doug52

Dick Say & DSK

Hobby People = http://hobbypeople.net list all kinds of spare parts for the RYAN although the WING is on backorder (wierd huh!)

Doug Case

old bird

Dick Say, your plug idea sounds like a good one, I'm taking notes. It might be engineered to add some strength to the gear mounting blocks also. My wing seems stiff enough after tightening the covering, but you guys have me worried. Not much overkill to soak up a rough landing. I checked out your pictures, sorry the neat camo job on the Zero caused its demise. Thinking of yours, I left mine home yesterday because we had a solid gray overcast most of the day. That silver against the clouds is also invisible. I agree, the Global T-34 and the Seagull Zero are great flying airplanes. The Zero is our first WW2 fighter plane, my son and I soloed it on the same day. A big thrill for both of us. The FIAT is also very cool, I've never seen one modeled. Did you know that FIAT stands for: Fix it again, Toni? Maybe that is only for their cars.

Best regards from old bird.

Richard Say

Doug,
Thanks for the info - I'm going to order a set of pants tomorrow. It's not surprising that the wing is on back order.

Old Bird,
Thanks. I hope that "fix it again Tony" doesn't apply to aircraft as well[:-] This Fiat is the first plane I ever drew up that I really can't predict how it will fly. The wing is really a challenge. I'll let you know how it works out.
Have a great day.
Dick Say

Richard Say

Hi Old Bird, Doug and All,
I have "fixed" the STA pants problem and will test it out on Sunday if the weather is good. I am posting pictures of the fix so you can take a look and use it if you want to. I cut about 5/8 or 11/16 off the top of the pants leg. This puts the axle right at the edge of the wheel opening. The rest you can pick up from the pictures. This should make a real difference. I hope it helps.
Dick Say

old bird

Richard S, I looked at your landing gear mods, looks real good, we will do something similar. The gear mounting blocks in the wing look very marginal to me. I am trying to decide whether to remove the bottom covering and fix everything at once, or just finish it and fly it as is. I wish we would get some more flying reports on the STA, it is such a good looking plane.

Regards from old bird.

Richard Say

Old Bird,
Good to hear from you.
I can give you this much info about the flight characteristics. After about 50 flights I would say: Despite the semingly weak wing - Take offs are straight & true with very little rudder correction. In flight at about 1/2 to 2/3 throttle loops from level flight, spins, rolls inverted flight all easily accomplished. Landings are a breeze. Just bleed off as much speed as possible before touchdown and FLAIR. All this has been a pleasure on my Magnum .52 four cycle. Hope this helps.

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

Hi all you Ryan pilots, I flew the last 3 days and took a pic yesterday. It's in my gallery.
Dick I like your wheel fairing mounts. I noticed that like me you had to mount at least 1 gear strap diagonally because there isn't enough wood to screw into. bye HL

Richard Say

Hi Merlin,
Glad you like the fix. I raelly think the shorter leg/pants is going to make a difference in the grass. I'm going to fly tomorrow weather permitting and I'll let you know. Do you think we should advise Global of the fix- if it works?
Dick

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

Hi Dick, Hope you keep your pants on. Have you sent in the survey at the back of the instructions yet? I haven't I'm lazy when it comes to lots of writing. With all its faults I'd still buy it if I had to do it all over again. It's the right plane for me at this level of flight expierience. I wanted a scale low wing fixed gear taildragger of 40 size and there isn't much else out there in an ARF. HL
PS Hows your Fiat coming along? I can't imagine what it must have felt like to fly at 300mph with an open cockpit.

Richard Say

Hi Merlin,
You wouldn't think at my age ,keeping my pants on would be such a problem! I didn't even notice the survey. I will attend to it. The Fiat is pretty much done. I just have to put a radio in it. I'm in no hurry tho. I agree with you about the Ryan (if the pants fix works). I just love the way the plane looks and flys. It's worth the trouble! Even tho the FIAT was a first generation Regia Fighter, they gave the Hurricanes a run for their money. It was the pilots who wanted the open cockpit!!!!! I have always liked the looks of the Italian aircraft. There is a "romance" about them. Have a great day.
Dick Say

old bird

Richard S and Merlin Fan, I'm glad to hear the positive reports about flying the STA. We have clouds and wind blowing in, ruining our run of fine flying weather so soon I'll get back to finishing our Ryan. Merlin, I like what you did with the cowl on your plane, and I see no sign of the RC engine, what do you have in there that is so well concealed? I'm going to try to cram an old OS .61 4-stroke in there and it is going to be tight. The engine is about the same size as the current OS .70 4-stroke. Inverted it should be mostly concealed except for the valve cover and muffler.

Old bird, signing off.

Richard Say

Old Bird & Merlin Fan,
I like the way you detailed that cowl also Merlin. Did you use a marker or decals? It looks great. The flying weather here today is supposed to be good. If so, we will see if my pants get ripped off again or not!
Dick Say

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

Hey gents, Bird, my ship is an electric, my setup is in previous posts. the panel lines are Top Flight marker pen. After surviving several flights I decided to put some detail on the cowl. I may put four exhaust pipes on next.
I'm Happy to report that taking a foto did not jinx the plane it has flown about 45 min today. See ya HL

Richard Say

Hey Guys,
The pants fix worked perfectly!!!!!!!! Finally! The grass was even a little deeper than usual. This is absolutely the right fix. Hooray!.
Dick Say

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

I see the Ryan is on backorder on the Hobbypeople website. It is popular.

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

....a lot more popular than this fourum has been lately. Well, I just got back from Illinois, Champaign to be exact, home of Horizon, Great Planes, and Tower. Too bad they don't have retail outlets. However I went to a place called Slot and Wing and the have all kinds of cheap stuff in bins all over the place. I bought a 13x10 wood E-prop for my Ryan for only $2.99, hope to put it on soon. It should have a great scale look. Still flyin my Ryan and slowly upping the control throws for more exciting response. How are the rest of you guys doing? HL

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

After several hundred landings I noticed one gear leg at a different angle, upon inspection a broken rear mounting block was found. During surgery it was noticed that not much Chinese glue was used. On the next flight I had a doozy of a bounce and hard landing I figured that would take out the opposite side mount or break my repair, however all was OK. Wings still flex alarmingly but have held up so far. Hope all the rest of you Ryan guys are doin well.

crashmaster5000

My Feedback: (1)

I was initially impressed with the flight and performance, I'm using a supertigre .40 with a pits, flew great on the first flight, until I noticed the plane going out of trim, I dedided to bring it in and the landing was very gentle even with the trim problems I was having. When I picked up my plane I noticed a large wrinkle diagonally across the wing, I also noticed the landing gear was hanging from the covering, I cut the covering back to assess the damage, the SPAR was broken and the landing gear that was only attached to the wing rib with no reinforcement, nothing to hold the landing gear other than a 1/16"X1/4 section of the rib, the single spar was notched out to accomodate the ribs (hmm, I wonder why the balsa spar broke[:@]), the fuselage is fine, but it won't do very good without a wing. All in all, I wish I would have just thrown my $120 into a hole and just walked away. I also did try to fix the wing but the further I dug, the more garbage I discovered. I think I will go back to building and forget the arfing, better ways to spend money than on a box of poor quality.

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

Hey Crashmaster, Bummer about your wing. What kind of manuver were you doing before the spar broke? I heard a loud crack sound as I was recovering from a botched cuban 8. I pulled hard as I split S'ed out of it. Landed and found no visible damage. I did cartwheel it during some x-wind touch and go practice (should have gone around) and it wound up on its back surprisingly wing and fin were ok. The firewall was partially broken out, and cowling mount holes busted out too. It's fixed and flying again now. I think this plane is happier flying in a scale like manner. Its not a Twist. Hope you don't trash yours. HL

crashmaster5000

My Feedback: (1)

Merlin Fan,
I was only flying at 2/3 throttle and just flying the pattern, I did two mildly tight turns, one loop and a stall turn, after I got it trimmed out, I started noticing the trim problem when I pulled out of the stall turn, as if the wing might have been overstressed but I only have a super tigre gs40 and I was at idle when I recovered from the dive out of the turn. I'm going to keep the fuse but I'll rebuild the wing correctly, starting with an "I" beam spar and maple landing gear mounts with ply ribs to reenforce them. That just goes to prove that the people designing these things don't fly them.

da Rock

You said that right.

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

Probably the people who build these have never even seen a real airplane just a silver bird high in the sky. When I peeled back the covering for my landing gear repair I saw no notches in my spar at the ribs I hope your builder person didn't make too many wings before he was flogged. I have done hammerheads with tight pullouts from the downline, just flexee no clackee. I have enjoyed flying this plane I sure would hate for it to break up in flight. My Hangar 9 Mustang has way better quality.

old bird

Merlin, yes a good flogging always wakes up the slaves to their tasks. Seriously, I'm glad this thread is revived because I'm just about to finish our STA-STM using the Magnum .52 4-stroke. The wing issue has me worried, thinking about calling Hobby People with information from this forum. I would want to know if they have a fix or if they even aknowledge that there is a problem with the wing. I would be flying this plane in a scale like manner, but EVERYONE makes a bad landing sometimes.

Drove through 3.5 miles of snow, ice and mud today to get to our field. Weather was beautifull, no wind, blue skies and temperature in the 50's. We could not get a radio check on our Decathlon. 3.5 miles back through the mud and snow, no joy, might try again tomorrow with a differant plane. Flying days in northern Nevada are precious, sometimes we don't get any for a month or two.

Best regards from old bird.

MerlinFan

My Feedback: (27)

Hey Bird, With a 52 you're going to have a higher wing loading than my plane, so don't honk back on the stick at high speeds. I have the recomended throws on high and low rates, and can do snap rolls @ half throttle. 737 wings flex a lot too and we still pay to ride on them. seeya! PS is the field still out by the Virginia City highway?

old bird

Merlin, the old field is now covered with new development. The club moved to a new location in 1982 I think, I was not a member at that time. The new field is in Hungry Valley, north of Reno. 600' by 75', awnings for shade, benches for fiddling, outhouse, clubhouse from a shipping container, all the comforts of home. Altitude is 5000'. Very nice facility, come up and visit sometime. Higher wing loading warning is duly acknowleged.

Best regards from old bird.