jarroldharrell

I had the e-flite apprentice, and I must have built it wrong, or maybe it was windy, but I could establish no control over it. Sometimes it would do what I told it to do, and sometimes it would do the exact opposite or something incredibly random. I wrecked it every time I flew it after 2 min. in the air. I blamed it on my lack of experience building, and maybe the wind. The last flight it started flying high in circles out of control and went far far away. I never found it after that. I still don't know why it did all of that. Wind? Bad build?...

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

You cannot fly light weight planes in the wind

Wait until just at sunrise or sunset

Paulparkflyer

With having too many hassles with my apprentice i have since brought a trainer called "the boomerang",
It is balsa construction with duracoat,
I have moved all the radio gear (the DX5, servos and speedy) from the apprentice to my new trainer,
I never like to bag a product especially if i am not sure if the problem is really me but must say i have now found a trainer that is much better for me,
It has much stronger nose wheel gear and motor mount is much stronger,
I got tired of repairing the motor mount and nose wheel gear on the apprentice as both kept breaking from not too harsher treatment,
It is always windy in South Australia and was finding the foam apprentice was hindering me more than helping me during training,
My new trainer can also take a nitro engine,
It hasent been a total waste of money as the radio gear has been utilized,
I am only new to RC aircraft but something has been telling me that the apprentice is not the trainer for me,
An experienced person told me to carry lots of spare props as a learner because learners will break them,
There is no way you will ever break a prop on an apprentice because the motor mount always breaks first,
I relate it to the piece of electronic equipment with the fuse that the transistor always fails first to protect the fuse,
It may just be me but my experience with the apprentice has not been a good one,
My heavier/stronger balsa trainer is much better and easier to fly especially in wind,

But I will say i still do love the e-flight products, I have an e-flight Taylorcraft scale model that is brilliant,

Cheers,Paul

rhampton

My Feedback: (66)

Regarding the Apprentice 15e,,,,how many minutes can you fly with the stock 3s 3200mah battery? i just bought this plane and flew 5 times already but only flew for like 5 Minutes and landed. Can i go longer and if so how much longer.

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

It should fly 10 min anyway

AV8TER65

Depending on the wind, and flying at 1/2 throttle i am getting 5 touch and go's with a total of about 15 min of flying. I check the batteries and I'm at 60%. Dont let the Lipo get below 50% or it will damage them. So i'm told. Calm day, not full throttle just easy flying 20 min would not be unreachable.

AV8TER65

I guess I should Chime in and say that I find T/O on our grass field terrible. I am doing better hand launching it. Find a buddy have him point the nose up a little into the wind, hang on and full power. Just a little toss and she's airborne.
I went up to a 3 inch wheel on mine and prop clearance is not a problem but the nose over is. Full Up elevator and wide open is the best way. Just be on your A game because i find no stability on mine at Takeoff.

ejam

My Feedback: (1)

Well I was able to take my apprentice out for its maiden yesterday, got it for Christmas, and it took off from grass just fine. The conditions at the club were about 8mph winds straight down the runway. Grass was cut short like golf course and very bumpy areas on run way. Landings were good with one nose over after roll stop at taller weeds. And one landing almost perfect, bounced once and came to a perfect stop. I also did some taxi runs just to see what it felt like, and steering seems to be just a little bit of a problem due to grass.

Im thinking of bending the rear landing gear just a little out to make it sit lower in the tail, only because Im use to tail dragging super cub!
MHO, if you are a new pilot with this being your first plane, only fly it in 0-5 mph winds. I had mine trimmed with 0 ele, and it still wanted to climb almost straigt up!
Over all it is a great plane, but not a "learn on your own", would be a geat 2nd plane.

Bird Dog

Well I hope this rag isn't dead but just may be or every one has crashed and quit flying. I guess I will see if any one is listening. I got a used Apprentice a week or so ago and it was in excellent shape and I got to fly it twice now and I must say it is as they say a easy plane to fly and did so perfectly. Had to do a few tweaks hear and there but it flies a good ten minuites on the battery and is just a reell relaxing plane to fly. I can't think of any thing that wold make it any better other then myself being a better pilot. I have handed the contols to others and they have flown it also and they to fall in love with the plane. I still am landing with one bounce but I hope to get better with that. It has plenty of power and will do all the basic loops and rolls and flys up side down. but for a trainer it would be perfect due to you can fly half throttle and it just floats around. Also flys full throttle with good control and speed. The Bird Dog

Dr_Bojangles

I'm having a ball with my Apprentice and the SkyCamOne2 camera. I won an eBay auction for a big-box-o-parts and and built planes for each of my two [adult] sons.

Click on the HQ button in the bottom-right to watch in High Quality mode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shj8V0zCnkw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgNSbUPIuu8

More at my PhotoBucket website:
http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/a...hlin/RC_Plane/

Bird Dog

Has any one hand lauched a apprentice ?

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

With proper trimming and hand launching technique there should be no reason why you shouldn't be able to hand launch it.

Would certainly make more fields available

Bird Dog

I will be trying it some time next month or this.

Dr_Bojangles

No problem hand launching my Apprentice (watch it 50-seconds into the video link below).

This was the neighbor kid doing the launching... the lucky little bum neighbor kid who will be enrolling in [real] Flight School here in Frederick, Md this year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shj8V0zCnkw

Bird Dog

I may have the record on how many loops a Apprentice will do on a full battery before it met the gound. The Elevator locked up in the up position. It just kept looping and it realy didn't do much damage once I figured out what and why it was doing it just backed off the trottle and the last loop low to the ground choped the power. Just a spinner and bent the landing front wheel back some and it was ready to go. They are real tuff birds. Had to replace the gears in the servo and was surprised to find out the elevator servo had mostly metal gears. Wish they were all metal but were not. It could have been a lot worse.

Dr_Bojangles

Tuff Enough to [almost] teach me cross-wind landings!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgNSbUPIuu8[/youtube]

Bird Dog

Good pictues. Looks like you got some Dubro low bonce wheels installed. I have also but haven't tried them out yet do to wind and rain. Also had to replace the elevator servo. Tried saving but didn't work. The Serov is a metal geared except for two plastic gear in with the metal. The replacemnet is $36 from E flite and I got a Hi tech for $30 with ball bearing and all metal so that should solve that problem.

Dontcrashdude

Hi guys,and gal’s
I have just brought two apprentice s15e trainer planes for me and my son, the problem I have is we took the planes out for the first time the other day and my wings don’t work, the elevators on the wings don’t move, I had to use my sons wings once he had finished his flying, got home and checked every way to find what was faulty and it’s my wings, have checked the two black connecters and they seem fine, Im really not sure what’s wrong, if anybody has any ideas I’d be very grateful for them before I have to call the shop back, thx

jester_s1

1. Welcome to the forum. There are a lot of helpful people here.
2. It's generally not helpful to resurrect old threads. If you have a look, this conversation is from 2009.
3. If just switching out the wing fixed the problem, then you probably either have a bad aileron extension or bad servos. I'd pursue getting fixed under warranty.
4. It would be wise to get an instructor. That will save you immeasurable time and money in the long run. You can go to www.modelaircraft.org to search for a club, or Horizon actually has an instructor program you can join.