Hi all,
I was delighted to find FliteTest a month or so ago, and have scratch built 5 planes over the past month or so, with intentions to continue to build more in the near future. I have been more focused on building than flying, and have no previous experience with RC. I used to enjoy building White Wings paper airplanes as a kid, and this feels like the natural extension of that pastime. I finally cobbled together the electronics needed to put one into the air, and figured the Tiny Trainer with non-aileron wings would be the place to start. My first take-away was that clearly RC flight was going to take some practice!
My main observation was that I could get it up 20' or so but by then it would begin rolling to the right, which also caused it to turn in that direction. Some judicious trimming of the rudder seemed to be enough to get it to steer it straight, but the roll continued until it was no longer stable (flying nearly sideways at times). So the best I could do was get it up into the air for a large loop and then back onto the ground before it got too sideways to handle in any way. I re-centered the wings after each "landing," so I don't think that the wings were merely off-center.
The good news is that it was a wet day and I was already intending to fly it to mechanical or water-log failure, and then rebuild it. I suspect my fusilage or tail fin(s) are skewed, but I am new to this so asking for confirmation on this or other suggestions that might make the trainer roll to one side without any ailerons in play. The couple of good hard "crashes" didn't damage the plane beyond scuffing the nose a bit and tearing loose the power pod, which I was able to replace on the spot and continue my flight attempts. All other landings were fairly graceful, but I was definitely impressed by the durability of the plane!
I have several other models built and have moved my electronics to an FT Long-EZ for my next flight, but hope to rebuild my Tiny Trainer soon and give it another try. I feel like it would have been fly-able, had I a means to adjust the tenancy to roll, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the "bank and yank" flying approach that the Long-EZ uses feels like vs. the Trainer.
A very cool experience to see the thing up in the air, even if it was for 30 seconds at a time at best! Looking forward to the rebuild and next flight. The plane itself is still intact, but the fuselage is definitely warped now from getting wet. Looking forward to the next build.
I was delighted to find FliteTest a month or so ago, and have scratch built 5 planes over the past month or so, with intentions to continue to build more in the near future. I have been more focused on building than flying, and have no previous experience with RC. I used to enjoy building White Wings paper airplanes as a kid, and this feels like the natural extension of that pastime. I finally cobbled together the electronics needed to put one into the air, and figured the Tiny Trainer with non-aileron wings would be the place to start. My first take-away was that clearly RC flight was going to take some practice!
My main observation was that I could get it up 20' or so but by then it would begin rolling to the right, which also caused it to turn in that direction. Some judicious trimming of the rudder seemed to be enough to get it to steer it straight, but the roll continued until it was no longer stable (flying nearly sideways at times). So the best I could do was get it up into the air for a large loop and then back onto the ground before it got too sideways to handle in any way. I re-centered the wings after each "landing," so I don't think that the wings were merely off-center.
The good news is that it was a wet day and I was already intending to fly it to mechanical or water-log failure, and then rebuild it. I suspect my fusilage or tail fin(s) are skewed, but I am new to this so asking for confirmation on this or other suggestions that might make the trainer roll to one side without any ailerons in play. The couple of good hard "crashes" didn't damage the plane beyond scuffing the nose a bit and tearing loose the power pod, which I was able to replace on the spot and continue my flight attempts. All other landings were fairly graceful, but I was definitely impressed by the durability of the plane!
I have several other models built and have moved my electronics to an FT Long-EZ for my next flight, but hope to rebuild my Tiny Trainer soon and give it another try. I feel like it would have been fly-able, had I a means to adjust the tenancy to roll, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the "bank and yank" flying approach that the Long-EZ uses feels like vs. the Trainer.
A very cool experience to see the thing up in the air, even if it was for 30 seconds at a time at best! Looking forward to the rebuild and next flight. The plane itself is still intact, but the fuselage is definitely warped now from getting wet. Looking forward to the next build.