OT - RC Airplanes

[NeveSSL]

so i bought my first plane and i went cheap to see if i would like it( i love it!), i bought a little air hog plane that charges by the controller and gives about a 10min flight. now that i know i like it i was wondering whats a good RC to get that i can get for about 100 dollars that would be good to start with gas or battery is fine but i got to get something better than what i got. any help would be great.
thanks
greg

Greg, go to HobbyTownUSA (or just about any other local hobby shop) and pickup a Champ. They are fantastic first planes. They are a little fast and need some space to fly, but they are great first planes. I think they're about $89. My brother has one and loves it. If you want something a little slower (and consequently needs less space), check out the Night Vapor. Its a little over $100 I think (maybe $119?), but its even easier to fly and it has LEDs to fly at night (just flew mine last night ). Both use the same small batteries, so be sure to pickup one or two extra batteries so you can charge one battery while flying on the other.

Yeah, they fly pretty much like a helicopter. When my tricopter was properly adjusted it was actually more stable.

I got the quadcopter finished minus FPV gear. It was dark so I decided I would try to hover it in the basement to see if it behaved correctly. I lifted off and noticed it lifted off at a very low throttle setting. I moved around a little and it started going up slightly. I lowered the throttle some and for some reason it shot straight up pretty quickly and slammed into the ceiling and then fell back to the ground. There was no damage to the quadcopter but now I have 4 divots in the ceiling from the tips of the motors hitting it. :lmao: I was worried about it being able to carry the FPV gear but I don't think that will be a problem.

:lol: That's kinda scary, Mike. Do you know what happened yet?

I sold the rest of my Cisco equipment off tonight and was able to order my Twinstar. I actually have just a little money left over, too... so I'm going to pickup 2 more batteries for it.

Brandon

 

[rcmike]

I flew the quadcopter outside today. I was pleasantly surprised when it flew great. The throttle is quite a bit more touchy than the tricopter was. I guess I just gave it too much throttle yesterday and didn't bring it down fast enough. The only slightly bad behavior it had was a quick oscillation if I came down quickly and then gave it some throttle quickly. It was very slight though and I never thought I was going to crash or anything. I did a little flying around with it but the sun was low and it was very hard to tell which way is forward. It has a lot of power too. Vertical performance is very fast and I never even gave it full throttle.


Is anyone planning on flying this weekend? I will probably go out one day. I was thinking of possibly putting my FPV gear on the quadcopter tomorrow and flying Sunday. I might just go tomorrow too and put the FPV gear on it later. Not sure yet.

 

[NeveSSL]

Nice, Mike! Glad to hear its flying well. My little brother bought one of the Parkzone Micro Corsairs today... man, that thing is a challenge! Especially for us n00bs! Its fun, though. Its pulling really, really hard to the left... I had to trim the crap out of it just to get it anywhere near level, and it still goes slightly to the left. Not sure what that's about. That's with all control surfaces flush, too. Kinda strange. Any thoughts on that?

I won't be going to the field this weekend. I know Zach mentioned going, though. Zach?

Brando

 

[rcmike]

Maybe it needs a little right thrust in the engine. If it is all straight then that is the only thing I can think of. I don't know how the engine is mounted but maybe you can put a couple of small washers behind the left side or something.

 

[NeveSSL]

It seems like its a lot more than just just the throttle. It does it regardless of where the throttle is. Or so it seems to me. Maybe I've just not dealt with planes like this one enough to know! Its a fast little thing, that's for sure. These "Parkzone Ultra Micros" are getting crazy... I love these things! $100 gets you a new plane ready to bind to your transmitter and fly the crap out of it... and they fly well! Not to mention most of them use the the same batteries. Good stuff.

Brandon

 

[rcmike]

Could one of the wings be twisted or something?

 

[NeveSSL]

It could be. But the crazy thing is that this is the second one we've had. The first one did the same thing (which is actually what led to its demise... broke the propshaft on the gearbox... )... and we've tried on multiple transmitters, too... so with that in mind, I'm wondering if I'm just not used to the prop wash/torque.

Brandon

 

[rcmike]

Could be. That is why a lot of planes have right thrust built into them. The air coming off of the prop spirals around the plane and then it hits the vertical stabilizer and induces some yaw.

 

[ZachB]

Agree with Mike on the right thrust - lots of plane require rudder on takeoff but after they're trimmed out they should fly level.

I'm going to try and get out this weekend - probably over at Smyrna, just not sure when.

 

[rcmike]

I did read some people said it flew much better with a dime taped under the cowl. Maybe the CG is too far back. That will cause them to do weird things sometimes.

I think I am going to head to Smryrna tomorrow. I was hoping to make it out there today but I decided to put the FPV stuff on my quadcopter and I didn't get it done in time. I bought some circular polarized antenna kits and had to solder them up so that took a while.

 

[NeveSSL]

I believe this is more than prop wash, but maybe a quick flight by one of you guys could help me determine that for sure. We may meet you over at Smyrna tomorrow, Mike. What time are you going?

Brandon

 

[rcmike]

I'm not sure yet but most most likely between 10 and noon or so. I will probably be there all day long unless I get too hot. It is hard to diagnose something like that without seeing it sometimes. I'd be glad to check it out.

 

[rcmike]

Well, I don't know if I will have it flying FPV since I put all the stuff on it and then one of the motors loosened up and it spun into the side of the house. It didn't hurt the copter one bit but it broke the front off the camera. It looks like just the solder joints came loose but they will be very hard to get to. I will try to fix it but I don't know it it is possible or not. If I could get the lens off of the sensor I could solder it better but I don't know if it is removable.

Oh, btw Brandon, has someone hacked your Facebook account? If not I'm a little concerned.

 

[rcmike]

I got the camera fixed. I used my reflow station to reattach the chip and lens assembly back to the board. It melted the plastic a little on the lens assembly a little but I powered it up and it worked! I put a lot of hot glue around it to hopefully keep it from breaking again.

 

[rcmike]

Flew it FPV right before dark. It was really difficult because my goggles kept fogging up due to the humidity. I flew around the yard and clipped a tree limb once. I had two minor crashes with no damage whatsoever. One was right after I clipped the tree. I got it leveled out and then it pitched backwards and flipped over. I'm not sure what happened there really. The other one was I came down too fast and it bounced on me and flipped over. I am starting to get the hang of it though. It will probably be easier when the lighting is better and I tell my altitude better. Can't wait to take it out to Smyrna tomorrow. They thought my tricopter was neat but this is much better.

 

[NeveSSL]

Nice, Mike! Are you at the field?

Brandon

 

[rcmike]

No. I'm at work.

 

[NeveSSL]

But at the time of the question, you WERE at the field.

I ordered an Ultra Micro Sukhoi the other day. I should have it and my Twinstar running by the end of next week I'm hoping. Can't wait!

Brandon

 

[NeveSSL]

And don't worry... I've already programmed dual-rates and plenty of expo for the Sukhoi... :lol:

Brandon

 

[rcmike]

lol, I know I was. I was sitting in the truck while it was raining and playing with my phone. I have heard the Sokhoi is a pretty aerobatic little plane but I have never seen one. Be sure to have a dime available for CG adjustments.

I got the quadcopter flying really well. I did some adjustments and got the shakes out of it and then tried some flips and rolls with it. It does them pretty easily now. I need to figure out how to tone it down some for FPV though.