will cause full flap deployment, and the motor will keep running if it is on when the signal loss/brownout occurs. i had this happen (motor was off) a few times when i was ignorant about pointing the Tx antenae at the plane. the flaps would pop on and the plane would start extreme porpoising until siganl reacquisition (a second or two). i see this as a benefit, cuz the plane will not fly well out of range, and the speed will not build to simulate a blistering missile into whatever target it happens to choose.
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i've used the crow a few times to bring it out of high altitude by pointing it straight down with full crow on, and it behaves very nicely. rather than have to be concerned about wing failure recovering from a glowing speed dive, the plane descends at a nice, comfy speed pointed almost straight down. of course more horizontal attitudes are more common. i also use the flaps in a variety of ways.
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most of all, i fly the plane with the wing TE being adjusted on-the-fly with the throttle stick, and elevator mixed so that elevator input causes the wing TE to adjust accordingly. i've become quite fond of this mode. the only time switch it off is when it's near the ground and ready for relaunch (i want to decrease the elevator control sensitivity). i kinda think i should turn it off when the plane is specked, too, because: it's too easy to overcontrol; therms that high can usually be flown in even at full reflex. however, the wind at those heights is often strong enough to require reflex to return towards my launch location.
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regarding the DLG flying - i've only watched the good pilots flying (and talked with them of course), but those planes are generally much more responsive to any control surface changes. the radian is a slug comparatively.

Originally Posted by pretendpilot

here ya go... https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...radio+programs
.
i made another thread out of it because of the nature of this thread - i wanted it to be easily accessible, but it's fallen quite a bit down the post list.
.
anyways, i am flying with it. i won't go back to the original unless a different type of flying suits it. i now have not only more control over the flaps, crow and camber/reflex, i have more throw in them. various conditions seem to be the best reason for the finer control. next is various flying moves. it takes a bit of time to learn how to use these vs the on/off method because the effects can seem subtle at 1st.
.
notice that a signal loss or brownout with my setup will cause full flap deployment, and the motor will keep running if it is on when the signal loss/brownout occurs. i had this happen (motor was off) a few times when i was ignorant about pointing the Tx antenae at the plane. the flaps would pop on and the plane would start extreme porpoising until siganl reacquisition (a second or two). i see this as a benefit, cuz the plane will not fly well out of range, and the speed will not build to simulate a blistering missile into whatever target it happens to choose.
.
i've used the crow a few times to bring it out of high altitude by pointing it straight down with full crow on, and it behaves very nicely. rather than have to be concerned about wing failure recovering from a glowing speed dive, the plane descends at a nice, comfy speed pointed almost straight down. of course more horizontal attitudes are more common. i also use the flaps in a variety of ways.
.
most of all, i fly the plane with the wing TE being adjusted on-the-fly with the throttle stick, and elevator mixed so that elevator input causes the wing TE to adjust accordingly. i've become quite fond of this mode. the only time switch it off is when it's near the ground and ready for relaunch (i want to decrease the elevator control sensitivity). i kinda think i should turn it off when the plane is specked, too, because: it's too easy to overcontrol; therms that high can usually be flown in even at full reflex. however, the wind at those heights is often strong enough to require reflex to return towards my launch location.
.
regarding the DLG flying - i've only watched the good pilots flying (and talked with them of course), but those planes are generally much more responsive to any control surface changes. the radian is a slug comparatively.

Perfect. Thanks Fakey. I know what I'm doing tonight instead of a sneaky half hour on the slope...

Big thanks!!

We had a fire out at our field two days ago which burned about 84 acres, so yesterday I decided to see if the newly blackened area contained thermals. On my second flight with my RP, I caught a thermal that was so violently strong, it started a soot-laden whirl-wind. I specked out in a couple of minutes and stayed aloft for over two hours. Right at the two hour mark, I was tired of flying, so I decided to descend, which took 4 minutes. I landed at 124:30 for a new endurance record (for me). I could have stayed up much longer, however. Wow.

I wish I could remember whoever had the idea to put the silver tape on the wing LE because it works great. Its almost like a small strobe light.

Question - This is my first attempt at using the rudder to coordinate the turns, hardly ever touched the rudder on other planes. I seem to lose altitude when I use both rudder and aileron to turn. When I start a turn with the aileron the plane banks, add a little rudder and it seems to point the nose at the ground. This may be a stupid question but here goes, do I use left rudder and left aileron when trying to turn left, or, do I use opposite inputs? Which do you use first, rudder or aileron?

I tried sanding the wire and lubing it, which helped, but it was still hard to control.

You may want to replace them altogether.. I ripped mine out and replaced them with the Nylon pushrods, which are far superior to the stock setup..