Of course fully agree.

I have many PKZ/HH planes and always assumed they were top notch because of the brand name. I stop assuming that some time ago. Prior to getting the RP I briefly read the thread and read some of the post about the spinner and prop issues or at least some members having some and I figured hey they must of been doing something wrong.

Now here I am crazy beautiful Sunday mid morning 25c temp zero winds RP in the air newly installed ALT displaying on DX8 and STI app talking to me in my ear when SNAP tail is gone RP torpedoing to ground and tail just floating down.

Puts the brakes on a nice flying day let me tell you...

Of course pilot error play a factor BUT one has to wonder how much or how little damage would of resulted had there been the proper amount fo glued used.

[QUOTE=Jovanx;21693598]
Not much less, mind you, and that is the problem. They are paying those poor people almost nothing to assemble them. If they slap them together quickly enough, they might actually make enough money to feed their family for one more day. It has nothing to do with stupidity or laziness on the part of the workers on the assembly line. It has everything to do with volume of production per man per day, because that is how our "civilization" operates.
QUOTE]

Just as a counterpoint, and not to stray too long off topic....

Those workers are probably very glad to be working in the factory, building these planes, given that otherwise they would be working out on a farm....or in some much more hazardous factory. Furthermore, very few folks in the US would be willing to work at a wage which would meet the price point of these planes.

It will be some time, but eventually Chinese/Far Eastern folks will catch up to the living standards we are accustomed to today. It cannot happen over night, but perhaps 20, 30 years down the road they will be living as well as we are today. Hopefully, we will then be living better than we are today....but that is not altogether certain.

I respectfully disagree with your placement of quotes around the word civilization. As compared with 100 years ago, we are extremely civilized, perhaps even to a fault. Nature has provided a mechanism for our continued evolution, and a big factor in that is competition. Without it we cease to evolve, and begin to devolve.

I find it a shame that some folks do not understand that the market drives our continued evolution, and that so many today demonize competition, the market, civilization, corporations, and human progress in negative terms.

To put our progress in perspective, we had no airplanes 110 years ago. Count your many blessings.

Had NASA not deviated from manned spaceflight into the study of Global Warming and other chicken little endeavors (entirely due to political meddling) we could easily have a base on the moon today. IMHO we've completely lost our positive attitude of exploration and development and replaced it with negative fear mongering of many varieties, economic, social and environmental.

Forgive the soap box, but it irks me when I see folks not appreciating the gifts we have been given by our forefathers, and how few care to pass the same sort of forward thinking possibilities on to our children.

...end rant.

Originally Posted by Jovanx

That goes along with a theory I have had for many years. If allowed to progress to their ultimate conclusion without any restraints, capitalism and communism both lead to the same place. That place is a world where there is only one store.

What if freechip's plane had bonked somebody on the head? What if some bystander lost an eye due to a flying prop that was caused by a spinner made of plastic that is too brittle? Would HH ever have been held responsible? Not a chance. It would have all been chalked up to pilot error and he was flying in a public place and he was going too fast and he didn't do his pre-flight checks etc etc. The real problem is that the manufacturer was cutting corners and sold something that was potentially dangerous, and no pre-flight check would have caught it.

There are organizations that check the safety of children's toys, and other consumer items and their hard work often leads to products being pulled off the shelves and the company has to try a little harder in order to start selling them again. If a company is slapping together toys that can potentially turn into uncontrolled missiles, maybe there is a way to smarten them up a little.

The expression "personal responsibility" comes to mind.

The owner should always check over his plane prior to flying.

We don't need some government agency to protect us...that's just what they want us to believe....that we need them. The more we ask them for protection, the less safe we become, the less free we become, and the more it costs us.

If the plane were consistently bad, folks would not purchase them, and they would go out of business. That's how the market works to provide quality products.

We're really getting political here, aren't we....?

The Radian Pro is the finest RC plane I have ever owned in terms of durability and flight characteristics. I have had to make repairs from time to time, but had I purchased a stick built plane, I would probably have replaced the pile of splinters 10 times compared to only one replacement RP.

I say count your blessings.

Kenny, I use about 50% flap follow aileron, and have been too lazy to mod the flap servos to go up. There is a little more roll authority, especially just as you start rolling, which I like. It works even better when I have camber set in (flaps and ailerons both down about 3/8 in. 10 mm) which means I should probably work on making my flaps have 'up' capability.

freechip re: tail, I modded my elevator and yeah, that little plastic bracket is pretty much all there is between a nice day flying and... well, you know. It definitely pays to wiggle the parts around and inspect everything every couple of flying sessions to make sure you haven't picked up a crack.

@JumpySticks - If you are talking to me, of course (count my blessing) it only took but a second or two to hit the ground and I taught for sure wings were done along with fuse, prop, spinner, motor and the hatch flew off after the first bounce so I taught I was also going to be looking for some of my electric components.

Fair points Jumpy Sticks

I don't consider the RP to be consistently bad,, it's just that from my point of view,, I've spent less money on a better manufactured plane of the same type of material.

I wanted the Radian Pro as I'm a big fan of Parkzone, I wanted a 2 metre powered glider and the research just shouted at me to get one.

I'm happy I've got it but as a comparison with other models of the same manufacturing process it sadly falls short.

However with the info from this thread and the website which accompanies the RP, I should be amongst the happy people very soon

Originally Posted by Jimmitude

Kenny, I use about 50% flap follow aileron, and have been too lazy to mod the flap servos to go up. There is a little more roll authority, especially just as you start rolling, which I like. It works even better when I have camber set in (flaps and ailerons both down about 3/8 in. 10 mm) which means I should probably work on making my flaps have 'up' capability.

freechip re: tail, I modded my elevator and yeah, that little plastic bracket is pretty much all there is between a nice day flying and... well, you know. It definitely pays to wiggle the parts around and inspect everything every couple of flying sessions to make sure you haven't picked up a crack.

Yup, that elevator is a weak point that could use some reinforcement.

Originally Posted by freechip

@JumpySticks - If you are talking to me, of course (count my blessing) it only took but a second or two to hit the ground and I taught for sure wings were done along with fuse, prop, spinner, motor and the hatch flew off after the first bounce so I taught I was also going to be looking for some of my electric components.

Nope, just a general vent....

Originally Posted by JumpySticks

The Radian Pro is the finest RC plane I have ever owned in terms of durability and flight characteristics. I have had to make repairs from time to time, but had I purchased a stick built plane, I would probably have replaced the pile of splinters 10 times compared to only one replacement RP.

I agree. If i could only have one plane, this would be the one.

Originally Posted by JumpySticks

The owner should always check over his plane prior to flying

How could a pre-flight check reveal that an inadequate amount of glue was applied, and that something you thought was solid was about to fail, possibly causing injury to your friends and loved ones?

Originally Posted by JumpySticks

It will be some time, but eventually Chinese/Far Eastern folks will catch up to the living standards we are accustomed to today. It cannot happen over night, but perhaps 20, 30 years down the road they will be living as well as we are today. Hopefully, we will then be living better than we are today....but that is not altogether certain.

It is definitely not certain. Instead of them being raised to our level, market forces might eventually force us down to their level, and 30 years from now, we might be just like the Chinese slaves.

Originally Posted by Jovanx

How could a pre-flight check reveal that an inadequate amount of glue was applied, and that something you thought was solid was about to fail, possibly causing injury to your friends and loved ones?.

Might not. That's why it's best to refrain from flying over people.

Originally Posted by Jovanx

It is definitely not certain. Instead of them being raised to our level, market forces might eventually force us down to their level, and 30 years from now, we might be just like the Chinese slaves.

There never have been any guarantees. Many civilized societies have fallen in the past. It takes hard work, perserverance to be competitive. The great successes of the 20th century have probably spoiled us a bit. I call it "affluenza" . Hopefully we can buck up and get with it again.

I believe a national project to put a base on the moon would do a lot to motivate our young folks to become interested in science and engineering careers instead of the current trend of "virtual realities" with which they seem infatuated. For example, isn't flying your real Radian Pro much more satisfying than flying a sim?

The base would be a real and tangible achievement, not a simulation. One practical use would be a large observation telescope on one of the lunar poles. For Earth and celestial observation. There are also commercial possibilities there in mining and materials technology. The spin-off technologies generated by all those new engineers would likely give the economy new life. I think everyone is a little bored with the virtual reality business, and we're all looking for something to be excited about. A cultural renaissance in science, exploration and engineering is what I have in mind. Lots of frontiers remain untouched. Hopefully something like this will wake us up from the current doldrums.

Most folks don't realize how (relatively) "easy" it is to provide a large and habitable base on the moon. Humans can function well in an environment of less that 7 psi air pressure. Think about that for a second. That's far less than the pressure in a basketball. The materials available today would allow for the deployment of a large, lightweight inflated structure with double or triple redundancy, It would be easily maintained and allow folks to work in shirtsleeves. Placed in a crater it would be shielded from solar radiation.

Straying waaay off topic for sure.....but notice I did tie in the difference between RC flying and simulation to illustrate the greater value of tangible reality over virtual reality?....Forgive again for the brain dump please....

Speaking of tangible reality, did you guys see the fellow that landed his wingsuit without deploying his parachute.....safe and sound on a pile of cardboard boxes?

Another frontier conquered.

I figured someone would do it one day, but thought it would be on a slope such as a glacier or something.

Wingsuit Landing Without Parachute! - Best Video! (0 min 50 sec)

Glide Slope is much steeper than the Radian Pro.

Jovanx, re: preflight. You might not catch everything, but you only have to catch one thing to make it worthwhile. Plus, you get a feel for how the various parts react to being stressed (by wiggling). If something feels 'soft' or just doesn't look right, you've probably got a problem. FWIW, I once had a rudder come off in my hand. I was getting ready to hi-start launch it (line stretched, and airplane in my hand, and wiggled the sticks just to make sure the radio was on. The rudder response didn't look right, so I had someone hold the airplane and grabbed the rudder to see if I had a bad servo. The glue joints on all three rudder hinges had come loose and it popped right off the airplane! That would have been a bad flight.

Originally Posted by JumpySticks

I believe a national project to put a base on the moon would do a lot to motivate our young folks to become interested in science and engineering careers instead of the current trend of "virtual realities" with which they seem infatuated. For example, isn't flying your real RC plane much more satisfying than flying a sim?

I have as much desire to get a sim as I have to get a heroin habit. I know I would love it and never stop. I already spend too much time in front of a computer and don't need another reason. I would rather fly and fix and while I am fixing there is the smell of glue that substitutes for the heroin.

What does this have to do with flying a Radian Pro? Everything. It wasn't that many years ago when the idea of controlling a beautiful bird by pressing buttons seemed like science fiction or magic.

On the subject of flying over people's heads...that is a tough one. Even if you drive out into the country where there is nobody, you are flying over your own head and maybe one of your best friends or lovers that came to keep you company and take pictures. The Park-flyer thing is not going to go away. I never deliberately fly over someone's head, but if that plane was to go out of control (due to pilot error or equipment malfunction) anything could happen.

That is the spirit that keeps science-fiction alive. The rewards are there, but so are the dangers.

It still amazes me that we only learned to fly little over 100 years ago, and wound up landing on the moon only 60 years later. Sad that today we cannot even put a man in orbit.