Genolution
New member
Where do I even start? I'm new to all this and I don't know anyone in the hobby to help. It's all well and good there is an online community willing and eager to help newcomers but how can you help if they don't know what questions to ask? I find myself guilty of not knowing what to ask. Let me explain.
I Just built a sparrow from I kit I ordered last winter. I must have watched the build video about half a dozen times. Not because I'm a slow learner, I just like watching those vids. I've probably watched them all by now lol. Needless to say I didn't have any problem building the sparrow. I was very familiar with all the building techniques long before I broke the plastic on my kit. What I had a problem with most was setting up my radio to use ruddervators.
The build video shows how to set up a $200 radio to fly the $50 sparrow. But what noob is gonna pay that much to fly cheap foam board planes? I bought a Flysky fs-i6x. The i6 does have a v tail setting but it assumes you have ailerons as well which wasn't useful for my use case. So I used my Googlefu. I found a few threads on this very forum of people with the same problem. Unfortunately nobody could help these people but one did post that he figured it out and listed a few settings but admitted it was probably incomplete instructions (It was). I spent hours just trying different settings and went through two sets of batteries on my radio. Finally I figure it out. I can now pitch up and down and turn left and right with my right stick.
Victorious, I set out to my fathers house to maiden in the empty field behind his house. I check my C.R.A.P, set the throttle to about 2/3 and give it a toss. Before I can get my other hand on the stick it rolls left hard and crashes nose and wing first. I check my C.R.A.P again. Everything looks fine. I carefully inspect the wings and tail section and control surfaces looking for clues as to why the plane is rolling but nothing is found. I throw it again for the same result. I give it some trim to correct the roll and throw it again. This time it stays in the air long enough to get my other hand on it. I quickly push the right stick to the right and it starts to roll even faster to the left and it crashes again. I realize I have the controls reversed and now the prop is broke. I go back to the picnic table on the rear patio to change out the prop. After that I went into the radio's menu to reverse the rudder channel and the plane flies backwards off the table and through the screen and sliding glass door landing in the kitchen leaving a trail of shattered glass halfway across the living room.
It seems I reversed the throttle instead. It never occurred to me to ask what would happen if you accidentally reversed your throttle channel. If it had, the answer might have prompted me to always remove my prop when entering the reverse channel menu. Anyways, I'm giving up on the sparrow. I still got enough parts to build a simple cub. Wish me luck.
I Just built a sparrow from I kit I ordered last winter. I must have watched the build video about half a dozen times. Not because I'm a slow learner, I just like watching those vids. I've probably watched them all by now lol. Needless to say I didn't have any problem building the sparrow. I was very familiar with all the building techniques long before I broke the plastic on my kit. What I had a problem with most was setting up my radio to use ruddervators.
The build video shows how to set up a $200 radio to fly the $50 sparrow. But what noob is gonna pay that much to fly cheap foam board planes? I bought a Flysky fs-i6x. The i6 does have a v tail setting but it assumes you have ailerons as well which wasn't useful for my use case. So I used my Googlefu. I found a few threads on this very forum of people with the same problem. Unfortunately nobody could help these people but one did post that he figured it out and listed a few settings but admitted it was probably incomplete instructions (It was). I spent hours just trying different settings and went through two sets of batteries on my radio. Finally I figure it out. I can now pitch up and down and turn left and right with my right stick.
Victorious, I set out to my fathers house to maiden in the empty field behind his house. I check my C.R.A.P, set the throttle to about 2/3 and give it a toss. Before I can get my other hand on the stick it rolls left hard and crashes nose and wing first. I check my C.R.A.P again. Everything looks fine. I carefully inspect the wings and tail section and control surfaces looking for clues as to why the plane is rolling but nothing is found. I throw it again for the same result. I give it some trim to correct the roll and throw it again. This time it stays in the air long enough to get my other hand on it. I quickly push the right stick to the right and it starts to roll even faster to the left and it crashes again. I realize I have the controls reversed and now the prop is broke. I go back to the picnic table on the rear patio to change out the prop. After that I went into the radio's menu to reverse the rudder channel and the plane flies backwards off the table and through the screen and sliding glass door landing in the kitchen leaving a trail of shattered glass halfway across the living room.
It seems I reversed the throttle instead. It never occurred to me to ask what would happen if you accidentally reversed your throttle channel. If it had, the answer might have prompted me to always remove my prop when entering the reverse channel menu. Anyways, I'm giving up on the sparrow. I still got enough parts to build a simple cub. Wish me luck.