snowwave83

Went to the local club I just joined for the second time with my hobbico nexSTAR, when I first got there I couldnt get the engine started...turns out that part of the plastic valve that connects to the fuel line of the needle valve casing broke off so one of the guys took a brass valve and managed to use a razor to make the opening in the valve caseing and epoxy the outside to secure it to the casing. After the 5 min apoxy was dry in 10mins(cold weather) we ran fuel through the valve to get any particles out and screw it back onto the plan and it actually worked better and the engine started beutifuly !! After this quick fix, larry the guy who helped me solve what would have taken 3 weeks to get the replacement part problem took her up for her maden flight and said it was the most docile trainer he has ever flown, he said the speed brakes made this plane one of the best. After about 4 minutes he took it up to 3 mistakes high and handed me the radio(no buddy box that would fit my reciever) and I did a coulple figure eights and some gentles turns. He brought her down and landed perfect into 7mph wing. I refueled her up and he took her up for the second time, gave the controls to me and I did the same as before but added some full loops at 1/2 throttle and he told me to line up and see if I could bring her in for a landing, I siad if he was sure with my skill being it was the first day Ive ever flown and the second time every I had the contols, I had the speed right, and lowerd to idle on my last turn but wasnt lined up for the runway so I had to give it full throttle and bring her up a bit and handed it back to the trainer and he took her in for the second time smooth again. I refuled her up one last time, he took her up and a min. or two after he passed it to me he said try to land her. I brought her around the last turn, lowered the throttle to just above idea, and brought her down slowly and just before the runway(grass runway) I touched her down and lowerd the throttle to idle and brought her to a stop, I LANDED ON MY FIRST DAY, 3rd FLIGHT EVER, the guys at the field were thoroughly impressed but I am not letting it get to my head. There is no doubt I am hooked to this hobby and my plane is my baby now ! !

On another note I just got my Sig rascal ARF electric with all my tools and servos and battery and I am gonna start it xmas day (preset from my mother for christmas) I am lucky I am 20 and still getting good presents)

I would love to hear your success or disasterous first flights, as well as any tips on building the rascal if anyone has started or finished their own rascal. ! !

steve

snowwave83

Is no one is willing to share your first flight experience?, doesnt matter what plane it was, its all about entering this great new hobby !

steve

Crashem

I think the nextStar is still too new for people to have many experiences with it.

But congrats on your first flight

snowwave83

The nexstar is quite new, that is problem why not too many people have replied, but I wanted to hear first flights regarding any plane.

Thanks for the reply, landed on my first day, impressive isnt it. You would not beleive how fast my heart was racing !

steve

raptor5900

My Feedback: (4)

i solod on my 3rd flight first day with my avistar.....good job!

snowwave83

Well done, what were the conditions and I hope someone was close by in case you needed help right??

Regardless, congrats, and how does the avistar handle?

steve

raptor5900

My Feedback: (4)

the avistar is great for learning and can do some sloppy aerobatics.......the conditions wer perfect 10 mph right down the runway and clear skys......heres what happend the flight befor i made my first landing and so the instructor said try taking off this time so i did!

Flydenfeld

Sup SnowWave...

My trainer is an avistar. great plane, i love the thing. My first day an experienced friend of mine took it up, trimmed it out, and handed the control to me. Thanx to me experience in flying real aircraft, and playing around in x-plane, my control inputs were pretty smooth. i did several patterns, and was feeling confident. then i said "hey manny, should i do a barrel roll?" as he began to reply i just rolled the aircraft completely. lost some altitude, but not all that much. Manny started laughing, a bit nervously i might add.

After he landed it for me and refueled, we were bacvk in the air again and Manny suggested I practice flying well defined rectangular patterns - downwind, base, final, etc... up at a safe altitude. I did this several times. after i was pretty smooth, he had me bring the aircraft a bit lower and slower each time. Not too much later I was doing approaches that were 10 feet off the runway. I was feeling confident. On my fifth or so approach, my engine dies about ten feet off the ground, too low to hand over the controls! no biggies, i just let it ease down, added aft elevator, and did a bounced landing. no damage. Whew! I did a barrel roll and deadstick before doing my own takeoff!!!

snowwave83

Flyden - thanks for sharing your experience. Isnt it great with trainers that when u deadstick you can still bring them in easily? I wish It was safe to kill the engine on every approach but obviously thats a huge risk, thanks for your first experience ! ! Hope to get MORE comming, so please ADD yours and stop just reading this thread haha !

steve

bennie23233

snow,

I have taken my NexStar out to the field twice. The instructor put me on the buddy box, and I did a lot of maneuvers in the air the first day. I feel like all of my sim time has paid off. I can do a lot in the air. The second outing, he let me take off a couple of times. The nose wheel is way too sensitive....so I was overcorrecting a bit which made me look like "5'Oclock Charlie" taking off .

I don't want to kill anyone at the field, so I am adjusting the nose wheel pushrod to have less sensitivity. We are going to practice taking off 100 times before even starting on the landing process.

I will keep you posted of my third and subsequent flights. Haven't landed yet except on the sim, and if I do it like I do it on Realflight, I will hear the real life crunching sound of my wings snappiing off or the prop breaking

Greg

MLC

My Feedback: (5)

I have had a great time with my Nextstar as well, I have somewhat of the story in that I did all the basic flying moves. I also got to take off and land on my first day of instruction. I though that after flying the sim I would be able to fly with no problem, but soon realized (with instructor) that with out an instructor all I would be doing is avoiding a crash. If the weather holds I will be back out this weekend.

MLC

Throttle Junkie

I have the next star and it is one sweet plane. I have only one concern, It needed trim to offset the fact that the engine points at least 5 degrees to the right (as viewed from cockpit). It is not mounted wrong, it is actually the firewall that is angled. I was told to shim it by the club guys, but I still don't know. w/ aileron trim 75% to the left it flies straight. It is also going to be difficult because of the way it's mounted. I am aware of the forces from the prop that cause the need for washin on a real bird, but is this a design flaw, manufactoring error, or should I leave it be. How much nose weight did you need?

khooke

Hey bennie23233 - how are you adjusting the control rod for your nose wheel to make it less sensitive? I have the same problem with my Tower Hobbies Trainer 40 - on take off I am all over the place! I moved the control rod so it is on the closest in hole on the servo arm, but it is still too sensitive.

I just had my first flights today - had a friend stand with me and help with take off, but I did ok flying around and did 2 successful landings. Amazingly enough I am having more trouble with take off than I am with landing - I thought it would be the other way round

BadAtti2de

Let me give you my experience. I have been into RC cars for years and have always wanted to fly but always to affraid to try. Well this past weekend I went and bought the nexstar. Took it home and assembled. The only trouble I had was putting the wing on and lining up the nylon bolt, but I got it in eventualy. I then loaded up the realflight and had some fun. The first couple of flights didnt go so well but eventually kept it in the air and started practicing landing. I practiced for two days until I had the landings almost perfect, even with wind settings on. I had enough confidence to go give the real thing a try. Went to the local field set everything up. I have never felt so nervous. The take off was quit scary. Almost grounded it but saved it (thanks to realflight) and was off flying. Flew for about 8 minutes and tried to land. Came in to high so I had to circle around for another approach. Second approach was good brought it down slow and a nice one hop landing. Let me tell you about nervous WOW. Me and my friend could not believe it. No trainer standing by no one to help, just me and my nerves a succesful first flight. I know I should have had a trainer with me, but oh well, I didnt and I was successful. I have to give it to the realflight program. If it wasnt for that, I would have for sure put it in the ground.

PS
Just found this forum, and cant wait to read all of the posts.

shawnskx100

im prety new to flying and was thinking about getting a Hobbico NexSTAR. what do u guys think about it as a first gas plane. thanks shawn

Dewalt17

Shawn,
Its was my first plane gas or electric. Its a piece of cake to fly. Just do your homework on the sim for a month before flying. Get really good at the sim then get yourself an instructor. Head to the field and have fun!!!! The Nexstar is the only plane i have owned so i cant really say its the best flying trainer out there but for me it is pretty easy to fly.(now anxiety about crashing it is another issue alltogether.)All beginners must endure the shakes(nervousness). I have only been flying for about a month and still have a bit of wobbly knees on my first flight of the day.

You will love this plane. Just dont use the AFS. You will read many threads in here that advise against using it. Dont worry you wont need it. Plane flys better without it anyway.

Hope you get in the air soon with your new Nexstar and tell us how it goes!!!

Sean (I spell mine the right way)

clippedcub

I had a NextStar and got about six good flights out of it before I let my dad fly it. Big mistake. He did okay his first flight but on the second try he nosed it into a frozen over pond. Gotta say that the NextStar is a beautiful flier but the AFS has its problems. My first flight was on a calm overcast day with solid cloud cover. AFS performed perfectly. The second day I had it out it was sunny to the east and overcast to the west, talk about a nightmare to fly. I did get it in and turned the gain down on the Rx. It helped but the uneven sky conditions still made for tough flying. Without the AFS I think the NextStar is absolutley wonderful as far as trainers go.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

To answer shawnskx100, the nexStar is a good choice - about as good as is available currently. Go for it!

Jerry

bennie23233

I just moved the control rod to the closest hole. That is all it needed. I still have problems taking off due to the wind we have had lately. It likes to blow the tail around....so the wheel sensitivity isn't the only issue. I definitely need more practice.

sappereagle

Hello, this is myfirst post as you may well know. Anyhow my first flight with my Nexstar was not a success by any stetch. I'd had it about two weeks and had taxied quite a bit.
So of course i got the flying bug bad and wanted to get it in the air. I had been practicing on the program that comes with it and was pretty good, so i THOUGHT that I could do respectable,boy was i ever wrong!!!!! I work at a place that has a gun range and there is a quazie open field and THOUGHT that would be good enough. Got it in the air, made a right turn, flew about 60ft. or so,made a right turn flew about 20ft. It was pretty windy anHello, this is my first post as you may well know. Anyhow my first flight with my Nexstar was not a success by any stretch. I'd had it about two weeks and had taxied quite a bit.
So of course i got the flying bug bad and wanted to get it in the air. I had been practicing on the program that comes with it and was pretty good, so i THOUGHT that I could do respectable,boy was i ever wrong!!!!! I work at a place that has a gun range and there is a quasi open field and THOUGHT that would be good enough. Got it in the air, made a right turn, flew about 60ft. or so,made a right turn flew about 20ft. It was pretty windy and i think that the wind caught it. Iwas about 25-30ft. high and the nose went straight down,
at the time i was at 1/2 throttle, when the nose went south i opened it up and pulled back and thought what happens is what happens. Well what happened was, thankfully the trees broke my fall, litterly. The wings were about 6ft off the ground, still intact but a little damaged, the fuselage was nose down with the motor some what in the ground. Luckily all systems still work perfectly. So two wing sets, two tail sets, and two bodies later i think I will find a BIG open field and a trainer.
d i think that the wind caught it. Iwas about 25-30ft. high and the nose went straight down,
at the time i was at 1/2 throttle, when the nose went south i opened it up and pulled back and thought whta happens is what happens. Well what happend was, thankfully the trees broke my fall, litterly. The wings were about 6ft off the ground, still intact but a little damagede, the fusualage was nose down with the motor some what in the gruond. Luckly all systems still work perfectly. So two wing sets, two tail sets, and two bodys later i think I will find a BIG open fiel and a trainer.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

The biggest problem we've seen with handling issues of the Hobbico NexSTAR is most likely that the gain on the AFS is turned up too high. Per the instructions, it should not be higher than 35% on the aircraft, and even lower may be better, depending upon the flyer and the instructor. High gains make the airplane react much too quickly, and the pilot winds up "fighting" the model. With lower gains, you get the result of a good, self-correcting model, and not one that wants to "snap" to level flight too quickly.

Lowering the gain slows down how quickly the model reacts, and also lowers the sensitivity of the sensor, so the sunlight issues are reduced.

The model was VERY extensively-tested, and the gain suggestions were carefully made. A too-high gain on the AFS unit makes the model want to immediatly snap to level, and can make it problematic to fly. If 35% seems to much, try a bit lower. Even 10% gives self-correction, but at a milder pace.

From reading various posts, some people have gains as high as 50% or more. We'd be surprised if they didn't have trouble.

MJTech12

Hey Snowwave Good job on your maiden flight i have a nexstar it it is the best first trainer Hobbico has made in a long time, But if your going to continue to fly it there are some things you have to do to it, after about 5 full flights your going to have to glue the wing with CA and adjust all linkages, also you have to retighten the engine mount from time to time also look into getting some extra wing and body covering the peel and stick type for those sudden unexpected crashes.

flyboy138

Hey MJtech I own the nexstar to. When you say glue the wing do you mean take the wing
apart then glue the two halfs . Do they start to come loose?

best Regards

gatekeeper

I have a nexstar that i crashed and I'm in the process of rebuilding. What do you mean glue the wings together? to the plastic that's in between the two halves? Since I have removed some of the monokote to do the repairs I was thinking of using fiberglass to glue them together.

flyboy138

Hey gatekeeper I heard that on a lot of ARF's they do glue the wings together for added strength. But im not sure what MJTech12 meant by glueing his wings. How did you crash your Nexstar, and how did it fly? I have not flown mine yet but my instructor did and he said it flew well, but it seemed like it wanted to climb a lot. he thought it might have to do with the way the wings were shaped.
Best Reguards
flyboy138