Complete newbie here, need some help, tips, and advice please.

[Txwarthog]

Hello, I'm Shawn from Dallas, Tx. Let me start with my set up. I'll add pics any gifs later. I got the trainer kit with motor, servos, and 3 cell battery. I'm using a spectrum DX4e with a ar400 DSMX reciver ( I had to cut the plastic to get the servos to fit). So far I have gotten everything working correctly. I have built land gear and am able to taxi pretty well. So that is where I am at right now. I look forward to taking it out tomorrow and share what happens. Thank you for your time.

Shawn

This is an learned edit, buy 2 planes... You will thank me. Build one the best you can, test, then build your 2nd. Even as a glider. If you travel to a park having another plane the walk of shame isn't as bad.

 

[Txwarthog]

I would say so far I'm in to it about 170$

 

[Txwarthog]

A question I do have is I have a few lidi 7.4 1200mAh batteries. Is it safe to convert them to xt30 connectors, and any advice doing that?

 

[cranialrectosis]

That Tiny Trainer is designed to be hand tossed.

If you want to take off from the ground, you need the ability to rotate. This requires some consideration to wheel placement in regards to center of mass and your ground speed. IMO you will be MUCH better off, removing the wheels and hand launching your plane.

Here's the deal. I think you mentioned before that hand tossing is kinda scary.

Yep. It is.

Something might go wrong and I might crash and break my plane. This is true. I take a bag with me to the field and have used it often to put pieces in. I built it. I can fix it. If it's too busted up, I strip out the electronics and build another one.

That plane is disposable. If you fly you will crash. Every time we toss our planes into the sky is a heart-fluttering, leap of faith.

And that is why I do it.


If you connect the lipo and fully assemble the plane, will it glide from a hand toss?

I suggest wearing a hat cam and posting video of a hand toss of your plane on Youtube. Then just insert it here on your thread.

I also suggest posting video showing the tail of your plane AND you holding your transmitter. Show in the video both you moving the sticks and your flight surfaces moving. We should be able to see you move the rudder stick right and the rudder of the plane moving right at the same time. Reversed controls in the transmitter is a common and easily fixed problem. Frustrating as heck in the field tho.

It looks like you have a pretty well assembled, straight plane. The Tiny Trainer with that glider wing is a solid, stable flyer. Be prepared to build another one or even two while learning to fly. Each time, you will get better at building and flying and as you take more risks, your crashes will become more spectacular and you will worry about them less!

 

[Txwarthog]

Thanks, that's what I'm starting to understand. I have a few ways to record already. I've put Velcro on it so maybe I can balance it better. I'll go chunk it around with a camera tomorrow morning.

 

[Txwarthog]

I think I'm happy with this.

 

[d8veh]

You can change your connectors. I'll give you a couple of warnings that seem pretty obvious:
1. Don't cut off the connector both wires at the same time. Cut one, insulate it and then cut the other.
2. Never leave both wires uninsulated at the same time, unless you're trying to save money on fireworks. I'd cut one wire, solder it to the new connector and insulate it with heat-shrink tube, then do the other one. If you leave the first uninsulated, it's too easy to touch it with your soldering iron, in which case you get a massive flash and a lot of vaporised metal.

 

[cranialrectosis]

I think I'm happy with this.

The goal of the exercise is so we can see that your sticks move the planes surfaces in the proper directions. The video only works if we can see your fingers moving the sticks and the tail of the plane at the same time.

It is very common for someone to have a reversed control so that when they pull back on the elevator stick the plane nosedives into the ground instead of pitching up like you would expect.

The other biggie for your first flight is Center of Gravity. If your plane is nose heavy, it can fly but not very well. If your plane is tail heavy, your plane will try to flip around mid air to fly backwards. That rarely works out well.

A photo or gif of that plane, fully loaded with lipo etc... balanced on a chair back. Show the side of the plane so we can see the balance point which should be about 1/2" back from the leading edge of the wing on that plane (if memory serves me).

 

[Txwarthog]

Well it looks like the rain is going to delay my flights this morning. However I did make a CG stand.

 

[Txwarthog]

I thought I'd try out the FPV stuff while I wait.

 

[cranialrectosis]

If this were my plane, I would remove the wheels, weights in the back, quad copter and maybe use a smaller lipo. Re-balance as a lighter plane.

Learn to fly line of sight (LOS) before you go FPV.

Everyone crashes and crashes break stuff. The more you have in the air, the more stuff breaks. This is not only because you have more stuff exposed, but because all that stuff adds weight which in a crash is inertia. The less inertia you have in a crash, the less stuff breaks.

When learning to fly, I suggest you keep the weight down to help keep the cost of repairs down.

This isn't to say you can't learn to fly fixed wing with an FPV rig. But I suspect it will cost you a lot more to do so.

 

[Txwarthog]

I think I got this right.

 

[Txwarthog]

Can you recommend a battery? It does seem heaver than I'd like. I'm finding mostly 3 cells.

 

[Txwarthog]

Without landing gear and battery.

 

[cranialrectosis]

I run a 1000mah or 1300mah 3S at least 35C.

It looks about right to me.

I'd give it a toss and see if she glides.

 

[Txwarthog]

Thanks, amazon only has a 1550mah ovonic 11.1v. Can you send me a link? Here are my first 3 test. It's a little wet to do much more.

 

[Txwarthog]

Ok dumb question. The rod fits in the whole but the screw does not seem to fit in anything. I recalled it being mentioned in a video. I guess I missed the application.

 

[Txwarthog]

Went to a school for more room. It doesn't seem like the landing gear is a problem at all.

 

[cranialrectosis]

That plane seems to balance and glide well. I would connect a lipo and fly it. I think the landing gear won't help for takeoff but it might save you some props so long as it doesn't make you nose heavy.

Your plane glides beautifully.

 

[Txwarthog]

It was a good day to test out the recording equipment. If all goes well I will try and fly it tomorrow morning. Any idea what that part is call?