NZ Private

i bought, and have built a reach whirlwind as my first 3D plane with brushed motor and i am trying to learn to fly 3D. Im trying to hover although i am not very rich and so have to be relativly cautious does any one have an idea that could help me learn 3D it is really boring having a plane that you dont want to learn to fly cuz your scared youll brake it!

(can be found at www.modelflight.com.au/rc_model_ electric_planes/reach_whirlwind_3d)

I have been told that it is no use to put a landing gear on unless your flying indoors, but i am not sure because it could help you to put it down easier rather than landing on the prop and braking it!!

Thoughts?

Maidin

tylerman

Maidin- Everyone has to start somewhere, and crashing planes is inevitable- Most of the time the only way you can learn is to crash.

The plane you are starting with seems to be a good one-That is pretty cool that it came with a LiPo batt.
If you dont want to put landing gear on then dont. The prop will usually push out of the way. but you might want to put a strip of light weight tape along the bottom so you dont mess it up.

To learn how to hover, get up about 20 feet (or high enough so you can save yourself) and roll on the throttle to the point were the plane will support its own weight and pull back on the stick, when the plane is pointed straight up in the air give it a little bit of right aileron to compensate for the torque. Sooner or later you will learn what the plane does in a hover and will learn to react to it correctly.
Slowly start bringing the plane closer to the groundas you get better at keeping the plane in a good position.

Once you learn to hover it will open up a whole new world of aerobatics.
Oh yeah, make sure that your plane has enough power to go straight up vertically--or else you are going to get into some big trouble

Good Luck!

NZ Private

thnax tylerman that was really helpful, although i dont quite understand what you mean by the tape?? also with the reach whirlwind i have without a gear the only way to get it down without braking the prop (or other parts of it) is to hover, which means i will have to learn really fast.

Anymore advice would be great

Maidin

NZ Private

her is a pic of the plane im talking about...

tylerman

If you have power to spare then dont worry about it, Just put landing gear on.
What I meant by putting a peice of tape on it is to take a peice of tape and lay it all along the bottom of the fuse. Just try to keep it light.

By the way have you flown this plane yet? Also, how much does it weigh?

NZ Private

i have tried to fly only crashing and it ways like 250grams i think,
i have found a soulution....
there is a plane u-can-do-3D and it is made out of this epp stuff that can flex, very hard to brake, along with that thing that brings the prop back to horizontel.

cheers

Maidin

ghee-grose

www.aeroflypro.com Believe me, it's worth the $$

tylerman

Maidin- Yes the U-can-do 3D epp foam plane flies very nice from the videos I have seen on it- and it is pretty much indestructible.
The thing you are talking about on the prop is called a prop saver. It holds the prop on with a rubber band instead of a bolt.

ghee-grose, Aero fly pro is a good sim, I have used it- But for the same amount of money you could go and get a much better sim called Reflex XTR. The graphics are 10 times better than aerofly and the realism of the flight charecteristics are unbeatable-no other sim even comes close. One of my friends has aerofly pro and when I first used it I thought that it was pretty cool. But after I went out and bought Reflex XTR I thought aerofly was kinda cheesy.

If you chose to go out and get a sim I would highly recommend Reflex, but that is just my opinion.
Any sim you get is well worth the money.

ghee-grose

hmmm...I guess Reflex just doesn't have as much "hype" as AFP??? I haven't seen it yet, but if it's anything like you say, then it probably would be the top sim out there.

tylerman

Definately- You should look into it. It is good stuff
The realism will blow you away.

Fly-n-3D

I have tried Realflight G3 and Reflex XTR. Both are good. Reflex is $130 and Real flight G3 is $200. Realflight G3 cost more because it comes with a transmiter. You can use your own transmiter with both.

WhtBronco

All the sims are good, just get 1. A sim will make learning much cheaper, easier and faster. You can learn on the computer and the try it for real. Even the old G2 sim is a good place to start, although it doesn't 3D all that well it's the only sim I have ever used and has taught me an awful lot. Sure wish I'dhad at 15 years old when I taught myself to fly without any help at all. Wow was that a costly and time consuming way to do it.

bdavison

My Feedback: (1)

I learned how to fly 3D airplanes without a sim. You can do it, but you'll probably go through alot of airplanes learning. My best suggestion on learning how to hover, is to start in knife-edge and start feeding in more rudder until the nose is pointed up, then hold it there. If you do it this way, the top of the plane will be facing you. If you do it with the elevator method, you'd better be quick on the ailerons, because if it torque rolls around, you'd better be good at inverted flight.

Recently Ive been trying to learn how to fly 3D aerobatics with a CCPM heli. Ive been practicing on the aerofly sim. With the eco 7, and the little electric CCPM heli,and the raptor I can already do loops, rolls, and nose in. Ive even been able to hover inverted. All in a matter of about a week on the sim.

This being said, I also know that in real life, it wont be so easy to do.

Sims are ok for getting used to how planes fly, but dont think that just because you can do it on the sim, you can do it for real.

Basically, practice, practice, practice.

Good luck, once you learn you'll have a blast.

TprJosh

Dude I recently bought one of these planes as well and I am haveing trouble following the instructions as it doesn't say how to install the engine. Any tips would much be appreciated.
Thanks

emnm79

My Feedback: (5)

aerofly=hype, i'm glad i didn't pay for it, because g3 blows it out of the water... photorealistic scenery is cheesy, and yeilds horrible depth perception, there are some noticeable errors in the 3d flight behavior in aerofly, most notably the heli's in wind, airplanes falling from hover/high alpha, and torque rolling from dropping the plane and suddenly applying power... it also seems that 3d is too easy in this sim, where in g3 it is definitely possible, but a touch more difficult, and more realistic

did I mention the whole crash thing in afpd is just stupid... not to mention you can drop a plane straight on its tail from 50 feet and it doesnt "crash"

3Dear

TprJosh,
I have been flying the Whirlwind for some time, it's one of easy hovering planes I have. Mine comes with a 350 stock motor, 5.33:1 gear box, 3 servos and esc. She will hover using the stock 350 motor if you build her light. It's a lot more fun flying with the outrunner motor like Esskay 400XT, Himax 2808-980 or AXI 2208-34.
The instruction is not that well written, the first thing you need to do is to ditch the filmsy wood stick and install carbon spar on the wing, add carbon tape to the horizontal stab and you have a very stiff airframe. I use the stock motor mount stick which is gluing two stick together.

3Dear

My Whirlwind setup: Himax 2808-0980, 1047 prop, CC10, 3S Irate 860, AUW 11.8oz.

bronney

3Dear,

Sorry to revive an old thread. But do you mount a brushless like the airfoilz yak's? Simple firewall with slits cutout on the nose?

dave3913

I have the whirlwind and use a 400xt with a 9.6 prop....If you cant fly this plane....you will never be able to fly a 3d...way better than the u-can do....fun little plane...dave