Avindair

The SD is my third plane, with an Aerobird Challenger and PZ P-51D proceeding her.

I'm just gonna say it; I don't like this plane. At all.

On her first flight I couldn't trim her out. Managed to flop her into the field with no damage and I reseated the wing, as I thought it might be out of alignment. I guess I was right, because the next four fights were slightly better. Not good; better. See, I had to constantly dial in full right trim to keep the plan relatively steady. After every recovery I'd inspect the rudder and elevator, looking for some indication of warping or cracking. Nothing. Even the wing seemed fine.

Weird.

And that's how it was. She'd climb out, seem to be working fine, and then "BAM!" she'd demonstrate this weird roll-moment that, if I was at high enough altitude to address, I'd spend most of my time recovering from. This isn't a high-wing, high angle-of-attack, low airspeed stall either; it's just this "tuck-and-roll" thing that I've never seen before.

After a week of this I finally said "Okay, this is a lemon," and tried to exchange it at the local corporate HS for another SD. Though they kept it overnight, the finally called and said "Naw, not our problem. You call parkzone yourself..." and handed it back.

Wonderful. Remind me again why I didn't just buy this online?

Landing, too, was a pain. After one flight where the winds picked up, I "hover approached" her to a touchdown on the basketball court where I was standing. (The court is next to three soccer fields, so it's really a great spot.) I plopped her down, nice as you please, she rolled a bit, and, with a whisper-gentle "bump" into the grass next to the court, she twisted her landing gear and put two cracks into the fuselage.

Huh? A cartwheel down a grass field is fine, but a love-tap to the front of the gear cracks the fuselage? What the heck. man?

Okay, so some tape, music wire, and snips later, I'd added rear struts to the wheels. (Even removed the wheel pants, as I thought it looked better.) I added a micro tail wheel while I was at it. I was determined not to give up on this plane.

Then, as I was packing for her next flight, my daughter fell on the wing. Okay, fine. Accidents happen. A long jaunt to the LHS later, and I'd got a new one. But now I was wondering if the bird was just cursed.

Last night, after a couple of successful flights of the ABC and one gorgeous trip with the P-51D, I decided to take the SD up for a ride. Weather was ideal. My son hand launched her and up she went. We both started laughing because, hey, she was actually flying...

...and then she tucked, rolled, pitched hard, and her battery cover flew off and the battery itsel ejected off like a Federation starship shedding its warp core. A few seconds of cartwheeling down the grass later was all that was left.

Outwardly she was fine, save a bent prop (easy replacement), a missing rubber-band holder (just as easy), a snapped rubber band, (crud, don't have one on hand) and a batter cover that just vanished. Oh, and the new wing? No creases, but some crumpling on the right tip. Ironically enough, my landing gear mods were just fine after the excitement.

I'm at my wits end. This plane just won't trim out. Maybe it's a bad servo (even though static tests don't show anything wrong). Maybe it's a bad receiver (though range tests indicate that she's fine). Maybe the fuselage is just bent enough to cause the wing to sit at just an odd enough angle as to cause this weird in-flight behavior. Whatever it is, I now have a hangar queen in my collection, and that annoys me. Add in that she's always been underpowered, and I have to say that I'm just not happy with this plane at all.

I'm calling PZ to see if there is anything that they can do for me with this bird. Like I said, I'm at wit's end.

Frustrated,

Avindair