A few photo`s taken from the parkzone radian glider

Bruthal

Plug wrote: »

The new glider with the ailerons.

3rd and 4th items on this site page, BNF (Bind N Fly) you need a spektrum tx
and PNP (Plun N Play) you need any type tx with rx, flight battery and charger.
http://www.squadronleader.co.uk/category/ParkZone_Radian_Glider,b.html

Same as above on this site - type radian into the search here, and its items 7 and 8

http://www.modelmaniacsonline.co.uk

I dont see any parkzone radian pro RTF versions but you could search in google and see. Its probably because the PRO version has 4 wing controls, full house they call it, and this can use from simple 5 channel radio to use just basic flaps and ailerons, up to full crow braking and reflex and camber setups with the higher end radios.

I have the cularis setup with crow braking which involved a fair bit of mixing on the Spektrum DX7 radio, using all 7 channels.

Plug

Think i'll stay with your one, too much hastle getting other things. RTF wins!

Bruthal

Yes its very good anyway, and everything in one box is very handy. A great way of seeing will you want to progress on.

Just make sure you dont just go and try fly it yourself if you have not flown before,

Kashkai

Its a good idea to get at least one lesson as you'll then see that flying rc planes isn't as easy as it looks. By getting at least one lesson, you'll learn a healthy respect for flying these planes and you'll then be cautious for your first 10 hours or so of flying until you get competent.

I was flying my Trojan in the Park a few weeks back when some guy came along and starting chatting excitedly as he put his new plane together (a Parkzone P51 Mustang.). I was concentrating on my own flying but listening to this guy going on about how this was his first plane, how cool it looked, how fast it could go etc etc. To be honest, when he said "his first plane....", I moved my Trojan higher into the air out of the way while I tried to tell him that he might have bitten off more than he could chew with the Mustang for a first plane. Instead of listening to me, he took that as a challenge and when he finally figured out how to connect the battery, he was too eager to get his plane into the air. To be fair, he got the plane into the air allright, for about 5 seconds anyway as he pulled back on the stick too much and before he knew what was happening, the Mustang had done a beautiful loop back down nose first into the ground, flight over. I landed my Trojan as he was picking up his broken Mustang.

Now I'm not crowing here as I did exactly the same thing when I'd been flying about 8 weeks so I knew how he felt. I had a look at his plane and he'd gotten off fairly lightly. The prop was broken and the nose was cracked. I had some epoxy with me and I glued the nose back onto the fuze. I took off the damaged prop and replaced it with the spare one in his box (yes he assembled his new plane in the park - talk about eager!). I didn't have my buddy cord with me or else I could have hooked up to his tx and acted as his failsafe, so I gave him a few pointers and took his plane off for him and did a few gentle circuits and landed it for him. i've been flying since last February and I think I'm pretty competent now but the Mustang was a handful for me let alone a complete noob to the hobby. I gave his tx to him and told him what to do but on take off he was still too jerky with teh stick and almost did another loop until I regained control from him. When she was up high enough, I showed him how to bank slowly which he got the hang of. I advised him how to land but he came in too fast and too steep and despite my call to go round he stuffed it into the ground. No damage that I could see but he was very demoralised. I advised him to get a Supercub or a Radian to learn on and to leave teh Mustang until he'd learned the ropes.

I haven't seen him again.

Bruthal

In fairness we could all try that, my first time flying i had a go myself too, and the result was the same as above, and you might have even though i suggested getting assistance at least on the first flight, except your battery got drained flat and beyond being able to recharge before you got a chance which probably worked out well in the end.

Its so easy to get planes now that the teptation to just fly without a lesson or two is higher than ever. And it does look easy enough.

My first plane was a hi-boy with a .40 nitro engine in 1988(not one for a solo first attempt) and i gave it a go, did`t last long that attempt, patched it back up, tried again, and still managed to patch it back up after that and went for the all important help with the initial flights in the phoenix park.

If that was me and someone came along i would land and say here let me try that for you if you have never flown before, if they still insist on trying themselves i`d say fair enough, nothing more you can do.

How is the trojan flying? i flew the mustang like the one you mentioned that fella had and it was like it was on rails.

Kashkai

I've had to do a few mods to the Trojan to get her right, i.e. the canopy is held on with a small magnet which isn't strong enough and when inverted, it sometimes pops off and you have an unintended aerial bomb so I used some velcro as a secondary fixing which holds it on. I've also had to put hinge tape on the elevator as it is a known weak point and can separate from the tail which will end you flight real quick. The landing gear (its a nosewheel, not a tail dragger) is a little fragile and it won't take much to snap the nosewheel. The dark grey paintscheme makes disorientation on a dull cloudy day a real possibility as it blends in too well with dark clouds.

Apart from that she is very stable in the air while capable of full aerobatics. I like her as opposed to love her at this stage cause for a €200 plane, I've had to make repairs before she even got in the air. Still prefer my Rad and Cub but I might get more used to the Trojan in time.

Btw, you were right when you said that my draining my first lipo by accident was fortuitous as I know I would have looped the Rad on first take off and ruined her so your help with the first flight was what I and every noob needs.

Bruthal

Them magnets would be strong enough to hold on canopies alright, the problem in a lot of instances is the magnets dont quite make physical contact with each other because they are inside a plastic holder which by design means the plastic lip on the holders is between the magnets.

I dont be too bothered by any small mods that may need to be done to improve a RTF plane, i know it could be said they should be perfect, but mass production to keep prices down, (and they are good value really),
means a few user improvements can be made. I said before i have a P51 mustang nitro plane 10 years now which was ARTF and just needed engine and radio gear fitted, but a few flights later the left landing gear went up through wing and i was not too pleased as all landings were reasonably good as only about 10th flight. A lack of glue was the culprit. But thats the nature of this. I like everyone at the time in the 80`s started when you had to build your aircraft, so you have a good idea then of the things to look out for. Something can always be missed though.

Having said all that, i probably would just fly without checking too much myself too, and check plane after each flight.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Apart from that she is very stable in the air while capable of full aerobatics. I like her as opposed to love her at this stage cause for a €200 plane, I've had to make repairs before she even got in the air. Still prefer my Rad and Cub but I might get more used to the Trojan in time.

I was like that when first flew the cularis, but now i think its brill. The first flights i had the radian motor in it to get it flying quicker as had no motor for the cularis at that stage, so it was not as good a performance as it is now, its double the weight of the radian so needs a bit extra in the power dept as a powered glider. I have a motor in it now which has plenty of power.

Kashkai

I know of some guys who like to upgrade the stock motor in their planes but I often wonder if a boost in speed performance is worth it as the stronger motor drains the battery quicker.

I'm still mulling over what plane to buy myself for xmas. I fancy a warbird but just when I've decided on a particular model, GOOGLE throws up stories about shoddy build and electrical problems.

I was going for one of these:

http://www.tjdmodels.com/e-commerce/tjdmodels/category.jsf?categoryId=347

But now I'm hearing of problems from guys who've bought one of these fms planes with landing gear going up through a wing on "supposedley" soft landings.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I know of some guys who like to upgrade the stock motor in their planes but I often wonder if a boost in speed performance is worth it as the stronger motor drains the battery quicker.

Yes but you need a motor that can deliver some sort of performance. In my case i had a radian motor in a cularis, which took double the time to reach a given altitude, so now the motor is only on for half the time to get to the given altitude, and i was also able to put in a 2600mah battery instead of a 2200 one when i put the propper wattage motor in. I only used the radian motor to get the cularis flying sooner than i otherwise would have.

As for higher performance but shorter flight times, it all depends i suppose, the pilot can always throttle back a little to get the same flight time, but still have extra as well. This would be in faster planes rather than gliders which are a different typr of flying.

That was one good thing about the radian, its a good motor setup in it. Plenty of power.

psjdstu

scary but very cool

Bruthal

psjdstu wrote: »

scary but very cool

We fly that radian using live video from it, there are 2 in the youtube channel i sent that you looked at, 2nd and 8th videos in list. Thats the live view for flying. The other camera records the HD video and photos.