Off to a bad start but not giving up.

I've also been doing some research around the forums and stuff. I'm starting to think it's definitely CG issues I've been having. Has anyone built a tutor with the gens ace 2200 mah battery and power pack B? Where would be a good place to put it? Top of the power pod with a long strip of Velcro to move forward and backwards to adjust CG?
 

bigdano711

Active member
For anyone still keeping up, I decided to go ahead and order the Tutor SBK tonight. Should be in by the weekend so I'll be able to spend Sunday or Monday building it. Does anyone have any advice upfront? I plan on building it with either the B or C power pack I have from the previous builds and I have a 2200 mah 3s lipo battery. I'd prefer to use the B pack for slower controlled flight, but I'm not opposed to C. Also probably going to humble myself a little and build it as a 3 channel at first and work up to Ailerons.
This is how I've been doing mine, 3 channel first, trimmed out, then add the ailerons if wanted/needed. Having it trimmed and flying level on 3 channels, after adding ailerons and it starts turning, you know it's aileron as opposed to guessing if it's rudder or aileron.

So absolutely nobody test glides new to them aircraft anymore?
I test glide for .5 seconds on hand launch. :D
 

SSgt Duramax

Junior Member
I test glide for sometimes a full second if I cut the power @ landing.
Half of the bricks I build need thrust in order to fly. The last thing I glide tested was my mini turbo kaddy, it made it about 20 feet before lawn darting and scuffing up my nice paint. I put the flaps at 50%, throttled it up, and it flew perfect. Had I been chasing my tail after the glide test, I never would have gotten it off the ground. Sure it was too big a motor and too much battery for such a little plane.

I pretty much just go for it if CG checks out. You can't figure out if your throws are too high or you have thrust angle issues off power anyways. I don't have a reputation for building light, floaty planes anyways. My wing is pretty much a 2 pound weight with airfoils attached to the sides. I have to land it at about 10-20% power not to tip stall. It is EPP though, so I just pretty much run it into the ground at a shallow angle of attack going 30mph at this point. It is kind of like skipping stones.
 
I've never heard of test gliding, but again...I'm new. Is it basically just tossing it out with the battery in and such and make sure it glides and doesn't tank nose down?
 

Tench745

Master member
Test gliding lets you verify your CG, this is especially useful if you designed your own plane and aren't sure of the correct CG location.
It also helps verify the wing incidence, trim our turning tendencies, and a number of little things like that.
Test gliding is much more common in free-flight planes; you want to know how they behave before you just set them loose, but it is still useful and possible with lighter RC models.
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Byrdman

Well-known member
No test gliding here either. I balance the plane a little nose heavy. Put some visual elevator up-trim and some right-trim on the ailerons, then let'er rip at about 1/2 throttle with a hand launch over grass. In the first 10 feet you kill the motor and adjust the above trims if it is not flying the way you want. Beats really having to say on top of and work the sticks while flying it for the first time, IME.
 

Aslansmonkey

Well-known member
So first things first, stick with it. I chose foamboard planes expressly because I figured they'd be easy to rebuild and fix WHEN I crashed. And when I started out (I also came from an RC Car background), I crashed a LOT! In fact, I probably was on my sixth plane before I had one I could keep up in the air. Many of those initial planes were just me not being good with the build techniques at first.

But once you are airborne there's a whole new set of issues learning how to trim the plane, how to adjust throws and limits, and how to set and use expo. So you'll STILL crash a lot. Most of my initial landings were more falling from the sky than anything nuanced and subtle.

Don't start with the "pretty" planes, like the warbirds. If it looks real cool, it's probably NOT the bird to be learning to fly on. If it looks derpy, it's probably perfect. The Tenet and the Explorer are great starter planes. Yeah they look weird with those polyhedral wings and pusher props but those are features meant to make them super easy to fly and at first you want to NOT be worrying about many of the things the "pretty" planes introduce. Frankly the Tenet is an excellent platform because it's easy to set up and can be converted later in your learning process to use Ailerons and tractor propulsion without additional investment. In short, picking something less glamorous but more stable will go a long way toward teaching you to fly. These ugly trainers are also designed to fly SLOW, which helps you learn reaction time and hurts the plane less when they inevitably hit the ground.

Once you get that down, build something prettier. I recommend the Scout. Everyone should have a Scout. It's just a good simple basic yet beautiful flyer. My initial success flying was with a simple Cub, but I learned to FLY with a Scout. I crashed the heck out of that Scout too, but kept fixing it and kept putting it up in the air. I retired it not because it quit working, but because I felt like replacing it, with another Scout (one I modified to be low wing).

I've heard about glide testing, and it's probably a good idea. I tend to glide test...under power. ;)
 
So first things first, stick with it. I chose foamboard planes expressly because I figured they'd be easy to rebuild and fix WHEN I crashed. And when I started out (I also came from an RC Car background), I crashed a LOT! In fact, I probably was on my sixth plane before I had one I could keep up in the air. Many of those initial planes were just me not being good with the build techniques at first.

But once you are airborne there's a whole new set of issues learning how to trim the plane, how to adjust throws and limits, and how to set and use expo. So you'll STILL crash a lot. Most of my initial landings were more falling from the sky than anything nuanced and subtle.

Don't start with the "pretty" planes, like the warbirds. If it looks real cool, it's probably NOT the bird to be learning to fly on. If it looks derpy, it's probably perfect. The Tenet and the Explorer are great starter planes. Yeah they look weird with those polyhedral wings and pusher props but those are features meant to make them super easy to fly and at first you want to NOT be worrying about many of the things the "pretty" planes introduce. Frankly the Tenet is an excellent platform because it's easy to set up and can be converted later in your learning process to use Ailerons and tractor propulsion without additional investment. In short, picking something less glamorous but more stable will go a long way toward teaching you to fly. These ugly trainers are also designed to fly SLOW, which helps you learn reaction time and hurts the plane less when they inevitably hit the ground.

Once you get that down, build something prettier. I recommend the Scout. Everyone should have a Scout. It's just a good simple basic yet beautiful flyer. My initial success flying was with a simple Cub, but I learned to FLY with a Scout. I crashed the heck out of that Scout too, but kept fixing it and kept putting it up in the air. I retired it not because it quit working, but because I felt like replacing it, with another Scout (one I modified to be low wing).

I've heard about glide testing, and it's probably a good idea. I tend to glide test...under power. ;)
Excellent! Especially the part that goes "I've heard about glide testing and it's probably a good idea." :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 

Tench745

Master member
So first things first, stick with it. I chose foamboard planes expressly because I figured they'd be easy to rebuild and fix WHEN I crashed. And when I started out (I also came from an RC Car background), I crashed a LOT! In fact, I probably was on my sixth plane before I had one I could keep up in the air. Many of those initial planes were just me not being good with the build techniques at first.

But once you are airborne there's a whole new set of issues learning how to trim the plane, how to adjust throws and limits, and how to set and use expo. So you'll STILL crash a lot. Most of my initial landings were more falling from the sky than anything nuanced and subtle.

Don't start with the "pretty" planes, like the warbirds. If it looks real cool, it's probably NOT the bird to be learning to fly on. If it looks derpy, it's probably perfect. The Tenet and the Explorer are great starter planes. Yeah they look weird with those polyhedral wings and pusher props but those are features meant to make them super easy to fly and at first you want to NOT be worrying about many of the things the "pretty" planes introduce. Frankly the Tenet is an excellent platform because it's easy to set up and can be converted later in your learning process to use Ailerons and tractor propulsion without additional investment. In short, picking something less glamorous but more stable will go a long way toward teaching you to fly. These ugly trainers are also designed to fly SLOW, which helps you learn reaction time and hurts the plane less when they inevitably hit the ground.

Once you get that down, build something prettier. I recommend the Scout. Everyone should have a Scout. It's just a good simple basic yet beautiful flyer. My initial success flying was with a simple Cub, but I learned to FLY with a Scout. I crashed the heck out of that Scout too, but kept fixing it and kept putting it up in the air. I retired it not because it quit working, but because I felt like replacing it, with another Scout (one I modified to be low wing).

I've heard about glide testing, and it's probably a good idea. I tend to glide test...under power. ;)

When I do glide test I usually have my radio on and the plane powered up so I can save things if they are really out of trim. I usually only do this for belly-landers. If the model has landing gear I like to do a fast taxi and get the plane flying in ground effect. Less height and less speed so there's less energy to break something in a crash.

"Gliding" at partial power is a good way to glide test a heavy model that would have a high sink rate otherwise.
 

Flightspeed

Convicted Necroposter
I’ve never had any success trying to glide test my planes… I just balance em before hand and fly it.
 
So first things first, stick with it. I chose foamboard planes expressly because I figured they'd be easy to rebuild and fix WHEN I crashed. And when I started out (I also came from an RC Car background), I crashed a LOT! In fact, I probably was on my sixth plane before I had one I could keep up in the air. Many of those initial planes were just me not being good with the build techniques at first.

But once you are airborne there's a whole new set of issues learning how to trim the plane, how to adjust throws and limits, and how to set and use expo. So you'll STILL crash a lot. Most of my initial landings were more falling from the sky than anything nuanced and subtle.

Don't start with the "pretty" planes, like the warbirds. If it looks real cool, it's probably NOT the bird to be learning to fly on. If it looks derpy, it's probably perfect. The Tenet and the Explorer are great starter planes. Yeah they look weird with those polyhedral wings and pusher props but those are features meant to make them super easy to fly and at first you want to NOT be worrying about many of the things the "pretty" planes introduce. Frankly the Tenet is an excellent platform because it's easy to set up and can be converted later in your learning process to use Ailerons and tractor propulsion without additional investment. In short, picking something less glamorous but more stable will go a long way toward teaching you to fly. These ugly trainers are also designed to fly SLOW, which helps you learn reaction time and hurts the plane less when they inevitably hit the ground.

Once you get that down, build something prettier. I recommend the Scout. Everyone should have a Scout. It's just a good simple basic yet beautiful flyer. My initial success flying was with a simple Cub, but I learned to FLY with a Scout. I crashed the heck out of that Scout too, but kept fixing it and kept putting it up in the air. I retired it not because it quit working, but because I felt like replacing it, with another Scout (one I modified to be low wing).

I've heard about glide testing, and it's probably a good idea. I tend to glide test...under power. ;)


My second one was the scout and I liked it. I'm pretty sure a little hot glue will fix the fuselage and I can still get it in the air eventually. I ordered the tutor and tracking says Monday, but I've been receiving packages early from FT so I'm hoping Saturday on this one. I'm going to slow way down in the build phase this time. I'm also gonna keep it 3 channel for now.
 

Scary

Member
How much throttle did you have in it when it nosed to the ground, a plane flying at are close to stall speed my feel like you have no control mushy
 

danskis

Master member
@codygoodman1337 A test glide is used to ensure that the CG center of gravity is correct. For a beginner this is the most important setting on a flying model. The correct CG should be on the plans. Mark it on the bottom of the wings so it is easily seen or put a dab of hot glue there so you can feel it with your fingers. When balancing, the nose of the plane should be slightly down. Also known as slightly nose heavy. What you want to avoid at all costs when you're a beginner is a tail heavy plane.

You can test glide your plane - check your CG - without the battery installed. You will still need to add weight to the nose to get the CG correct. This involves firmly taping weights to the nose. Unfortunately you wont have any control over it. Expect some rough landings. (when you get your kit make poster board templates of the pieces so you can make another plane) Expect to repair it. It won't be pretty but you just might get it to fly.

With the battery installed, you move the battery fore and aft to get the correct CG. You can use soft foam and small amounts of velcro to make sure it stays in place.

With all that said, I wouldn't suggest test gliding this plane with the battery installed as you won't be able to throw it hard enough to reach flying speed.

how to balance a flitetest plane - Google Search
 
Thank you, everyone for all the help. I’m going to start a new thread since my FT Tutor SBK arrived recently. I haven’t been able to start the build yet, but I want advice along the way.